Lessons Learned from the FLOSS Usability Sprint Eugene Eric Kim March 8, 2005 BayCHI, Xerox PARC, Palo Alto, California Met Doug Engelbart at a 1998 BayCHI talk led to founding of Blue Oxen Associates in 2002 How do we make open source software more usable? Have open source developers observe users Have usability practitioners work with open source developers Teach developers about usability It's a collaborative problem! Why a Sprint? Goals: Improve usability of specific projects and perturb the ecosystem. Make the community smarter, not just the individuals. Leave them wanting more. The Sprint Partnered with Aspiration. Allen Gunn (Gunner) Katrin Verclas 3 sponsors, 5 supporters 40 participants 12 usability practitioners, the rest developers, project managers, bridges February at J. Fairchild in San Francisco Projects AMP, Chandler, CivicSpace, FotoNotes, Identity Commons, OpenACS Nonprofit audience Funded Four of the six projects had active bridges Outcomes Improved the projects. Greater awareness, shared understanding. Open source is in the best interests of usability practitioners. Extreme Usability. New collaborative projects emerged. Open Sourcing Usability Left them wanting more. Next Steps Another sprint. Extreme Design. Get involved! FLOSS Usability BOF Bootcamp Research, publications Participate!