An Analysis of Involvement of HCI Experts in Distributed Software Development: Practical Issues

Non-response, Social Exclusion, and False Acceptance: Gatekeeping Tactics and Usability Work in Free-Libre Open Source Software Development

“…HCI research has already addressed the FLOSS development context and HCI researchers have already argued that usability specialists should participate in FLOSS projects [7,9,10,29,30,31,32,33]. Different kinds of usability methods have been suggested for FLOSS development.…”

“…Nevertheless, researchers have also revealed that problems might arise when co mbining the traditional usability methods and recommendations with the FLOSS development and philosophy [8,9,10,31,33,35,36]. Reluctance to heavyweight corporate usability processes might arise in FLOSS development; i.e., decentralized and eng ineering-driven FLOSS development might be in contrast with heavyweight corporate usability processes [8,9,31,33,35].…”

“…[5,6]) and in FLOSS development (e.g. [7,8,9,10,11,12]. Hence, it is evident that power and politics play a role as regards usability work also in FLOSS projects; not all members get equal treatment in FLOSS projects, and usability specialists are often among the 'power-weak' in this respect [11,12].…”

Usability bugs in open-source software and online forums

“…Çetin et al [5] identify users, customers and developers as the major groups involved in OSS bug reporting. In their empirical study for measuring the success of OSS projects, Lee et al [9] also recognize the influence of software quality and user satisfaction over OSS use.…”

“…Nichols and Twidale [4] observe a partiality in treating usability bugs as compared to functionality bugs. Çetin et al [5] consider effective feedback from end users as one of the ways to improve OSS usability. They suggest that effective feedback can be attained by providing users with a convenient way to report the software errors that they come across.…”