Re: [Usability] User Experience Advocates

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Fri, 2010-05-21 at 18:56 +0100, Felipe Erias Morandeira wrote:
> On 21/05/10 18:37, Celeste Lyn Paul wrote:
> > On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:22 PM, Felipe Erias Morandeira
> > <femorandeira igalia com> wrote:
> >> I wonder if it would be possible to get interaction designers involved
> >> *before* the application has been written.
> > 
> > Most of open source software is in the maintenance phase and does not
> > have the luxury of a full redesign from the very beginning of the
> > process. Sometimes you will get projects that are interested in
> > reengineering bits and pieces of an application, but you are still
> > constrained by the parts that will not change.
> 
> That is my point. Design has to be done before coding begins, not during
> the maintenance phase. In most of open source software, designers are
> being called in after the implementation has been done and there is
> little that they can contribute. This is not only a problem for the
> designers, but for everyone that intends to use those applications.

I hope this doesn't come across as snide, but the only way
this is going to work in open source is for the interaction
designers to have the ideas and lead the way.

If a developer has an itch to scratch, he's not going to sit
around waiting for somebody else's design ideas. He's going
to JFDI. If interaction designers want to be involved before
coding begins, they need to JFDI. It's how open source works.

--
Shaun