[TYPO3-hci] Open Source usability sucks?

[Troels Kjær Rasmussen]

By obligation, devotion and empathy.

The finest hour of TYPO3 was when other users (developers) than Kasper 
with devotion adopted the system and took it from 1 of 1000´s announced 
OSS to actual active top 10 oss.

Obligation should be felt by the many companies who now thrive from the 
devoted free work of Kasper and many others. This obligation should 
result in not only funding but also feedback from the many customers 
(small as corperate) who use and sometime wonders about TYPO3.

Empathy is essential for for the developer. The ability of a highly 
skilled developer to put himself into the shoes of an enduser is an 
ability, which doesn´t always come naturally) but can be learned the 
hard way by dialogue with the endusers and reallife experience with 
enduser scenarios.

So my 0.05c answer to the 1.000.000$ question by Kasper...

As a developer you should force yourself to step into the shoes of an 
enduser and get to know him and his concerns. This will create 
obligation, devotion and empathy from both sides of the table based on 
personal interaction.

This is how the developer when developing frontline and groundbreaking 
technology (such as Kaspers workspaces) suddenly will feel a small itch 
on his back reminding him of his best friend - the end user.

NB And as a part of a copenhagen based TYPO3 firm, I feel it is my 
obligation (and pleasure) to invite any developers to be a fly on the 
wall if they feel the need to meet the endusers and maybe even interview 
them on one of our TYPO3 trainingsessions.

With obligation, devotion and empathy...

regards

Troels Kjær Rasmussen, Linkfactory.

> So, the 1.000.000$ question: How can you make a developer care for 
> another persons itch?
> 
> - kasper