UE和UI問題

東西做到一半，發現有不少的 cultural gaps。上 IRC 問了一下，whiteg 提供兩年半前 O’Reilly Open Source Convention 上的議程資料「User Experience Research for Open Software Developers」。講者來自 Adaptive Path 這家公司。Michael Kuniavsky 一百多頁的簡報檔中，我抓出來一些東西，自己留存者看。

頁5：OSS and the UE: Problem Overview

1. There aren’t enough Open Source UI Designers
2. Usability can be difficult and painful
3. Pandemic featuritis
4. Copying without understanding is not enough
5. Design is tough to do by committee
6. “Running” does not equal “working”
7. OSS Software is not written for specific audiences

頁6：Not Enough OSS UI Designers, why?

1. Designers can’t code…
…but coders can place interface widgets
2. Designers can’t make software by themselves
3. Cultural gap
3.1. Different academic traditions
3.2 Design is harder to share than code
3.3 Seen as window dressing by some

頁8：Pandemic Featuritis

The ultimate expression of this is the concept of skins, but skins fix nothing

頁17：Conceptual Research: Needs

Conceptual research assumes a good interface comes from understanding what your entire user base needs.

頁20：How is UE Research related to Interface Design?

1. UE research is often lumped in with UI design
2. It’s not the same thing
3. UE Research defines problems
4. Interface design, like programming, finds solutions
5. The better the problem definition, the clearer the path to the solution
(Tangentially: interface design is not making things pretty, that’s graphic design ;-)

看到這裡如有加持灌頂，好棒的學門。我繼續看下去…

頁24：Integrating User Research into Development

1. Make sure research is actionable
1.2 Time the research for the needs of the product and the abilities of the development team
1.3 Example: Don’t research button wording before you know whether the audience wants the button’s functionality

2. Be open-minded
2.1 Users aren’t stupid, they just don’t have as many reasons to care as you do