[Sigia-l] Salt in Sugar?

[Will Parker]

On Jan 3, 2007, at 12:16 AM, Ziya Oz wrote:
> I had posted about the Sugar UI of the upcoming $150 OLPC machine  
> destined
> for 100 million kids in developing countries. Someone emailed me  
> off-list
> over the holidays and asked if I had any info on usability studies  
> done on
> the UI, which is neither Windows nor Mac (or like any other  
> existing WIMP
> for that matter).
>
> Now, I had read that it was done at Red Hat, which has no consumer- 
> level OS
> UI design experience, let alone one targeting children. But I  
> assumed a
> completely new and unconventional OS design would be done with  
> extensive
> user testing.

Risking the wrath of the OSS folks, I have to ask the question:

	When has version 1.0 of *any* open source design received extensive  
user testing?

I would actually would like to know if and when there has been an OSS  
project that has started from the premise that the people in the  
target audience might know a thing or two that the people on the  
development team might not know yet.

If so, I regret my lack of faith, hallelujah, and where do I sign up?

If not, I can understand this in cases where the product is  
peripheral to the livelihood of the collective audience. There's time  
to refine a buggy product when it is not _yet_ an important part of  
users' lives. If you're depending on volunteers to help you test the  
product and you're not planning on getting paid yourself, you can  
accept a slow product uptake.

However, in this case, we're talking about a direct user base  
approximately equivalent to THE COMPLETE POPULATION OF FRANCE AND  
SPAIN COMBINED (factoid courtesy of Google and/or the CIA).

Considering that the children who receive these computers will no  
doubt share their new-found technical wealth with the rest of their  
friends and family, very few of whom will have dealt with cell  
phones, let alone computers, a conservative estimate of the _actual_  
user base would be closer to half a billion souls.

Effectively none of these people will ever get technical support.

Therefore I feel moved to ask another question:

	If indeed the OLPC product team has not yet waved at least 10 actual  
children
	in the general direction of the prototype OLPC ... why not?

- Will

Will Parker
wparker at ChannelingDesign.com
http://www.ChannelingDesign.com

"Well, let's look at it for awhile and be irritated by it and then  
we'll figure out what to do." - Frank Gehry