RESEARCH

We present results about rating and preferences of file managers with focus on Dolphin.

We present first results of the user study about file managers and discuss issues that occur during the study.

User Prompt announces the start of a large study on file managers. You are invited to participate!

Toolbar functions should be labeled consistently starting with a verb which is followed by noun or adverb. We present recommendations to label the functions on Libreoffice’ standard toolbar.

Metaphors determine the association between a function and its icon. But sometimes these metaphors are misleading or ambiguous. With your help, we want to improve the metaphors used in Libreoffice.

We report the results of our Dolphin developer study and outline the follow-up study with users. Next to feedback we are looking for translation support.

LibreOffice’s icons are sometimes confusing. We present some quick and easy changes that improve functionality.

The LibreOffice design team announces the start of a new online icon test. You are invited to participate!

In the development of icons, the metaphor plays a vital role to ensure reliable perception and comprehension. We introduce seven guidelines that help to create a balanced set of icons with high usability.

Together with Steganos we analyzed their target users. We ran an online survey to create Personas based on valid and representative data.

Which function do you expect when you see a pencil? To draw something or perhaps fill the background… But in the context of a word processor?

A statistical analysis shows that icons with less detail score better in terms of usability.

Antiquated metaphors in icons can work better than modern, but complicated ones. This can be shown on the example of the ‘save’ icon.

More than 3000 users took part in the first two LibreOffice icon tests. The demographics prove us to have gathered reliable data.

On the occasion of the large scale usability test of the LibreOffice Writer icons, this article explains how subjective and objective measurements can help to understand the quality of an icon-term relationship.

(DE) Styleguides sind essentielle Bestandteile der Softwareentwicklung, werden jedoch selten strukturiert erstellt. Wir haben gemeinsam mit Swisslab das „Universal Model of a User-Interface“ von Baxley zur Erstellung eines Styleguides adaptiert.

I have been attending the great LibreOffice 2011 Conference in Paris and held a presentation about the problems of finding the gold in the input user provide.

This is the last post about our LibreOffice survey done with UserWeave and we sum up the main findings. Find out about the users of LibreOffice and how motifs can help you to create better personas.

Do users want Ribbons? This post about the software preferences of LibreOffice users answers this and other intresting questions and is part of the results of our extensive user research.

Impress is for people that want to impress and Base and Calc will become extinct? Read about the users and the usage of LibreOffice applications as part of the results of our extensive study of LibreOffice users.

Motifs have the potential to make the creation of personas easier and more scientific. We have done some research together with the users of LibreOffice and show how to work with motifs.

More than 5400 people took part in our LibreOffice User study. The results give insights about who the users of LibreOffice are and how motifs can help to describe them.

The first user research survey for LibreOffice has just been closed. About 5400 participants exceeded our hopes and expectations by far.

Icons are used to visualise a term. An icon test evaluates the strength of this relationship based on subjective and objective indicators.

Meet us at LinuxTag 2009 in Berlin at the Tine 2.0 booth.

A new Season of Usability has been announced. Students can apply. I will be usability mentor for the Gallery project.

Anne joined the Tine 2.0 Usability team and is doing her bachelor thesis on the Usability of the Tine 2.0 calendar application.

The development of a new testing methodology for icons has matured. The test of TV-Browser icons shows a varying quality of icons.

The development of a new test for the quality of icons reaches the final state. In our validation study more than 22000 tests have been conducted.

We announce the availability of an online test of the quality of icons used in TV Browser. Please participate!

Today nine candidates for the 2nd round of applications for the Season of Usability got chosen.

The OpenUsability.org – Season of Usability (SoU) has started their call for participation.

Usability engineering methodology is currently optimised for the needs of commercial software development. Adaptation for Free Software still needs creative work but has great potential.