[Sigia-l] Open Source Usability -- curable?

[Ilan Volow]

On Jul 23, 2004, at 9:42 PM, Listera wrote:

> Ilan Volow:
>
>> Maybe it's time for IxD/Usability/IA/whatever people disillusioned 
>> with
>> Open Source to organize in some kind of way. Something to begin the
>> process of us standing up for ourselves and chipping away at that
>> power. Perhaps start with something simple, like a wiki or an Orkut
>> group or an irc channel. Something to get people talking.
>
> You mean like Clarux? :-)
>

No. Something more general and not specific to one particular project. 
There would be several goals of such a meeting place/group:

1. Officially establish as a recognizable group the UCD 
practitioners/advocates who are unhappy with the current state of OSS 
usability.

2. Establish a safe place where a constantly ongoing dialog about the 
issue of OSS usability could take place among UCD 
Practitioners/advocates. The issue currently can't be discussed in UCD 
mailing lists (like this one) on a constant basis because most of the 
people with only passing interest in the dilemma tire of it, and they 
move on to something else (understandably). Likewise, the issue can't 
be discussed in traditional Open Source venues due to the massive 
quantity of zealots who don't know anything about UCD and yell at the 
few who do for "not contributing", "whining", "spreading Microsoft 
propaganda about linux being hard to use", etc. There is no current 
place for communication that is both dedicated to the issue and safe 
for frank discussion.

3. Provide fertile ground for developing projects to route around the 
current OSS programmers' innovation-stifling monopoly on interface 
design.

> I totally agree with the sentiment, but let's not beat up on OSS 
> developers
> in isolation. Programmer-driven development approach is rampant in the
> enterprise world as well. What needs to change is the non-UCD approach,
> wherever it rears its ugly head. Limiting it to OSS would dilute the 
> message
> and partially obscure the problem.
>

In the words of astronaut John Crichton, "One evil at a time. That's 
the best I can do."

--
Ilan Volow
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!