Revision as of 07:49, 3 November 2010

MeeGo QA Tools User Experience

This is the main page for user experience (UX) work done for MeeGo QA tools. The purpose of the UX activities is to improve the QA-tools so that they are easier, more efficient and more pleasant to use. For this, end-users and their input are crucial. By understanding the users and their needs, it is possible to develop something that really benefits the users.

This page is meant for giving an overview of UX activities regarding QA tools. In addition, the page presents a proposal of UX task list and other UX-related content, such as UX evaluation reports and UI drafts for discussion among the community. Even if some traditional user-centered design methods (user studies, usability tests etc.) require offline working, the results of those should be published here or be directly filed as enhancements/bugs to Bugzilla.

UX Workflow in a Nutshell

User experience is not something that could just be added to a product as the last thing of the implementation process. On the contrary, user experience work focuses on taking the users into account in every phase of the development process. The following gives just one example on how you can do user-centered design in practice:

1. Identify who are the actual and/or potential users
2. Conduct a user study and identify the users' needs and wishes
3. Draft and iterate e.g. a paper prototype of the planned UI with the users
4. Based on the iterated prototype and other input, design and implement a functional prototype
5. Present the functional prototype to the users as early as possible and gather feedback and improvement ideas. You can also conduct a more formal usability study.
6. Re-design and continue implementation
7. Once the first complete version is released, continue to gather user feedback

Meeting users face-to-face is preferred but online methods can also be used. E.g. the input can be gathered via mailing lists or IRC, and design drafts can be published to wiki or Bugzilla.

Finished and Ongoing Work

Testrunner-UI

• Finished tasks:
  • Results of user interviews and other end-user feedback
  • File enhancement bugs to Bugzilla
• Ongoing tasks:
  • Design UI improvements based on user feedback
  • Conduct an expert evaluation of the latest version
  • Report the improvement proposals to Bugzilla

Testplanner

• Finished tasks:
  • Provide UX support for the development of the initial version
  • File enhancement bugs to Bugzilla
• Ongoing tasks:
  • Conduct an expert evaluation of the latest version
  • Report the improvement proposals to Bugzilla

Proposal for Future Work

• Every Tool
  • Check the end-user documentation
  • Evaluate the ease of the installation and the first time use
  • Improve visual look of the GUI tools, e.g. improve icons and other graphical elements

• MIN
  • Evaluate the graphical UI
  • Design UI improvements
    • If there is a need for a bigger UI renewal, different layout drafts should be provided for further discussion
  • Report the improvement proposals to Bugzilla

• Testrunner-lite, Testrunner-UI and Testplanner
  • Gather more end-user feedback

• MeeGo QA Reporting Tool
  • Evaluate the reporting tool and give feedback to the developers

How to Participate

The UX work is no different from the other development work of QA-tools. You can, for instance, work on the tasks presented on this page or just propose new tasks. In general, the best channels for participating are:

• #meego-qa-tools IRC channel on irc.freenode.net for discussing about the tools
• Bugzilla for reporting enhancement ideas or usability problems