Usability and Open Source Software

Scientific Research 3

Usability and Open Source Software
David M. Nichols and Michael B. Twidale*
Department of Computer Science
University of Waikato, Hamilton New Zealand

Summary
The study reviews the existing evidence of the usability of open source software and discusses how the characteristics of open-source development influence usability. It describes how existing human computer interaction techniques can be used to leverage distributed networked communities of developers and users to address issues of usability.

Evaluation
When I was half way reading this paper, I was thinking that the development of open-source software overlooked the importance of good usability. But when I was done reading, it made me conclude that open source community was just increasing its awareness of the usability issues. Improvements in the usability of open source software do not necessarily mean that such software will displace proprietary software from the desktop. Improved usability is a necessary condition for such a spread of factors involved.

References
http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/nicholstwidale1.pdf