[Sugar-devel] Call for testing

[Christian Marc Schmidt]

Hi Sugar Design Group:


I enjoyed the meeting yesterday, and think we ended up making several good
decisions. However, regarding the Home view, I am now beginning to wonder if
we are doing the right thing by hastily changing the design without
conducting a proper qualitative study.

I am only questioning it because I feel that, with every major design
change, it would be best if we had real evidence, beyond just the anecdotal.
Ideally, I envision the design team being a part of these observations, and
systematically testing design decisions in the field with a number of
participants. It need not be more than say a sampling of 20-30 students of
various age-groups, but the insight from these observations could really
drive us to make more informed design decisions, based on more than just our
opinions (which, as we saw yesterday, tends to lead to compromise).

So, I personally think that we are at a point where we should try and
arrange for some user-testing for the design group, however we facilitate
it, before proceeding with any revisions to the existing design (though I
wouldn't want that to hold us back from adding any additional features like
the thumbnail view, that continue to build out the UI to match the original
design intent). I have a little experience putting together qualitative test
protocols, and while I'm not sure exactly how to facilitate these testing
sessions, I think some of you may have ideas.

What do you think? Should we use our meeting next Saturday to discuss our
options for testing?


Christian

-- 
anything at christianmarcschmidt.com
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