[TYPO3-hci] Open Source usability sucks?

[Kasper Skårhøj]

> By obligation, devotion and empathy.

These are all fine noble principles which are great spices to our  
culture but all fails when times get tough.

I'm looking for a solution in tough times.

First, lets consider what the base motivations for producing  
improvements to TYPO3 is:
- Personal itch; yes, people write an extension or core patches  
because they need it themselves or their clients.
- Acknowledgement; yes, people may feel motivated by praise, status  
in the community, but its volatile because more wants more and you  
get used to it.
- Moral obligation; yes, but only a few buy that deeply. And I'm  
beginning to think its a very bad motivation because it leads  
directly into burn-outs and disillusions.
- Social; yes, others itches can become yours in a strong social  
relationship. While this may drive us at the snowboard tour, it  
degrades heavily when we are back home in our offices, away from each  
other.

How can these be leveraged for usability:
- Personal itch: I believe this is the strongest motivation at all.  
However, for the average single contributer it will not work because  
he doesn't care for an enduser. However, _agencies_ ought to have a  
personal itch where it hurts for their clients! I believe the  
strongest incentive to improve usability would be with agencies,  
trying to pitch against other, more usable systems.
- Acknowledgement; as long as our community doesn't include the  
voices of end-users, there is no acknowledgement to gain from  
improving usability.
- Moral obligation; I would be surprised...
- Social; I think, in a constellation where a developer meets and end  
user on a friendly basis, and looks over their shoulder at how they  
struggle, then they will often feel a great urge to solve usability  
issues to relieve their pain. The key is, that the developer sees the  
problems right in front of him, not through some dumb report he can  
choose not to believe. He will feel motivated to solve the problem  
because a) he is rewarded by seeing the joy of an end user getting by  
much better and/or b) he hates to live with the knowledge that his  
software is not the right tool for everyone (which he thought to that  
date and defended eagerly when questioned).


So, this is my 2c:
- Agencies have the strongest direct motivation to solve usability  
issues for their own sake.
- Developer meets Enduser face-to-face and wants to help the poor,  
struggling fellow man.


- kasper