[Desktop_printing] Re: Suggestion: invite OpenUsability.org representative(s) to Printing Summit

Till Kamppeter till.kamppeter at gmx.net
Wed Feb 1 14:22:10 PST 2006


Interesting links, I think we should go this way on our user interface
discussions, especially on a session about the printing dialog. In
addition, it is also a good idea for the second desktop architects
meeting in France.

Should we also have some test user(s) in this session?

   Till


Kurt Pfeifle wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> given the amount of "printing + usability" discussion that has taken 
> place on the desktop_printing list in preparation for the summit, I'd
> like to propose that one or two representatives from OpenUsability.org
> be invited to the Atlanta meeting. (I believe there was already someone
> from OU.o at the Portland meeting too?). And hopefully we can find 
> sponsoring for travel and hotel too...
> 
> I spent the evening reading some of the recent threads (I was offline
> for a while) -- also the one on gtk-devel-list -- and was very pleased 
> to see the newly-energized initiative to bring better printing support 
> to Gtk+ and Gnome.
> 
> www.OpenUsability.org is a platform that has assembled quite a few 
> expert usability people and professionals behind it -- and they that
> has successfully established working relationships with quite a few
> (more than 100, maybe?) open source projects already, giving continuous 
> feedback during the development process. They cooperate with KDE and 
> with Gnome developers likewise (depending on the fact if the developers 
> themselves want it), as well as with groups that belong to neither 
> "camp". Prominent KDE apps coached by OU.o mentors are amaroK, Krita 
> and KPDF; prominent Gnome apps are Inkscape and Gimp; prominent 
> non-desktop projects are Wikipedia, Wordpress and TYPO3.
> 
> Since I am involved with KDEPrint to a degree, I know how good some
> of their feedback already has been for us. :)  
> 
> One of their recently drafted reports originates back from our attempts 
> to improve the "WhatsThis" integrated help hints in kprinter:
> 
>    http://www.userbrain.de/whatsthis/ideas_whatsthis_january06_v1.2.pdf
> 
> This report now outlines a general idea for improvment: the KDE4 "looking 
> for immediate help" user experience. From that report you can see how much
> substance is behind their suggestions, and how much attention to detail
> they give once they adopt a project.
> 
> One of the methods they use when discussing "GUI design and usability"
> is "paper prototyping". All you need to start designing an initial UI, 
> and then refining it more and more, is: paper, scissors, pens and some 
> transparent adhesive tape. See f.e. this article:
> 
>   http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/1548
> 
> I've seen them doing it at various events -- and participants (users +
> developers) *always* had lots of fun with it and reported very useful
> insights and designs coming from those sessions:
> 
>   http://svenfoo.geekheim.de/index.php/2005-08-24/paper-prototyping-for-fun-and-profit/
>   (Sven Neumann, a Gimp developer, reports about one such event)
> 
> It struck me that here is another field where KDE and Gnome developers
> could cooperate on very practical terms to make the Linux and FOSS
> desktop better.
> 
> Myself, being one of the guys who helped to "GUI-design" the current 
> kprinter appearance (man, that is already 4 years since then... phew!):
> I would certainly be glad to cooperate with anyone from the Gnome
> printing camp, especially if it is under the guidance of a person from 
> OpenUsability.org, to come up with a better UI for printing tasks and 
> workflows. And I'll be glad to share my "expert" and the common knowlege 
> we accumulated so far with kprinter with anyone else who wants to 
> participate  :-)
> 
> It would be simply great if we could agree on some common dialog design, 
> UI layouts and workflow logic on that field that could be shared between
> KDE and Gnome (and implemented by each one for his own platform in a way
> that lets users, admins and suppport staff work with each one the same
> way once they have learned to use one of them).
> 
> So -- how about inviting one or two OpenUsability.org professional to 
> the summit and to hold a "printing dialog" paper prototyping session 
> under their guidance?
> 
> Cheers,
> Kurt
> 
> 




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