We are looking for practitioners of usability, user-interface design, interaction design and related to take over a Season of Usability Mentorship.

Job Description

A Season of Usability project usually takes 3 months. The goal is to get students of usability, user-interface design or interaction design involved with FLOSS applications to improve their usability.

Each student is supervised by two mentors - a usability and a technical mentor. While the technical mentor represents the FLOSS project and makes sure that the direction of the usability input meets the project goals, the usability mentor coaches the student usability-wise.

Apart from methodological and creative advice, this includes a mediating role: On the one side, the student needs to be supported to better understand the project goals. On the other side, the technical mentor needs to gain an understanding of the usability process.

Over all, the goal of your work is to make sure that the student’s suggestions will actually be implemented.

Involvement

Weekly meetings with the student and at least monthly meetings with the technical mentor are suggested. As most teams are locally distributed, those meetings will happen virtually.

Student projects typically take 3 months. A weekly involvement of 2-3 hours is expected.

Project selection

Usability mentors are free to suggest and mentor their own FLOSS project or can pick a project from the Call for Project Participation.

Usability mentors who participated in the FLOSS Usability Sprints can continue the work they started during the sprint in a mentoring role.

Your Benefits

Showcases. As it is FLOSS, the products of your mentoring work are open source as well. You are free to use them as public show cases.

Publication. Your work will be presented as a success story at the Season of Usability website.

Publicity. Your company will be presented as a Season of Usability mentoring organisation.

Job Requirements

Usability practitioners. You should have a minimum of one or two years of work experience.

University members. You should have an advanced university degree (preferably PhD).

Your Application

Send your application to mentors at openusability.org

Please include a few paragraphs about your work experience, why you would like to mentor a student project and if you would like to be involved with a certain FLOSS project.

The application period for Season of Usability 2008 ends in January.

Further Information: Procedure

Call for Project Participation

appr. January 2008

A call for participation is published via OpenUsability and other FLOSS-related media.

Project Selection

appr. February 2008

Usability mentors get in touch with projects they are interested in - they either bring their own one or pick one from the CfP. Possible topics for student projects are discussed, and the usability mentors finally decide for a project.

Student Application Phase

appr. March 2008

The student project openings are published and students start to apply for specific projects.

Student Selection

appr. April 2008

Usability mentors get in touch with the students who applied. After several cycles of job interviews, the mentors decide for a student.

Project Work

appr. May - August

The actual scope of the task is defined and the project work starts.