Ionrock Dot Org

If you are subscribed to the GNOME usability list, it should be apparent that it is not the most productive place. I am not saying that great ideas do not grace the email clients of those who are subscribed. I am also not saying that wonderful ideas do not spawn from the list. What I am saying is that the amount of code that actually stems from discussions on the list seems a bit less than it should be.

The root of this gap is pretty simple. FOSS developers are not required to do anything anyone on the list suggests. Of course, there is no reason they should be required to heed the words on usability uttered from the list. This would simply be crazy talk. But it does bring up the question of why is the list even around if no one really pays attention to it?

I don't plan on answering this. This problem stresses the FOSS development model in an extreme way. It brings up the fact that unless you can put up, you might as well shut up. What does this mean for the masses who dream of innovative UI design and interesting useful features? It means these people have an invisible hurdle that must be jumped before getting these ideas to those who will make them happen. By the way, this is a huge hurdle. It comes in the form of cvs, autotools, irc and everything else meant to make life easier for developers. These tools are obviously valid since there would probably be no GNOME without them. But, with these great tools comes the need for hand holding documentation, which is just not there.

I cannot see this hurdle disappearing anytime soon. In reality the learning curve to find out how to contribute is actually pretty reasonable (spoken as someone who is no where close to using these tools). What I mean is that since there are plenty of people using these tools very successfully every day. These people who use these tools have managed to show some sort of proof that they have some sort of qualification. This is what we need for usability discussions.

There is no obvious way to create this challenge that reveals that a person's skills are worthy of attention when it comes to usability and HCI. There are theories and the like, but there are really smart people who just have a knack for seeing problems or benefits of designs. Think of a high school kid who is a LUG president and has submitted patches to the kernel. Again, this challenge is not simple so I will leave it for others to think about.

What I will say is this. Usability and HCI research is still very new so we need to be aware of research about the research, which may shed light into what makes a person a good usability or HCI person. Does the person have a design journal? Does the person make mock ups especially annotated or read usability research? Does the person have a good understanding of project requirements? These may be a few indicators, but it is really tough to say. The important thing is that we need to develop good practices and see what is the relationship between a productive programmer and a productive usability expert. This will help us all use our talents more precisely I think, as well as get great ideas to developers in a way that they can and will use.