On Tuesday 22 February 2011 14:40:45 Matthias Kirschner wrote:
for an interview I was asked if Free Software is less useable than non-free software. Do you have any good studies which I can include in the reply?
As I recall, Novell did extensive usability testing a few years ago and the results were widely reported and in the favour of FS DEs.
AFAIK Gnome and KDE haven't done extensive scientific usability studies for current versions. Perhaps the Gnome accessibility team have some data that you could use?
KDE used to do regular polling and testing of new icons using an online system, but that is very specific and probably not useful.
Also, GIMP has (or had) an excellent usability expert working on the new interface, and he did much blogging on the redesign (yet to be launched). That guy may also have done research for other FS projects.
Thanks,
Sam.