The Tine 2.0 development team announces the availability of a new online user benchmarking survey for the current Milan Release. All users are asked to participate and rate the quality of the current Tine 2.0 version. This feedback is important to direct the future development of Tine 2.0.Results will be presented on this blog. Especially [...]

Today we discuss the results of our survey concerning the usage of the six LibreOffice applications. We also show how usage is related to other variables we talked about in the last posts (see volume 1 and volume 2). Writer is the tool which is used most often, followed by Calc. For us surprisingly infrequently [...]

Today you can learn more about the psychological construct of motifs. We included them as variables in the LO survey similar to the independent variables introduced in our last post. The main results show that motifs security and prestige decline linear with age, asking users for a self-estimation relevance or expertize does not work out, [...]

As Akademy / Desktop Summit was in Berlin this year, I took the chance to participate. I probably wouldn’t if it had been somewhere else – and I have to admit: It was a great decision to take part (and a big mistake not to do so in the years before). A big praise to [...]

In April 2011 we ran a quick survey regarding time tracking in

The relationship of developers and designers is full of misunderstandings. Projects fail, e. g. due to the struggle among different views on the same subject. Communication can be frustrating for both sides. But there is hope. In this article I want to share and discuss factors that facilitate a ‘Designer with Developer’ rather than a [...]

In long discussions with Christoph (who was one of the most active UX people in OpenOffice)

A couple of days ago I visited an expert´s forum concerning Universal Design:

“Universal Design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.” (Ronald L. Mace, 1988)

Thinking about this definition of Universal Design, I have two critical points to make: Who is meant by all people? And why is no need for adaptation a goal at all?

In the first place I regret the fact that the debate was dominated by speeches NOT referring to ALL people at all! Organized by the German Family Ministry it focused on generation fairness rather than the UNIVERSAL aspect of Universal Design.

By far the best contribution at this event was made by Peter Glaser – regarding him as an excellent speaker and a bright mind, I should pay more attention to him in future: He was about the only one there to understand that a UNIVERSAL claim cannot be limited to elderly or disabled people here in Germany or other first world countries – UNIVERSAL needs to imply ALL people on our planet.

If I understand the idea behind Universal Design correctly, I think it is one of the most important ideas around: Do not discriminate against any people anywhere in the world by means of technology, products or services.

But with my personal (free-) software-specific view on design I am puzzled about the rejection of adaptations in the definition by Ronald L. Mace.

I am convinced that the exact opposite is true. To me GOOD Design makes it extremely easy to adapt a product to the special needs of the user(s). This believe is one impulse behind my commitment for free software. The mechanisms of free software encourage people to derive special solutions for their needs on the basis of developed technology standards.

Some examples:

• The GNU Linux kernel is an example for a good software design. Based on it there are heaps of derivatives for special needs.
• The KDE desktop exists in a ‘normal’ and a ‘netbook’ variant – more hopefully to come.
• There are many different variants of a single underlying GNU Linux distribution, e.g. Ubuntu, KUbuntu, Edubuntu, Mythbuntu, etc.
• Kontact as a PIM-suite originally designed for the KDE desktop is being adapted to a mobile use-case in the ‘Kontact Touch’ project.

Do you have any other examples?

To sum it up: I believe free software is a good – if not the best – approach to achieve the noble goal of creating non-discriminating technology for all, or Universal Design. We are on a good path, even though it is still too complicated to actually do the needed adaptions today, especially if you are not a software-developer. We can still do better.

Shouldn`t we always keep that in our minds, when we create free software?

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.

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.

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!

With the new version – Mialena – of Tine 2.0 out, it is time to take a look back at the feedback you provided to us in the past version.

As you know we ask you – our users on the log-in screen to participate in short surveys. They all have one common goal: to assess your impression of the quality of Tine 2.0. So, how do you like Tine 2.0?

The overall impression of Tine 2.0 is good (about 2.4 on a scale from 1 (excellent) to 7 (needs improvements)). The rating of the individual applications varies with addressbook and calendar leading with approximately the same value as the Tine 2.0 overall impression. The other important applications (Tasks, Email, Admin) follow, getting good to above average ratings while still leaving some room for improvements. Only sales, phone and voipmanager get below average ratings.

So, with Mialena we decided to improve the basic concepts in Tine 2.0 further. Most application now have a proper filter- and favorites concept. We hope this will better your impression of most of the applications. We also decided to move the navigation from the Outlook-like-app-pile to a modern Tab-interface. I am curious how you like this! We also spent some love to calender, email and syncing (my N900 now works fine!) – and of course some more which you should not hesitate to find out!

For a lot improvements we did your free comments inspired us a lot. We believe that we managed to fulfill about 50% of the free suggestions you made in Mialena now. So thanks for that input and keep on going like this. It really hepls us a lot to get even better!

We also asked you a couple of other questions about your context of use (mainly business, but also for other private purposes, managing between 1 and 800 users) and the necessity for a handbook (about 40% would like one) or seminars (about 25% would like one). Even though we need to get better in documentation on our wiki and other resources (so you told us!), most of the users are quite satisfied with the documentation and help they can already get.

So, please check out Mialena and continue to participate in our surveys – and in any other way you like. We desperately seeking for designer wanting to contribute to the look and feel (esp. icons need to be done), volunteers working on documentation and in the forum – or how would you like to participate in the Tine 2.0 development?