1.4 Goal

A guide on how to adapt to development structures, do user testing, use available free tools to ease recording and analysis as well as best practices for reporting and fixing usability issues. Nichols & Twidale (2003) suggest conceptual methods like for example involving usability experts and students, creating a usability discussion infrastructure and evangelism. While I highly support that, I want to offer immediately actionable methods who can be carried out by everyone – much like a tutorial. The focus is on formative and qualitative testing. Small tests with results based on actual behavior fit best with the fast and distributed development of free software projects. This enables to do quick iterations in design and development while receiving direct feedback on changes. Classic usability testing, observing a person while they use the software, is of course one of the best ways to do assess usability – see 6.10 Watch people use the software. But especially in free software environments lots of other methods are more feasible. The different methods are intended as patterns: Their usefulness depends on the project structure and the person responsible for the testing. They are guidelines and a collection of tips you can apply.