Introducing usability activities into open source software development projects: a participative approach

Usability is an important quality characteristic of software products and information systems. Different approaches for introducing usability activities into open source software (OSS) development have not yet been fully evaluated. This paper experiments with the introduction of usability activities into OSS development through a participative approach. An empirical case study was carried out in a game development OSS project. The results of this study suggest that it is beneficial to introduce usability activities into OSS development through the participative approach. In the participative approach the usability experts become recognized part of the development community through adapting their ways of work into the culture of the OSS project and submitting code patches. This participative approach had a clear impact in the case project as seen in changes in the user interface and in improved usability. The challenge of adapting usability and OSS development philosophies and practices should, however, be researched further.

[1]  David M. Nichols,et al.  The Usability of Open Source Software , 2003, First Monday.

[2]  Görkem Çetin,et al.  An Analysis of Involvement of HCI Experts in Distributed Software Development: Practical Issues , 2007, HCI.

[3]  Protima Banerjee,et al.  Book Review: About Face 2.0: The essentials of interaction design , 2004, Inf. Vis..

[4]  Matthew Kay,et al.  Perceptions and practices of usability in the free/open source software (FoSS) community , 2010, CHI.

[5]  Kate Ehrlich,et al.  Cost justification of usability engineering: a vendors's perspective , 1994 .

[6]  Heather Desurvire,et al.  Using heuristics to evaluate the playability of games , 2004, CHI EA '04.

[7]  Samir Chatterjee,et al.  A Design Science Research Methodology for Information Systems Research , 2008 .

[8]  Mikko Rajanen.  Different Approaches to Usability Cost-Benefit Analysis , 2006 .

[9]  Mary Beth Rosson,et al.  Usability Engineering: Scenario-based Development of Human-Computer Interaction , 2001 .

[10]  Alan R. Hevner,et al.  The Three Cycle View of Design Science , 2007, Scand. J. Inf. Syst..

[11]  Martin R. Gibbs,et al.  Mediating intimacy: designing technologies to support strong-tie relationships , 2005, CHI.

[12]  Jonathan Earthy,et al.  The Benefits of Using ISO 13407: Human Centred Design Process for Interactive Systems , 2001, INTERACT.

[13]  Clare-Marie Karat,et al.  A Business Case Approach to Usability Cost Justification for the Web , 1994 .

[14]  Fadi P. Deek,et al.  Exploratory inspection: a learning model for improving open source software usability , 2006, CHI EA '06.

[15]  Arlene F. Aucella.  Ensuring success with usability engineering , 1997, INTR.

[16]  Vreda Pieterse,et al.  18th European Conference on Information Systems, ECIS 2010, Pretoria, South Africa, June 7-9, 2010 , 2010, ECIS.

[17]  Netta Iivari,et al.  Traditional Usability Costs and Benefits: Fitting them into Open Source Software Development , 2010, ECIS.

[18]  Thomas Müller-Bohn,et al.  Cost-Benefit Analysis , 2015 .

[19]  Alan R. Hevner,et al.  A Fitness-Utility Model for Design Science Research , 2011, TMIS.

[20]  Georg von Krogh,et al.  Open Source Software and the "Private-Collective" Innovation Model: Issues for Organization Science , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[21]  Alan R. Hevner,et al.  Design Research in Information Systems , 2010 .

[22]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  Interactive systems: bridging the gaps between developers and users , 1991, Computer.

[23]  Jeffrey Rubin,et al.  Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests , 1994 .

[24]  Joseph F. Dumas,et al.  A Practical Guide to Usability Testing , 1993 .

[25]  John M. Carroll,et al.  FLOSS UX Design: An Analysis of User Experience Design in Firefox and OpenOffice.org , 2009, OSS.

[26]  Netta Iivari,et al.  Usability Cost-Benefit Analysis: How Usability Became a Curse Word? , 2007, INTERACT.

[27]  Anthony F. Hutchings,et al.  Creating products customers demand , 1995, CACM.

[28]  Netta Iivari,et al.  Understanding the work of an HCI practitioner , 2006, NordiCHI '06.

[29]  Eric Schaffer,et al.  Institutionalization of Usability: A Step-By-Step Guide , 2004 .

[30]  Marisa E. Campbell.  NordiCHI 2004 , 2004, INTR.

[31]  Walt Scacchi,et al.  Understanding the requirements for developing open source software systems , 2002, IEE Proc. Softw..

[32]  Alan Cooper,et al.  About Face 3: the essentials of interaction design , 1995 .

[33]  Fadi P. Deek,et al.  Improving Open Source Software Usability , 2005, AMCIS.

[34]  Anker Helms Jørgensen.  Marrying HCI/Usability and computer games: a preliminary look , 2004, NordiCHI '04.

[35]  David Pinelle,et al.  Heuristic evaluation for games: usability principles for video game design , 2008, CHI.

[36]  David M. Nichols,et al.  Usability processes in open source projects , 2006, Softw. Process. Improv. Pract..

[37]  Marisa E. Campbell.  CHI 2004 , 2004, INTR.

[38]  Deborah J. Mayhew,et al.  A basic framework for costs-justifying usability engineering , 1994 .

[39]  Sarah A. Bloomer,et al.  Pitching usability to your organization , 1997, INTR.

[40]  Francesco Rullani,et al.  Skills and Openness of OSS Projects : implications for performance , 2005 .

[41]  Deborah J. Mayhew,et al.  The usability engineering lifecycle , 1999, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[42]  E. Quah,et al.  Cost-Benefit Analysis , 1972 .

[43]  Mads Bødker,et al.  Enabling User Centered Design Processes in Open Source Communities , 2007, HCI.

[44]  Jan Stage,et al.  Usability in open source software development: opinions and practice , 2006 .

[45]  Netta Iivari,et al.  Introducing Usability Activities into Open Source Software Development Projects – Searching for a Suitable Approach , 2012 .

[46]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Usability engineering , 1997, The Computer Science and Engineering Handbook.

[47]  K. R. Ohnemus.  Incorporating human factors in the system development life cycle: marketing and management approaches , 1996, IPCC 96: Communication on the Fast Track. IPCC 96 Proceedings.

[48]  John M. Carroll,et al.  Designers wanted: participation and the user experience in open source software development , 2009, CHI.

[49]  Alan R. Hevner,et al.  Design Science in Information Systems Research , 2004, MIS Q..

[50]  Françoise Détienne,et al.  A Methodological Framework for Socio-Cognitive Analyses of Collaborative Design of Open Source Software , 2006, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[51]  Deborah J. Mayhew.  Business: Strategic development of the usability engineering function , 1999, INTR.

[52]  C. Dennis Allen.  Succeeding as a clandestine change agent , 1995, CACM.

[53]  Anna Rita Fasolino,et al.  Lo Standard ISO/IEC 9126 – Software engineering – Product Quality , 2010 .

[54]  Jan Ljungberg,et al.  Open source movements as a model for organising , 2000, ECIS.

[55]  Jan Gulliksen,et al.  Usability professionals - current practices and future development , 2006, Interact. Comput..