Exploratory inspection: a learning model for improving open source software usability

We contend that overcoming the lack of usability expertise within the open source software community will further its competitiveness. Motivated by the unique user-driven model, we propose an exploratory learning method for assisting non-expert users in contributing to open source usability inspection. This method emphasizes providing usability knowledge during usability inspection and explores the impact of the "fading-out/phasing-in" method on the inspection effectiveness. The results of a pilot study we conducted through a Web-based inspection system are provided.