On LinuxTag 2008 in Berlin the OpenSource Usability Labs were invited by the Tine 2.0 project. So I was at their booth a fair bit of the time, discussing the concepts, screens and ideas we have. The feedback was great - a lot of people encouraged us in our work. The main feedback was: there is no easy-to-use OpenSource groupware-solution for small and medium-sized enterprises around but there is definitely a need for one! So hey-ho - let’s go, Tine!
We demonstrated what we call a technology preview. This preview reveals some of the basic functionality and some of our interaction-concepts. The visitors were impressed by the ease of interaction made possible by newest Web 2.0 technology. But make up your own mind and try out what we have achieved so far.
Additionally we made a web-based icon-understandability test on the booth. So visitors could help us to understand what icons are already well understood - and which icons still need to be improved. This way visitors had the possibility to directly influence the usability of Tine 2.0. We will provide this facility for all of you, who could not attend LinuxTag on the Tine-Website soon. Tools like this are extremely important for achieving the certification as being developed according to ISO 13407.
Next to Tine I promoted the idea of the OpenSource Usability Labs. There were quite a few commercial OpenSource Projects around on LinuxTag. I talked to a lot of people about our ideas of professional OpenSource Usability, our philosophy and our business models - and most of them found the ideas very interesting.
I really enjoyed LinuxTag and already look forward to next year’s edition! Thanks to all the guys making this possible. We should not forget that this event is mainly the result of , oluntary work.
