Colin Clark, Fluid Project Technical Lead, Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto Bridging the Gap: Design & Development in Sakai

What is User Experience? User Experience (acronym: UX) –Usability: is it easy to use? –Accessibility: can everyone use it? –Design: is it clear, well laid out, and pleasing to look at? –Meets the needs of users: it it actually useful? –Simplicity: can users find what they need? –“User delight:” do users want to use it?

Welcome! Combined U-Camp/Programmers Café Session: –An unprecedented event in the Sakai community! –Opportunity to cut across disciplines –Real, useful take-home techniques to improve UX Setting expectations: –This is a first step. We’ve got a lot more ideas for activities and workshops at upcoming conferences Thanks to Aaron, Harriet, Daphne, and Antranig for making this happen.

Summary of Topics Non-Designer’s Design Checklist What is easy and hard to develop in Sakai? Questions & Conversation

Bridging the Gap The dreaded HTML debate: “Isn’t it a designer’s job to code HTML and CSS?” “Isn’t it a developer’s job to code HTML and CSS?”

Skills for Successful Software An ability to understand user needs, observe users in context, perform usability studies, and drive requirements A firm understanding of UI conventions and patterns A sense of effective visual design, layout, and style Knowledge of how to make software accessible for people with disabilities The ability to build user interface designs in HTML & CSS A strong understanding of the Web’s architecture An understanding of presentation frameworks in Java The ability to write secure and fast service APIs An understanding of database design and relational theory

A Stupid Bet I bet €500 that we can’t find anyone in this room who can do all of this work simultaneously!

So What? Open source software is all about collaboration Successful Web software is built by a group of people with different skills who can work together effectively Our challenge for Sakai: –Find new ways for designers and developers to collaborate –Identify skill gaps and address them by offering training and identifying skilled contributors –Make incremental improvements without losing sight of the big picture: what do we want Sakai to be?

Harsh Realities Any managers in the room? Listen up! Our community is busy: –Designers are overworked –Developers are overworked It’s hard to find the time to address UX problems outside of our tool silos and local priorities There is no they, just us! Sakai has very little central funding Donate some time and resources to helping out with the big picture for Sakai

How You Can Help Everyone can help! Designers: –Help with usability and accessibility research: Fluid, etc. –Usability Problem? Collaborate to find real solutions –Help create new UI design patterns Developers: –If you need a hand with your UI, ask for help –Make your life easy: use design patterns –Usability Problem? Collaborate to find real solutions –Share your well-crafted UI code: Fluid components, RSF evolvers, JSF components, accessible HTML

How You Can Help Managers: –Contribute to funding the Sakai UX Lead –Share your design and UI development resources Everyone: –Contribute to Sakai Accessibility QA

The Bill & Ted’s Principle With compliments to Steve Githens: “Be excellent to each other” The designer/developer dichotomy is old news This is open source: –We need to collaborate openly to succeed –We need to try new processes and techniques The only way to improve UX in Sakai is to combine good user research, good design, and good code