Re: [Usability] Reaching Users

[Allan Caeg <allancaeg gmail com>]

How about http://www.ubuntu.com/community ? See the "Contribute"
section.

Also, Ubuntu has Ayatana. We talk about UX and usability things at
Ayatana Discussions ( https://launchpad.net/~ayatana ), which is open
for public. There's also an Ubuntu UX group
( https://launchpad.net/~canonical-ux ), which is for the very few
Canonical UXers.

On Tue, 2009-12-08 at 11:02 -0800, Sujoy Chabri wrote:
> Hi,
> Yes.
> In brief , there is a need for a common place where user can
> express/share their experience. Like Mozilla:- There are many ways to
> get involved with Mozilla. You don’t have to be a C++ guru (or even
> know what that means!) 
> Approach should be simple enough to encourage users,
> Atanu
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> From: "kerberos piestar net" <kerberos piestar net>
> To: usability gnome org
> Sent: Tue, 8 December, 2009 4:57:02 PM
> Subject: [Usability] Reaching Users
> 
> Firstly, I think bugzilla has no place in any discussions of
> usability.  Bugs are absolute, and bug tracking software is designed
> for people to report, and then developers to fix.  Usability issues
> are largely subtle, subjective and often require some debate.  While
> the bugzilla approach may apply to minor issues 'Why can't I use my
> scrollwheel here, etc' it is simply unable to handle anything that
> could be considered innovative or new.  It is my belief that bugzilla
> will never lead to a substantial improvement in software - If you
> placed Windows 95 on a bugtracker would it fix the fundamental issues
> with usability, security and stability?  Architectural and large
> ranging issues are simply a bad fit for bug tracking software.  It is
> also intimidating and works in absolutes, while usability doesn't -
> it's more of a discussion.  I would be very hesitant to post anything
> non-trivial to a bugtracker - it's simply not the place.
> 
> 
> 
> Secondly, and ironically, there is no greater divide in the software
> community between developers and users than in the FOSS community.
> While most closed source, commercial software has various easy ways
> for users to give feedback, Linux doesn't.
> 
> Barrier 1: The majority of Linux distro's (Ubuntu and Suse to name
> two) have no place on their forum for discussing ideas or engaging the
> community - it is all one sided 'support'.  There are plenty of forums
> for discussing how to get your sound card working, but nowhere for
> discussing a way to make fixing it yourself simpler.
> 
> Barrier 2: The lack of any feedback forums above is understandable in
> context.  The main distro's package the upstream apps and release them
> - they are not directly responsible for problems in Gnome's etc
> codebase.  As a result there is no real way of knowing who made or
> maintains which program or module to suggest improvements to.
> Identifying and reporting anything non-trivial is in itself
> non-trivial.  Unless you want to blog about it, there is largely no
> venue for feedback.
> 
> Thirdly, there seems very few systems designed to engage such users at
> the developer end.  As a developer myself there seems to be nowhere to
> go to discuss such issues.  I was hoping that given the 'community
> contributed' nature there would be pages of free-flowing ideas and
> discussions, but if there is I can't find it and I am sure neither
> could the majority of other people.  It seems the nexus point for
> Gnome usability discussions is a near-dead mailinglist.
> 
> Windows Vista was pretty rubbish, I am sure there is no debate over
> this fact.  Windows 7 is pretty damn good and a worthy successor to
> XP, and the reason that it is so good is because the massive backlash
> of hate and criticism of Vista (by an audiance largely looking to find
> fault) gave them a massive list of key issues to address.  I would
> place good money on the fact that if Vista was well recieved, 7 would
> not have been anywhere as good as it is now.
> 
> Free software though, as stated above, has no real outlet for users to
> speak their mind about problems.  The community is largely self
> censoring (as who would complain about free food?) and the people who
> are not happy with the software largely just go back to Windows/OSX.
> I always feel that the opinions of 1 unhappy customer is more useful
> than the opinions of 100 happy ones, but the Linux community in
> general consists entirely of 'happy ones' - everyone who is unhappy
> just leaves, rather than sticks around and tries to change things.
> 
> Before any real progress can be made on usability and improving the
> marketshare of Gnome (and Linux as a result) these issues should
> largely be addressed.  Users need a place to say why they don't like
> something without being called idiots or trolls.  There is very little
> point in having a community contributed OS that the community cannot
> contribute to.  Most users can contribute ideas after all, but few can
> contribute code - which seems to be the sole focus.
> 
> Flame away!
> 
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> 
> 
> 
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