We are happy to announce that the remaining student positions have been filled and the Season of Usability 2008 is fully kicked off:

Improving HDR imaging with Qtpfsgui

Student intern:
Vladimir Smida, student of computer graphics

Mentors:
Roman Bednarik, usability mentor
Giuseppe Rota, technical mentor
Alexandre Prokoudine, technical mentor

Vladimir will optimise workflows and improve the usability of different tools in Qtpfsgui, a HDR imaging application.

Improve Jeliot User Interface and Workflows

Student intern:
Sharad Baliyan, student of interaction design

Mentors:
Roman Bednarik, usability mentor
Andras Moreno, technical mentor
Niko Myller, technical mentor

Sharad will perform a user interface redesign and analyse cross cultural issues in Jeliot, a Java Program Visualisation application. It is used by teachers and students of computer science to Jeliot visualise how a Java program is executed and interpreted step-by-step.

Four weeks after the Call for Students has been finished, most of the Season of Usability mentors have selected their student intern. We proudly present the team setup for the Season of Usability 2008.

With a total of 130 applications, selecting a student was not an easy process for our mentors - and a clear indication for us that we need to provide more projects next year! We are sorry for all the excellent students who were not accepted this time, and want to encourage you to apply again in 2009.

2008 Team Setup

Redesigning DrProject’s Administration Interface

Student intern:
Liz Blankenship, student of Science in Information.

Liz is going to redesign the web-based administration interface for DrProject. As a first step, the team is currently setting up a test environment for Liz and Paula, the usability mentor.

Redesigning Gallery’s Image Upload Tool

Student intern:
Jakob Hilden, student of Communication and Media Science.

As a first step, Jakob will conduct an expert benchmark analysis of 3 upload interfaces like Flickr and Facebook, and compare them to Gallery’s upload options. Then, he will create and test an improved interaction design for Gallery’s image upload.

Human Interface Guidelines and Design Patterns for KDE4

Student interns:
Becca Scollan, student of Science in Information.
Thomas Pfeiffer, student of Psychology.

Becca and Thomas will complete the KDE Human Interface Guidelines and define interaction paradigms for the most common design patterns used in KDE. As a first step, they are setting up a KDE4 environment on their computers and make themselves familiar with KDE4.

Toolbox and Palette Interaction for KOffice

Student intern:
Neha Pahwa, student of Information Technology.

Neha will analyse the interaction paradigm of four core applications of the KOffice suite, KWord, KPresenter,the image manipulation application Krita, and the vector graphics application Karbon. As a first step, Neha will interview the developers to identify the major project goals and target users.

3d Widgets for MakeHuman

Student intern:
Eugenio Passacantilli, student of Science in Communications

Eugenio will perform a usability study of MakeHuman’s 3-d interaction elements that have recently been added. MakeHuman is a 3d modelling software.

Handheld-Mode Interface for the OLPC XO Laptops

Student intern:
Alessandro Vona, student of Science in Communications

As a first step, Alessandro will analyse various handheld devices and their input methods to gain an understanding of some potential challenges as well as some potential solutions. The final goal is to produce specifications for handheld interactions for the OLPC desktop.

Instant Messaging and VoIP with SIP Communicator

Student intern:
Mike Oren, PhD student of Philosophy

Mike will spend the next months working on SIP-Communicator’s usability. He will focus on integrating multi-protocol features into a unified UI. As this is a major issue with various multi-protocol IM applications, his work will probably apply to other IM apps like Kopete or Pidgin, too.

Qtpfsgui and TV Browser are still in selection process. We will provide an update as soon as they are finished.

We thank all students who applied for the Season of Usability 2008. The usability mentors will come back to you during the next days.

Student selection will be finished on May 15 - stay tuned!

Three days left to apply for this year’s Season of Usability!

Have a look at the project openings and send us your application till April, 14.

We are proud to announce the Season of Usability 2008, a series of projects for students of usability, user interface design, interaction design and related.

We accept 10 students for design tasks, user research and UI analysis. The openings represent a wide range of applications, such as instant messaging, office suites, web applications and the One Laptop Per Child desktop.

Full list: Season of Usability - Project Openings 2008

Students of usability, user interface design, interaction design or related are encouraged to apply until April, 14.

Project work will start in May. During a three-month cooperation, you will closely work together with experienced professionals and get insights in to their way of work. An involvement of 15 hours per week is expected.

Depending on your location, you will be invited to a meeting with the development and usability team. Otherwise the collaboration will take place via the established channels of OSS development - email, IRC, VoIP, and etc.

Students receive a stipend of $1000USD, kindly sponsored by Google Inc., the Open Society Institute and Trolltech ASA.

