[DC LoCo] Looking for guinea pigs for usability testing...

[Celeste Lyn Paul]

Hi Ted, 

Despite my work in KDE, this is actually an activity focussing on Ubuntu and 
GNOME (I hope future activities can include KDE). When I say "inexperienced" 
people, I'm looking for "normal" users, with or without a lot of Linux 
experience.  "Normal" users are those who don't necessarily have problem 
solving skills to fix something when it breaks, or know how to look up help 
in a Linux forum or website.  They may be good at email, writing documents, 
and browsing the Internet, but don't know much about their computer. They 
just *use* the computer.  These are the people we (in OSS) have the hardest 
to contact since most of our peers have extensive Linux desktop experience.

On Wednesday 01 October 2008 14:44:32 Ted Smith wrote:
> Should the people be inexperienced in GNU/Linux in general, or just in
> the KDE? I've partially exhausted my pool of friends/family that have no
> experience with GNU/Linux, but most of them have never used or seen K.
>
> On Wed, 2008-10-01 at 10:08 -0400, Celeste Lyn Paul wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > The idea is that you, the Loco member, will help guide a lesser
> > experienced user (a friend of family member) through a simple activity on
> > the Linux desktop.  By having some lesser experienced users go through
> > these activities, we hope to get some ideas on how to make the software
> > better.
> >
> > We are hoping to do a pilot activity on Saturday October 10 in the
> > afternoon.
> >
> > If you are intersted in participating, please post your name and if you
> > will bring a friend/family member to test with.
> >
> > You can also post your interest on the forum thread:
> > http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5887481#post5887481
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > ~ Celeste
> >
> > On Tuesday 30 September 2008 18:41:49 Kevin Cole wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > Celeste Lyn Paul, who does human interface design work and one of the
> > > "People behind KDE" (http://www.behindkde.org/people/celeste/) has been
> > > trying to get a usability testing gig going for a couple of months. 
> > > She says that Canonical is now taking an interest and has sent some
> > > swag to entice/reward the test subjects.
> > >
> > > I'm game to do something at the Cleveland Park Library, but we'll need
> > > a few LoCo volunteers and some guinea pigs -- mostly people who've had
> > > little or no experience with Linux.  The idea is to try to see what
> > > areas of the user experience need to be improved upon.  Or so I gather.
> > >  Celeste wants to keep the tests relatively short, somewhere in the
> > > 20-minute range.
> > >
> > > Anyone interested in helping out?  Celeste can provide more details if
> > > there are questions...
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> > >
> > > P.S. I just added the folks who signed up at Takoma Park.  So, welcome
> > > newcomers.  Feel free to introduce yourselves, ask questions, and
> > > hopefully, volunteer.
> > >
> > > --
> > >  Kevin Cole                    |  Key ID: 0xE6F332C7   (GPG/PGP)
> > >  Ubuntu Linux DC LoCo Team     |     WWW: http://dc.ubuntu-us.org/
> > >
> > >            ". ! 1 |" -- Rene Magritte's computer
> >
> > --
> > Celeste Lyn Paul
> > KDE Usability Project
> > usability.kde.org



-- 
Celeste Lyn Paul
KDE Usability Project
usability.kde.org