Nichols,DM . "The Usability of Open Source Software" First Monday [1396-0466] 8.1 (2003). 59-.

 

This paper establishes what could potentially be one of the greatest shortcomings of the open source model – the inability to create software usable by the general populous. The paper begins by establishing that proprietary software dominates the average user’s experience. It points out that usability is a problem for all software, not just open source projects, but also that users of open source software tend to be more technically-inclined (Lerner and Tirole, 2002).

There is an established idea in the usability community that software developers do not make good usability designers. This proves problematic for the open source movement, since one of the central tenets is that the software is conceived and developed by individual software developers. There is neither outside perspective available to mandate the hiring of usability professionals, nor capital available to do so. Usability professionals, the paper states, are not prevalent in open source projects the way that developers are because there are fewer of them to begin with, and therefore fewer peers to recognize any individual contributions to usability – peer recognition being one of the most agreed upon incentives for open source development.

The paper outlines some of the other problems related to usability in open source, notably that usability design works best when done before any software development, anathema to the open source model of progressive improvement on rough development. Furthermore, many open source projects try to emulate commercial software, leaving little room for usability innovation. Finally, in a collaborative community with little central authority, it is logistically delicate to remove excessive functionality that may confound usability.