Project Opening 1: Redesigning DrProject’s Administration Interface
Project Opening 2: Redesigning Gallery’s Image Upload Tools
Project Opening 3: Human Interface Guidelines and Design Patterns for KDE4
Project Opening 4: Toolbox and Palette Interaction for KOffice
Project Opening 5: 3d Widgets for MakeHuman
Project Opening 6: Handheld-Mode Interface for the OLPC XO Laptops
Project Opening 7: Improving HDR imaging with Qtpfsgui
Project Opening 8: Instant Messaging and VoIP with SIP Communicator
Project Opening 9: Supporting TV Viewers with TV-Browser

Update March 31: Unfortunately, the Pidgin student project was called back. As an alternative, the usability mentor now offers HDR imaging with Qtpfsgui. We are sorry for the inconvenience and encourage you to apply for this or one of the alternative projects!

The Call for Projects has been closed.

We want to thank all FLOSS projects that applied. The usability mentors will get in touch with you.

The Season of Usability 2008 Project Openings will be published in March. Stay tuned!

The next Drupalcon, the twice-yearly gathering of the content management platform Drupal, will take place in Boston from March 3, 2008 to March 6, 2008.

A wide variety of usability issues will be discussed in the Design and User Experience Track. Major goals of the track are to attract more designers and improve Drupal’s visual design.

Session propsals are still open and comprise graphic design, theming, usability and interaction design, site planning and information architecture. Some of them are organised by our Season of Usability student, Bevan Rudge.

Season of Usability is a series of sponsored student projects to encourage students of usability, user-interface design, and interaction design to get involved with Free/Libre/Open-Source Software (FLOSS). During a 3 to 6 month collaboration, students work together with an experienced usability mentor and key developers of the project to improve the user experience of a FLOSS application. The next Season of Usability with 8 student projects will start in Spring 2008.

FLOSS Projects who would like to benefit from a usability student are encouraged to fill in our Call for Projects:

>> Season of Usability 2008 - Call for Projects (available till February 20th)

How does Season of Usability work?

After the Call for Projects is finished (February 20th), the usability mentors will get back to the FLOSS projects and start the selection process. Each mentor will decide for one project - based on the need for usability and the availability of a technical mentor in the project, and if a good task can be defined. Examples of successful Season of Usability tasks can be found on the Season of Usability website.

The selected projects are published and students start to apply for them. Together with the technical mentor, a student is selected. In a kickoff meeting, the task scope is further defined and a road map is developed. Then, the actual project work begins (also see the time frame below).

How can I register a project?

We prepared a short questionnaire to register a project. We ask a few questions

- about the project,
- about the acceptance of usability among project members,
- about the availability of developer resources
- and lastly, we’ll ask for possible student project tasks.

>> Season of Usability 2008 - Call for Projects (available till February 20th)

People who register projects should know a project well enough to name a key developer who is willing to function as a technical mentor in the Season of Usability.

What’s the timeframe for Season of Usability 2008?

Call for Project Participation
February 2008
A call for participation is published via OpenUsability and other FLOSS-related media.

Project Selection
End of 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
March 2008
The student project openings are published and students start to apply for specific projects.

Student Selection
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
May - August
The actual scope of the task is defined and the project work starts.

Riddhima J. Shelat has been selected for the Open Printing student project announced in December (>> project opening).

From February 1st Riddhima will work for at least 3 months, 15 hours a week as an associate interaction architect on this project. Lead architect and mentor on the project is Peter Sikking, principal interaction architect at m+mi works.

The progress of the student project can be followed in Peter Sikking’s blog:

“openPrinting” in Peter Sikking’s blog

We want to thank all students who applied for this project and encourage you to participate in the next round of student projects that will be announced in March.

Apart from Open Printing, a second “off-the-season” Season of Usability project has formed up:

Bevan Rudge, a student of computer science at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, is going to support the developers of the content management platform Drupal usability-wise. His major focus will be user interface improvements for the Drupal core, for item management and local navigation.

This Season of Usability project was initiated on Bevan’s own initiative. As an active Drupal contributor he realised that getting usability into the core is important, but he was lacking practical experience. By participating in a mentored usability project, he now gets an opportunity to enhance his skills, and to give them back to the community: Bevan plans to develop a usability guide and design patterns for the developers.

From Bevan’s project proposal:

“How can something like this be made more useful and usable by developers of both drupal core and contrib? I would like to see usability start at drupal’s roots, rather than being left for an after-thought. (This too-often results in interfaces that are harder to fix than they would have been to get right the first time).”

Usability-wise, Bevan will be mentored by Zoey Kroll and Ron Akanowicz, information architects at CivicActions.

Károly Négyesi (aka chx), a Drupal core developer, will be the technical mentor and implement Bevan’s UI suggestion.

The progress of the project can be followed in the SoU Drupal Group.

We want to thank CivicActions who co-sponsor this student project.

Background

FLOSS Project

Drupal is one of the most widely used open source content management platforms.

Student

Bevan Rudge is a student a student of computer science at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has special interest in usability and is a contributor to the
drupal content management platform where he is involved in the usability group and theming group.

Technical Mentor

Károly Négyesi (aka chx) is a core developer of Drupal. He has probably written more code in drupal than any any other single developer.

Usability Mentors

Zoey Kroll and Ron Akanowicz are information
architects at CivicActions. They work on designing the User Experience and Information Architecture of CivicAction’s client’s sites.

Sponsors

Mentoring Organisation