Work on improving the usability of SIP Communicator is being done in the context of OpenUsability’s Season of Usability by Mike Oren. The OpenUsability mentor that will be helping Mike is Raphael Wimmer.

June 21: Report on multi-protocol IM clients PDF of report in terms of the GUI, how they handle multiple protocols (e.g. selection of appropriate protocol), and the places where those topics intersect (focusing on the following clients): -Trillian -Pidgin/GAIM -Miranda -Gizmo (more due to its focus on SIP) -Adium -Kopete -SIP Communicator -Possibly OpenWengo and SIM as well (if time allows)

June 21-30: analyze and discuss/define key components of multi-protocol interfaces Chat Transcript

July 2: Table of features of the protocols that SIP communicator supports (e.g. voice chat, video chat, IM, status message, buzzing, etc) Wikipedia list of client features

July 1-7: create a survey to be pushed out to the community (and elsewhere) to define the priority of multi-protocol and GUI features Survey Chat Transcript

July 7-20: roll out and collect survey responses to prioritize features from a user standpoint Raw Survey Summary; Raw Survey Results--spreadsheet; Analysis and Recommendations Report PDF version of report

July 20-Aug. 10: Plan and conduct a user study to evaluate the features and functionality that users have prioritized (e.g. have users try common features on different clients and ranking which client handles the features best along with reasons why that client did the superior job)

Aug 11-15: Compile and analyze study results

Aug, 15-31: Write report, present results

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Work on improving the usability of SIP Communicator is being done in the context of OpenUsability’s Season of Usability by Fabiana Meira Pires. The OpenUsability mentor that will be helping Fabiana is Jan Muehlig.

Usability Project Plan Phase: Actors Identification - Personas Definition

• 1. Introduction to Personas
• 2. Resources

  • Research on Instant Messaging Users.
  • Executive Summary, VoIP Report 3rd Edition
  • VoIP Ranking by Subscriber: Q3 2006
  • IT Facts - VoIP

USABILITY PROJECT PLAN

1. Assessment

• Brainstorm with project leaders [OK]
• Actors Identification (Target Users) [OK]
  • Current Users
  • Expected Users
• Scenarios Identification [OK]
  • Current usage scenarios
  • Intended usage scenarios
• System Features Identification [Current]
  • Current Features: Main and extra features. Define priorities.
  • Future Features(Roadmap)
• Problem Identification
  • Known Bugs
• Agreement
  
  

2. Analysis

• Defining main use cases
• Cognitive Walkthrough for use cases
• Interface
  • Design Standards
  • Usage Ease
• System Feedback
• Report
  
  

3. Testing (Optional)

• Task based
• Thinking aloud
• 8-12 participants
• Report
  
  

4. Optimization

• Best practices
• Smoothing of use cases
• Report