unity-design team mailing list archive

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Hello Stevie

Stevie Griffiths wrote on 28/06/11 05:15:
>...
> I was wondering how we can get a hold of the Software Center design
> research. I'm not sure as to whether it is online or available to the
> public, but I have had a look at the wiki and all I could find was the
> specification.
>
> I think it is hard to examine or improve the existing design without
> supporting information as to the existing design, or the basis of
> future decisions.  Without this design decisions are a black box which
> is difficult if not possible to question.

Fair enough.

A year ago, USC was included in a user test of Ubuntu in general:
<http://design.canonical.com/2010/06/when-new-users-first-encounter-ubuntu-5-show-stoppers/>

(I think results were published of an earlier test, too, but I don't see
them at the moment.)

Last month I summarized the research into the current redesign:
<https://lists.launchpad.net/software-store-developers/msg00056.html>
<https://lists.launchpad.net/software-store-developers/msg00063.html>

And later I posted a summary of the user testing results for the
alternative layouts we produced:
<https://lists.launchpad.net/software-store-developers/msg00089.html>

> I am most interested in who the identified target audience is, deeper
> than your average user / not a technical person? 
> Are there a set of archetypal users?

Not really. USC is only really useful for people who have administrator
privileges (so that they can install or remove software). But beyond
that, it's no more narrowly focused than Ubuntu as a whole.

> How is it decided that a decision (and who is it a good decision for?)
> is a good one beyond the merit of the contributor and the strength of
> there logic?

Except for the current layout work, where we've tested paper prototypes,
we usually haven't had the luxury of testing ideas early on. So there
has been a fair bit of trial and error.

For example, one problem identified in USC 2.0 was that people couldn't
find applications once they were installed. So in 3.0, we added a "Find
it in the menu:" section to the software item screen, showing where to
find it in the Applications or System menus, complete with icons.

This was splendid technical work. But then user testing of 3.0 (linked
above) showed that people just didn't notice it at all. So, now we're
working on a more obvious transition from an application in USC to the
same application in the Unity launcher.

> Is the aim of the software center to aggregate already existing
> functionality?  Is there a specific target?
>...

Aggregating existing functions was an important early aim, yes.
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter#Rationale>

We have largely achieved this, though there are a few missing features
from Synaptic that no-one has volunteered to port to USC yet.

Now, an increasingly important goal is to make Ubuntu more attractive as
an application platform for both users and application developers. USC
is a small but important part of that.

Thanks for your questions.

- -- 
mpt
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