The document discusses how open source projects are increasingly adopting user-centered design approaches. It provides Gallery, an open source photo gallery application, as an example. Gallery initially focused on technical requirements but later shifted to user research and usability testing to improve the user experience. Other open source projects are also incorporating user experience design through crowd-sourced efforts. The document encourages open source contributors, user experience designers, and users to consider ways to advance user-centered practices in open source development.

1. “Hey open source,
don’t forget the user!”
User-centered design takes hold in open source web applications
Chad Kieffer, Gallery Project
ckieffer@gmail.com
www.2tbsp.com
@ckieffer
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2. Open source software powers a lot of the web
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3. Open source web publishing systems
• Powers blogs, social networks,
online communities, wikis
• Primarily by individuals,
universities, gov’t agencies, and
NGOs
• Attempting to make web
publishing as easy as traditional
word processing or desktop
publishing
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4. What is Gallery?
• Open source PHP-based web application started
by Bharat Mediratta in 2000
• You manage your photos and your site’s look and
feel instead of Flickr, Photobucket, Kodak, etc.
• Installed on hundreds of thousands web sites to date
• Project site: http://gallery.menalto.com
• More on Gallery in about 1 minute and 45 seconds
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5. Open source from the developer’s perspective
public function thumb_tag($extra_attrs=array(), $max=null, $micro_thumb=false) {
list ($height, $width) = $this->_adjust_thumb_size($max);
if ($micro_thumb && $max) { // I’ve always wanted to build something like this
// The constant is divide by 2 to calculate the file and 10 to convert to em
$margin_top = ($max - $height) / 20; // This will look great on my resumé
$extra_attrs[quot;stylequot;] = quot;margin-top: {$margin_top}emquot;;
$extra_attrs[quot;titlequot;] = $this->title;
}
// This is so much more fun than my day job
$attrs = array_merge($extra_attrs,
array(
quot;srcquot; => $this->thumb_url(),
quot;altquot; => $this->title,
quot;widthquot; => $width,
quot;heightquot; => $height)
); // <geekcred> I love to write code and make cool stuff! </geekcred>
// html::image forces an absolute url which we don't want
return quot;<imgquot; . html::attributes($attrs) . quot;/>quot;;
}
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6. Different perspectives
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7. Different perspectives
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8. What is
user-centered
design?
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9. User-centered
design
processes
and
disciplines
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10. Increasingly sophisticated tools and techniques
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11. But at its heart, it’s still design
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12. Yeah, so why should I care?
Seeing users consistently fail at what we
consider to be basic tasks is a true eye
opener. Let's be clear about this: this is
Drupal's fault, not the users' fault. The good
news is that we came out of this with a long
list of usability problems that we can fix.
—Dries Buytaert
on Drupal usability test results conducted by the University of Minnesota
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13. Gallery’s evolution
• 2000-2004
Gallery 1 - Developers learn their tools and basic engineering requirements
• 2005-2008
Gallery 2 - Engineering refined, some UI improvements, lots of new features
• October 2008
Gallery 3 - Return focus to core features, institute user-centered design
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14. Getting to know you—Gallery user personas
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15. Evolution of the installer
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16. Evolution of the installer
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17. Evolution of the installer
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18. Evolution of the installer
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19. Simplification and context are key
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20. Simplification and context are key
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21. Consolidation of methods and workflow
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22. Consolidation of methods and workflow
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23. Consolidation of similar features
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24. Consolidation of similar features
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25. Don’t you mean “organize”?
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26. Don’t you mean “organize”?
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27. Crowd sourced user experience design
Drupal 7 User Experience Project: http://www.d7ux.org/
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28. Crowd sourced user experience design
Drupal 7 User Experience Project: http://www.d7ux.org/
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29. Crowd sourced user experience design
Drupal 7 User Experience Project: http://www.d7ux.org/
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30. Parting thoughts
• Open Source Software Contributors
Do what you have to meet the technical challenges, but not at the expense of
the user. Look to incorporate or improve user-centered design techniques and
processes in your project.
• User Experience Designers
Consider contributing your expertise to an open source project. Developer
attitudes towards designers have changed significantly in recent years.
• Everyone
Next time you’re looking for software, do a Google search for open source
alternatives before purchasing commercial software.
You may be pleasantly surprised.
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