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IST Grad Student Researches Usability Support for Open-Source Projects
11/28/2007
by Margaret Hopkins
Open-source software, which has traditionally been produced and used by tech-savvy people, is making its way into the marketplace—and that is creating ease-of-use challenges for less technical users. by Margaret Hopkins
“Developers produce open-source software that is easy for them to use but is not always easy for the not so tech-savvy to use,” said Paula Bach, an IST doctoral student exploring human-computer interaction in open-source development. “Focusing on usability—the idea that users should find a technology effective and efficient for accomplishing a task—is one way to help developers address what users expect, want and need from a technology.”
To determine that, Bach is studying how developers of a number of open-source and closed-source or proprietary projects address and determine usability. The study, which involves interviews and surveys of developers and usability experts, and two summer internships for Bach at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wash., is being funded by a $61,000 grant from Microsoft’s Open Source Software Lab—a first between OSSL and Penn State.
Bach’s ultimate goal is to design and develop a resource for Microsoft’s open-source project hosting Web site, CodePlex, which will help open-source developers create technology that “works” for those who use it.
“Usability is a recognized challenge for open-source development but is a tough issue for software development in general,” said Bryan Kirschner, director of Platform Community Strategy at Microsoft. “Paula’s research may be valuable not only for open-source developers but for end-user developers and small software companies as well.”
Bach became interested in usability when she worked in the software industry and saw firsthand how developers produced software by thinking about how they would use it rather than how the intended audience would use it. She realized then that taking users’ needs into consideration would improve their experience.
But usability is subjective, which means that while one person may have no difficulty using a software application, another may end up totally confused—and that is where expertise in human-computer interaction comes in.
“HCI professionals have come up with methodologies, processes and techniques to reach out to the intended audience,” Bach said. “With help from HCI experts, developers can create more effective tools for average users.”
This isn’t news to developers. Microsoft Research, for instance, has long recognized the value of usability processes and has “user experience” teams to ensure that products have a quality user experience. Those teams use field studies, lab studies, surveys, interviews and analysis of product usage data in ensuring a quality user experience, explained Kirschner.
But more is needed as Bach learned during her first internship at Microsoft during summer 2007.
“While one might expect that the two groups would share a common perspective, they actually use a different language and solve problems differently,” Bach said. “These perspectives often are segregated because open-source developers tend to work only on aspects of a project which interest them, so challenging technical problems win over challenging people problems.”
Microsoft anticipates Bach’s research will not only help its own development teams but will also be useful to the IT community generally.
“We are committed to increasing opportunities for business partners regardless of the underlying development model,” Kirschner said. “This includes increasing opportunities for developers to learn and create by combining community-oriented open source with traditional commercial approaches to software development.”
Open Source at Microsoft
