So, a combination of seeing Ross’s GUADEC call for papers, and reading the Ask Doctor Usability column in the latest edition of the ACM’s Interactions magazine that flopped through my door the other day, sparked a thought.
Would there be any interest in a GUADEC session where people could bring along applications they were working on, and have a quick on-the-spot expert review by some usability folks? (Or ask for advice generally, but reviewing something tangible might be more productive in a limited amount of time, and more interesting if anyone was voyeuristic enough to come and watch.)
I’m not saying I’d be the best person to run such a thing mind you– I’m terrible at giving instant opinions, I much prefer to go away and think about things for a few days 🙂
Calum, I’d be very interested in having you looking over AbiWord. It’s not strictly a gnome app though and I’m not sure I’ll be attending guadec.
Rob
AbiWord Dev
Yes! Please propose that. If you can get a few of the common usability dudes to come along, that would be a great workshop.
I hear that the magic word to get your paper accepted at this GUADEC is “user experience”. In fact, I recommend writing nothing but that on your abstract.
I think this is a great idea. Provided of course that the doctor wears one of those circle things on their forehead and has a stethoscope.
@Rob: I’ll see what I can do… would be too big a task to undertake in this sort of session anyway, so I wouldn’t worry about not making it. (I guess the goal for the session would be to look at bits of UI that could be “improved” with a quick 10-15 min makeover… and even that sounds like a tall order!)