[dot] A Fireside Chat on KDE Usabilty

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1107931942/

From: Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo at kde.org>
Dept: who's-scruffy-lookin'
Date: Wednesday 09/Feb/2005, @07:52

A Fireside Chat on KDE Usabilty
===============================

     Recently, our very own Fabrice Mous
[http://www.kde.nl/people/fabrice.html] asked ief I might write an
article about usability and KDE development. At first I was hesitant,
and not just because I have a lot more hacking to get done before KDE
3.4 is released (which is soon). I often get asked about usability and
the Open Source process, and even I sometimes get tired of having the
same old conversations
[http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39187111,00.htm]
over and over. I thought that this time it would be refreshing to ask
someone else these questions and see what they had to say. So I arranged
to meet up with several people on IRC who are involved in software
usability and the KDE project. Here's what ensued...

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  I. INTRODUCTIONS...
 Aaron:Hi everyone! Let's start with some introductions, including your
name and what you do with regards to usability and KDE. Ellen:I'm Ellen
Reitmayr. and together with Jan Mühling I'm one of the maintainers of
the new KDE Human Interface Guidelines Aaron:And you run a usability
firm in Germany, correct? Jan:Yes, we run a usability firm
[http://www.relevantive.de] in Germany. mostly, we do commercial stuff,
like web, software, mobile, but if we have time, we spend it on Open
Source projects, and mainly on KDE. [http://www.kde.org] Ellen:We also
run a project called OpenUsability [http://www.openusability.org] where
Open Source projects can host their software in order to get usability
advice. There are a number of KDE projects hosted on OpenUsability
[http://www.openusability.org], such as KDE PIM [http://pim.kde.org] and
Kivio. [http://koffice.kde.org/kivio/] Aaron:Aproximately how many
projects in total are currently active on OpenUsability
[http://www.openusability.org], and how many usability specialists are
involved? Jan:There are around 20 projects at the moment and perhaps 6
or 8 usability people. Aaron:Such as yourselves ... Ellen:Yes. This
weekend, KDevelop [http://www.kdevelop.org] also joined OpenUsability
[http://www.openusability.org]! 8-) Aaron:Wow, that's a good start
indeed! Who else is with us today? Peter:I'm Peter Simonsson, and I
develop Kivio [http://koffice.kde.org/kivio/] (one of the applications
working with OpenUsability [http://www.openusability.org]) and
Konversation [http://www.konversation.org/]. As for the usability part I
mostly implement what the others tell me is good. =) JörgI'm Joerg Hoh,
and I hang around on the #kde-usability IRC channel, helped organize
aKademy [http://conference2004.kde.org/] and am active on various KDE
email lists. Florian:I'm Florian, and I have been working for
Relevantive [www.relevantive.de] for almost half a year and thus got in
kontact with Jan, Ellen and KDE [http://www.kde.org] OpenUsability.org
[http://www.openusability.org/] Aaron:It's funny you should write "in
kontact", Florian, as a lot of usability work has been happening in the
KDE PIM project [http://pim.kde.org], and i have to say that it's really
starting to show in the quality of the user interface. Perhaps you could
relate how it's been working out with the Kontact [www.kontact.org]
developers during the KDE 3.4 development cycle? Ellen:Yes, for the KDE
3.4 release, Jan and Florian cleaned up some context menus, several of
the dialogs [http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/view/845] and there is a
new recipient area in the composer.
[http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/view/809] Jan:The feedback on
OpenUsability [http://www.openusability.org] shows that there is a
strong interest in usability in KDE, and especially within the KDE PIM
[http://pim.kde.org] project Aaron:How does the feedback cycle work
between the usability professionals on OpenUsability
[http://www.openusability.org] and the KDE PIM [http://pim.kde.org]
developers? Ellen:Well, we started doing some usability inspections of
individual components. Based on that, we made suggestions on how to
improve the usability of certain components, especially KMail
[http://kmail.kde.org/]. Of course, those suggestions have to be
discussed - that's what we have the kdepim-usability mailing list
[https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kdepim-usability] for. Aaron:What
form do these suggestions take? Verbal descriptions, mock ups, diagrams?
All of the above? Ellen:Hm, that's still a problem. We mostly upload
them to OpenUsability [http://www.openusability.org] in PDF format, but
we found that this format does not support discussions in a satisfying
manner. The developers asked us to use plain text instead. But this does
not support including mock-ups or screenshots. Therefore, we are working
on an XML report format. The first version was released in October.
Jan:Florian is also developing a tool for card sorting, which is
essential for getting proper menu names, hierachies and so on. He will
make it available for use on OpenUsability.
[http://www.openusability.org] Aaron:What exaclty is "card sorting"?
Florian:Card sorting is a means to gather information on where people
expect menu entries in software, or navigation entries on websites.
Aaron:And how does it work exactly? Florian:People are presented with
cards that each have a term on them and a set of group names into which
these cards should be sorted. You do this with several times with
different people and, after some clustering, you get a pretty good
impression about where people expect things. Aaron:I see. So
OpenUsability [http://www.openusability.org] is not just engaging
usability specialists and software developers in Open Source, it's
actually creating tools and techniques that haven't previously existed,
but which are sorely needed to do this work ... Ellen:Yes, but as we
lack developers for OpenUsability [http://www.openusability.org], there
is still a lot of work to do. However, we are making progress, I think.
:)

