OpenSource Usability Labs

We just have published a new version for Kontact Mobile on Maemo. I would like to encourage you to tell us how you like it.

Why should you try Kontact Mobile and give feedback?
Kontact Mobile is doing really well. It is a promising product, feature rich, free software, KDE and it is here to stay. But the current project of porting Kontact to the mobile world is – what it looks like now – only supported till the end of this year. So we really need your feedback now.  Next year we will not have the same power as now to let your wishes go into the project. So, please try it right away, spread the word and do not forget to

take part in our survey!

Let us K(DE)onquer the mobile world.

Kontact Mobile is a free email and PIM client (calender, tasks, addresses, notes – also suitable as groupware front-end, e.g. for a Kolab server) for mobile phones. Using Qt allows us to have this software running on different platforms.

On the base of your tremendous feedback in the past we have worked hard on improving Kontact mobile even further.  At the moment Kontact Mobile is running well on Maemo – and Windows Mobile 6.5 is next on our list.

Feel free, test it and provide feedback!

Interested?

1. Download Kontact Mobile: Maemo (Nokia N900); Windows Mobile 6.5 (e.g. HTC Touch Pro 2)
2. Read our instructions and start testing
3. Give feedback until the 5th of November 2010 (anonymous – no registration needed)

This testing period will run for one week (ending Friday the 5th of November).

On the current state of Kontact Mobile for Maemo 5:

We have a solid beta version. Everything should be working, we are perhaps still a bit slow (working on that). And we really want to know how you feel about it!

On the current state of Kontact Mobile for Windows Mobile 6.5:

We have only been testing on HTC Touch Pro 2, but it should be working on other Windows Mobile 6.5 phones as well. Everything seems to be running – although it can be slow, so please be patient. We also know of occasional crashes – but without loosing data or doing greater harm than having to restart the device. If you encounter bugs, please report them. We will try to provide a newer and better version as soon as possible. We will announce availability of new packages here.

More info on the project:

The foundation of this project is the Kontact PIM suite. Kontact is an excellent team player with the Kolab Groupware server and has been developed within the KDE project. It has proven stability and reliability for years. We are now porting this suite to a couple of mobile platforms. The project is free software. So we invite you to give us your opinion on the state we have reached in order to make this piece of free software even better. If you like to get up-to-date information, please join our mailinglist.

Thanks a lot for your contribution!

Kontact Mobile is developing very fast at the moment! Now we are happy to have reached the next beta-version that we really would like you to give us feedback on.

I would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to all of you that volunteered in our last diary survey. Your feedback was very valuable – keep the spirit up!

What do we have at the moment?

• Kontact Mobile is running on Maemo on the N900. Soon there will also be a version for HTC Touch Pro 2.
• It provides email, calendar, ToDos, addresses and notes. You can sync with a Kolab-Server and handle imap resources.
• The application is technically stable (it relies on most parts on the code for the desktop, so it should be save to use it with real data – I do it too).
• Most basic navigational issues from last test have improved a lot and we added lots of functionality to all of the applications (not-yet-implemented functionality is marked red)
• On the downside: The application is still pretty slow, esp. during initialisation. Please be patient. Also there are some configuration dialogues that are still pretty ugly (if you find one, please report it to bugs.kde.org) and last but not least we are still missing mass-actions (e.g. move several mails). We are aware of this and promise to improve this further!

How can you help us?

• Install the current unstable version to your N900 (find instructions on kontact-mobile userbase page)
• Use it and take some note on what is good and what is not sooo good:)
• Report technical bugs you find to bugs.kde.org – please ensure that you use the *-mobile products to file the bugs, so we can find and fix them
• Report your experiences to our short survey – in there we will ask you about tasks you wanted to do, that went really good, ok, and where you failed (no diary this time!).

For discussion and support we have set up two mailing lists. For the more technical issues please join the Kontact Mobile list and for issues concerning the actual use, please join the Kontact Mobile Users list.

If you own a N900 phone and have tested or want to test Kontact Mobile it would be great if you participate in our current user survey- a diary.

Kontact Mobile has been under heavy development for the last weeks and however it is still at an early stage we encourage everybody to contribute and to become part of the process!

You can find all information concerning the testing in this mail:
http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-mobile-users/2010-August/000027.html

You will do real pioneer work with reporting what you liked and didn’t like as well as your ideas on usability and interaction design. This will help the developer team to create a great user experience for Kontact Mobile in future. Help us to shape this great product!

We are very happy to work together with KDAB, Intevation and G10Code on a project to make Kontact available on mobile phones.  This is great as there is no really good mobile mail client around and as it is important for free software to offer such a crucial part of the mobile software infrastructure…

As always it is our task to make sure that the product in the end will be stunning and usable and as always we need your help to get there!

Now we are looking for people that are intersted in building up a testing and feedback community for this project. This community will be integrated into the further development and will help us by this to make the mobile version of Kontact rock!

It would be helpful if you own a N900, because there will be packages for this device available really soon – but there is no need to have one. We also look for people that will give us feedback on their personal needs and wants concerning the mobile use of a PIM suit.

What can you do next?

• Subscribe to our mailing list
• Visit Linuxtag in Berlin and take a look at what we got so far at the booth of the BSI (Halle 7.2b, Stand 215) or visit our small get-together on friday morning.

I will be around at Linuxtag as well – and will be happy to meet you!