Mailing List FAQ

What is software usability?

Usability is a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal. Usability can also refer to the methods of measuring usability and the study of the principles behind an object's perceived efficiency or elegance.

Usability is closely related to the fields of industrial psychology and ergonomics. There is a wide body of literature on software usability as well as a number of established methods for evaluating usability and generally working on user-centric design.

Ellen Reitmayr, of the KDE Usability project, recently did a chronological outline of some of the standard steps in usability evaluation:

Requirements	Design	Implementation	Test and Measure	Post Release
Task Analysis	Guidelines	Guidelines	Usability Testing	Usability Testing
Scenarios of Use	Paper Prototyping	Rapid Prototyping	Critical Incidence Technique	User Surveys
Evaluating Existing Systems	Card Sorting	Card Sorting	Heuristic Walkthrough	Heuristic Walkthrough
Personas	Personas	Personas		Remote Testing
Focus Groups	Heuristic Walkthrough	Heuristic Walkthrough		Subjective Assessment

For already released software starting in the last column is common. For working to become integrated within the development of a project it is more useful to take note of the full spectrum of usability methods.

What is software usability not?

Software usability is not graphic design or making things visually attractive. It's also not about personal opinions or first reactions to an interface.

In the context of the usability list, it's important to note that software usability is not about making ad hoc suggestions to the KDE usability or development communities. The purpose of the list is to provide a place for discussion of usability, as defined above, interaction design, usability reports and so on.

Those wishing to simply provide feedback should do so via the bug tracking system.

How do I report a usability issue?

There are two broad ways of answering this question. The basic options are:

File a bug via bugs.kde.org
Do a usability report

The first option is quite straightforward -- simply sign into bugs.kde.org and report the issue. Remember to keep in mind things like user context (i.e. what is the user doing or trying to do when the problem occurs?), screenshots can also be very helpful.

The second option is more involved, but also often much more helpful. It assumes some familiarity with usability methods (which you can find out more about in the section below on Where can I learn more about usability?). Usually these reports incorporate and document the use of the methods mentioned above in the What is usability? section.

A good example of employing these methods is available here. There are other reports available from the OpenUsability website, which works closely with the KDE Usability project.

What is appropriate for the usability list? What is the purpose of the list?

As mentioned above, the purpose of the list is for discussing usability. This is not tantamount to posting percieved problems with interfaces, consistancy, etc. Posts which are of that nature will be redirected to bugs.kde.org.

It is on topic to ask further questions about the methods above. One of the goals of the list, in addition to having constructive discussion on usability topics is to help promote general familiarity with usability and related practices. Generally, however, such requests for information should be kept separate from critiques.

A few useful tips on posting to the list as a new usability contributor follow:

Keep the topics small in scope, for instance talking about "problems with Kopete" is less manageable than talking about "problems with the Kopete chat window".
Let developpers start threads asking usability reviews of their application. Threads started in that way are more likely to have a real impact on the software being discussed and encourage a symbiotic relationship between usability and development efforts.
Proposed usability enhancements should be doable within the actual KDE framework.
A such, spreading best practices across the project is the easiest way to raise overall usability.
Small steps to improve consistency between applications are important.

Larger, or more conceptual undertakings are possible, but as in any project, it's best to start small and get a feel for the community dynamics before attempting such.

Where can I learn more about usability?

We're glad you asked. There are a number of useful links and publications on software usability and closely related fields:

Books:
- The Design of Everyday Things - Donald A. Norman
- Usability Engineering - Jakob Nielsen
- The Inmates Are Running the Asylum - Alan Cooper
- The Humane Interface - Jeff Raskin
Publications:
- ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
Online Resources:
- OpenUsability
- Tina Trillitzsch's Introductions to Personas (Blog 1) (Blog 2) (Slides)
- Ellen Reitmayr's Presentation on Usability in OSS (German)

Additionaly, if you are in a university or professional training program there are often courses on iteraction design, human computer interaction, ergonomics, etc. If available, these courses can help introduce one to the theory behind software usability.

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Mailing List FAQ

What is software usability?

What is software usability not?

How do I report a usability issue?

What is appropriate for the usability list? What is the purpose of the list?

Where can I learn more about usability?

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