 II. MADE FOR EACH OTHER
 Jan:The basic idea of OpenUsability [http://www.openusability.org] is
to help developers get access to usability resources. These ressources
are still lacking in Open Source development, because Open Source is
attractive to developers but not yet for usability people. On the other
side, usability people know very little about Open Source ... but if
both can be brought together, we are very optimistic that a new way of
developing Open Source can start.  Aaron:How does OpenUsability
[http://www.openusability.org] help make getting involved with Open
Source projects more attractive for usability people? Jan:As a
maintainer or a developer, you can post your project on OpenUsability
[http://www.openusability.org], thus saying: "I would like to invite you
to help me improve the usability of my software." This is an important
sigal, because Open Source is generally  considered to be "rather
interested in code". The next step is to find usability people to care
for the usability part of Open Source. It seems to work ... there are
more and more projects joining, and there are more usability people
wanting to contribute Aaron:Peter, as a developer, perhaps you could
share some perspective from the other side of the fence here. how does
something like OpenUsability [http://www.openusability.org] change or
alter the development process for you, and what sort of obstacles or
challenges do you commonly see with regards to usability? Peter:Hmm,
well it hasn't changed my development process too much yet... that might
be because I treat the usability inspection as a buglist. Aaron:So it
works well with the regular pace of development, if it's done during
development as opposed to afterwards? This seems to be a common concern
amongst developers that i speak with.. that it means huge changes and
inconveniences in development Jan:It does not necessarily have to change
the development process. As a matter of fact, Open Source development is
perfectly suited for integrating usability engineering principles: open
communication, direct communication, "release early and often" (aka,
rapid prototyping) ... Peter:Yes, I don't see that any major changes
have to be made to the development process.

III. HUMAN INTERFACE GUIDELINES (HIG)
 Aaron:Earlier we talked about some tools coming out of OpenUsability..
[http://www.openusability.org]. Along those lines, Ellen, you mentioned
that you're one of the maintainers for a new set of Human Interface
Guidelines (or HIG) for KDE. Now, KDE has had a fairly basic set of
guidelines
[http://developer.kde.org/documentation/standards/kde/style/basics/] for
quite some time... Ellen:... yes, but there was a usability meeting at
aKademy [http://conference2004.kde.org/] in August 2004 where we decided
that a new set of guidelines is needed. Aaron:Why was that, and what
will this new set of guidelines offer? Ellen:One reason was that we
found the former guidelines lacked a number of topics as well as
detailed instructions. Jan:Since KDE still does not have enough
usability resources, a HIG is a very good means to get a usage style and
a consistency of usage. By defining rules and guidelines it can be
assured that many usability issues are recognized and solved while doing
the GUIs in the initial phase. Also, we can make developers more aware
of usability issues, so that they can decide when user feedback is
needed, for example. Ellen:The goal of the new guidelines is that
developers will know exactly how to implement a certain interface.
Aaron:Catching things early is certainly important as it saves a lot of
repeated efforts... Jan:Right, and it does not hurt much because in the
beginning you can change things more easily without as much effort. The
HIG will also be a sign to the world that KDE takes usability serious
Ellen:On the one hand, it means that more examples are required, and on
the other hand we need quick references. I think one of the major
problems of the GNOME HIG [http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/]
is that it is too excessive and therefore not readable. Aaron:Yes,
that's certainly an issue when it comes to Open Source developers, many
of whom are doing this in their own spare time. Being able to quickly
get answers and solutions is critical. I don't think we can expect
developers to read a novel just to learn how to create a dialog
properly. Peter:I know I certainly wouldn't want to do that :)
Ellen:Yes, I think it is utopian to hope that developers will read a 500
page document. Therefore, the first thing we did was to come up with a
format that allows the developer to scan important information, but also
offers additional topics such as implementation notes, cross references
and examples. Aaron:Cool! It does seem odd to me that even though we
have the tools to create navigationally rich content, most of the HIGs
out there are massive, linear tomes. It's exciting to see these sorts of
innovations occuring! Ellen:Well, we might do a usabillity test with the
usability guidelines in order to ensure they actually can be used in the
proper way :) Aaron:That makes perfect sense. Almost like an Escher
drawing =) Jörg:I think good examples in the HIG are going to be
crucial. Aaron:Why is that? Jörg:Because then you can do a quick look
and find out "how is this accomplished there". If you ask "Why should I
do this?" then you really should read the styleguide (and often more
literature :-) Aaron:Knowing that many, if not most developers, will
take the "copy and paste" route when it's available, it's easy to see
how this approach will be valuable. Jan:One main idea of the new HIG is
to have a situation based structure: I am now needing this and that GUI,
what should i consider? Aaron:Now as i understand it, the target
timeline is to have the HIG ready for the KDE 4.0 release, correct?
Ellen:Yes, that's what we are heading for. Jan:Right, it's a huge
project, but this is realistic Aaron:It's still a ways off, which is
good as there's likely a lot of work to do by the developers and
usability people alike once the HIG has gone through draft revisions and
is ready for Prime Time. Jan:... and we now have the infrastructure to
get all the contributors in the boat. Aaron:At what point will
contributors need to start "getting on the boat", to borrow your phrase?
Once there is a draft available, or are there things KDE developers can
start doing now? Jan:The "real version" is living in cvs
[http://www.kde.org/areas/guidelines/html/], but there are now some
colaberation tools like mailing lists and a wiki. Many guidelines must
be discussed, since it touches KDE very much. Also, there must be some
testing done on these guidelines, to be sure that they actually help
improve usability. KDE is a community, so we don't want to write
something in the chamber, but together. Aaron:And these discussions will
take place on kde-usability-devel and kde-core-devel as necessary, I
imagine? Jan:Yes, in fact we are just about the point where we can start
these discussions. The only thing will be to keep these discussions
fruitful.

