Usability ratings/assistance for GNOME/GTK+ apps?

[Luciano Chavez <chavez us ibm com>]

Hello,

I just finished reading the recent article "Why GNOME Hackers Should
Care about Usability"
(http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/articles/why_care/).

The article contained the following offer:

"We would be very happy to work with you to make your applications
better! If you are already an experience GNOME developer we'd be very
happy to help design an interface for your projects from their very
inception."

I am trying to find a document that outlines the contacts and
requirements to help someone like myself generate a usable application.

I am currently working on a relatively new project to create a new
volume management system for Linux. My job is to write the GTK+
interface to it. The evmsgui is still being developed and I am eager to
read through the style guides for direction on usability improvements.

Is there a process to have the app reviewed at some point to be given
feedback from usability experts such as yourselves to allow my project
to get a "stamp of approval" as to following proper usability
guidelines?

The application currently is in some early stages so I have really
little to offer. If I did, would I need to supply a test script for the
reviewer to accomplish a certain set of tasks? Screenshots?

I am very eager to see user acceptance of our project deliverables when
it starts to get into its beta stage. I see a great deal of this
acceptance depends on the usability of the user space tools such as the
GUI I intend to produce (its the first experience the user will usually
have after installation). Getting help from y'all would be great.

I imagine that a large part of the usability project is not just to get
the GNOME Desktop and menues usable but also the applications that
comprise it like the one I am assigned to produce.

I see getting an approval from the GUP as a win-win situation. I get the
needed assistance with usability and you get a better GNOME or GTK+ app
that conforms to the standards you have set. I also think that a
cross-endorsement from both projects benefits both as well.

regards,
Luciano Chavez
evmsgui developer
Enterprise Volume Management System http://sf.net/projects/evms