[Sugar-devel] Call for testing

[Tomeu Vizoso]

On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 23:05, Simon Schampijer <simon at schampijer.de> wrote:
>>>> On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 15:36, Christian Marc Schmidt
>>>> <christianmarc at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>>>> 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?
>
> Thanks Christian for putting this on the table. Of course, a
> qualitative study would help to get some data about the new design and
> we should setup a process to get that feedback. As you mentioned some of
> the designs probably do not need that much of a study.
>
> Today I thought about how we can achieve a full Feature cycle. We have
> several parts settled but they are not all linked together yet and some
> are missing.
>
> We have the Feature Policy, which main goal is to make systematic and
> predictable the process by which community ideas on how Sugar should
> evolve get transformed into actionable proposals. The Feature process
> includes the task of the submitter to get feedback of the design team
> (if the Feature adds UI or changes current UI). What we have not defined
> is what we do with the design teams feedback. We should give the
> submitter a way to comment on that design and in cases like the Home
> View changes we probably should get feedback in form of a study. Of
> course we need the developers as well to create testable 'ideas'. And
> who has the final word?
>
> I will think about it a bit more and ideas are of course welcome. It is
> not an easy task as it needs cross-team communication and cross-team
> working. Already with the work we did yesterday we made a big step
> forward into that direction and I am very happy about that.

I also feel we are on the right track discussing this issue. A similar
one is getting a notion of the value that the feature brings from
deployments.

Regards,

Tomeu

> Thanks,
>    Simon
>
> [1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Policy
>
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