 IV. LOOKING FORWARD...
 Aaron:I can't wait! Looking at Kontact in 3.4, it hasn't lost any
functionality which seems to be a common worry for many KDE users and
developers when speaking of usability. It has certainly gotten a lot
more streamlined and easier to use, though. As we look to apply these
same sorts of processes to more of KDE leading up to the 4.0 release in
concert with the new HIG .... Jan:With regards to Kontact and features,
this is an eternal fight. But loads of functions does not necessarily
lead to poor usability ... Aaron:Ok, so let's put on our dreamer's
glasses and speak of the future yet unseen. What sorts of developments,
advancements and improvements do you expect to see, or want to see?
Jan:If KDE wants to apply usability, there is a way ... a rather easy
way ... all we need is some initial examples of how it works, some
positive stories, some developers who like to see their baby more
usable, and then things will come. Ellen:First of all, I'd like to see
all of KDE more streamlined. There are still too many concepts confused
with each other. Aaron:Too many concepts confused with each other ...
what do you mean by that? Ellen:Different applications follow different
usage concepts which causes inconsistency. A very simple example is the
menu structure in Kontact. It was made up of a collection of individual
applications, and each of them has slightly a different menu structure.
For instance, there isn't a 'Find Contact' option in KAddressbook, but
there is a 'Find' option in KMail. Aaron:That makes lots of sense.
Hopefully we'll see more global consistency in 4.0. Jörg:We also should
make the public make more aware of the topic of usability so everyone is
looking forward to KDE 4. Then people will know "they take usability
serious, I can file bug reports and they will get resolved." Jan:Also,
companies or public institutions need usable software. If they hear that
KDE 4 is getting very usable, this may be one more reason to decide for
KDE. Ellen:We are working on it 8-) Aaron:So in the end everyone wins.
KDE developers get help with usability, existing KDE users get a better
experience and the KDE user base grows. Peter:Sure hope so :) Aaron:I
know that a lot of people are already looking forward to seeing
advancements in the control center and Konqueror usabilty in 4.0. As a
closing question, do you think that innovation in usability is realistic
to expect from an open source project such as KDE? Peter:I don't see why
it shouldn't be possible. Jan:I love to preach that Open Source is
perfectly suited for innovation, especially with respect to usability.
If you get developers convinced, you can change everything. Also, things
can change much quicker than in traditional software development. I
think that especially KDE has the perfect basic settings for usability.
It's just a matter of will and of time. And it's fun ... ;-)
Aaron:Great... thanks everyone for the great discussion! See you soon on
OpenUsabilty! [http://www.openusability.org]