1. Usability Engineering Processes and Open Source Development Hartti Suomela

2. Open Source Development  Briefly, from process point of view  Self-guiding  Informalisms  Meritocracy  “Release early, release often”  “Scratching the personal itch”

3. What is Usability?  Not only UI, but…

4. Usability is…  The extent, to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.  (ISO/IEC standard 9241-11)

5. Five attributes of Usability  Ease of learning  Efficiency of use  Memorability  Low error rate and no catastrophic errors  Subjective satisfaction  (Nielsen, 1993)

6. Usability Engineering  Methods, tools, processes to ensure usability in a product

7. Usability Engineering Methods (UsabilityNet.org)

8. Usability Engineering Process (ISO 13407)

9. Usability in Open Source  Traditionally. Not good. (Nichols & Twidale)  Start with coding  No usability experts  Lack of resources  Developer <> End-user  Adding functionality is more respected than enhancing usability  Usability problems are not simple  Code/Feature bloat & Power over simplicity  Playing catch-up to proprietary software

10. Problem Definition  Software engineering has its maturity models (CMMI, SPICE…)  CMMI does not guarantee good usability (Jokela & Lalli)  Models not suited for Open Source  Usability engineering has own models  Can OS projects use those practices?  Usability Maturity Model as a framework

11. Usability Maturity Model (UMM)  Contains processes (ISO/IEC 18529) 1. Ensure Human-Centered Design / Usability Engineering content in system strategy 2. Plan and manage HCD process 3. Specify stakeholder & org. reqs 4. Specify context of use 5. Produce design solutions 6. Evaluate designs 7. Introduce and operate system

12. Three Words for You  Start Early  Iterate

13. Process revisited

14. UMM Terminology 101  Processes (7)  Base practices (44)  Output work products (~90)  Standard takes no stand on methods used during the process

15. Ok. Let’s get to work.

16. UMM is too formal for OS  UMM in general and most of the UMM base practices are to formal to be directly useful in OS projects

17. Some notables  Informal counterparts (similar to Scacchi’s informalisms)  Threaded online discussions and e-mail lists  Involvement of corporations  Roles of usability professionals

18. A sample of Work Products Work products in UMMCounterparts in OS projects Stakeholder/User requirements specifications Threaded discussions, e-mail archives Organizational requirements specificationsThreaded discussions, e-mail archives Priorities for different requirementsInformal ratings of usability informalisms on discussions/e-mail lists Task informationThreaded discussions, e-mail archives User interaction specificationStyle guides, user interface guidelines Dialogue detailStyle guides, user interface guidelines Look and feelStyle guides, user interface guidelines Usability and ergonomic defectsBug reports/database

19. Future work?  Compare OpenOffice.org and KOffice usability practices  OpenOffice has backing from Sun  KOffice does not have similar corporate support  Does this change usability practices like suggested by Benson et al.?

20. Thank you!  Questions?