On Saturday, 16 January 2016 12:59:57 CET Arnaud Versini wrote:
> 2016-01-15 13:14 GMT+01:00 Heiko Tietze <[email protected]>:
> > But for LibO, and any other open source
> > application, you cannot run the development based on usability tests.
> 
> Why not ? We don't have users ?
The user-centered development is an iterative process. You test everything 
with the target users and have to go into retreat for redesigning when its not 
perfect. But this model is not what we can do for our rolling release and for 
open source. Users are spread over the world and, as Stuart pointed out, we 
iterate by release. 

Of course we can do testing as you and Michel as well as Italo suggest. And we 
should. But we have to keep in mind that results are selective for a 
particular area, type of question, method, examiner etc. For instance, when 
Italo tells his students that something strange has happend to the Impress 
what may have an heavy impact  to the layout, and if they can find how to 
switch between display modes (sorry Italo, it's just an example and you likely 
did much better). The users might answer as expected - negatively. If you, 
however, let them perform a simple task like "enter a note for the current 
slide", and ask before execution how they expect this to be achieved and ask 
to compare this afterwards with the effective realization, the current 
solution might not look that bad anymore.

The difference is in the kind of methodology, first impression vs. usability 
test. And we should do both, yes. The results of the first impression would be 
just another piece in the puzzle, similar to what we have by looking through 
the social media. However, we can try to define tasks together with a clear 
storyboard of how and what should be asked during the test. This produces 
comparable results, but still of qualitative nature. 

Those tests should be taken seriously, it's nothing that can be done 'en 
passant'. Preparation, carrying out the test, and evaluation are really time 
consuming. You are very welcome to help with those tests. And Italo promised 
his help too.

Cheers,
Heiko
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