Apache OpenOffice User Experience

AOO User Experience

The goal of the AOO user experience effort is to ensure that our software resonates with our users, and allows them to realize their goals and accomplish their tasks, in a way that compliments their context of use, in their world. We want to make Apache OpenOffice the best open source office suite in terms of usability, productivity and enjoyment.

The AOO user experience seeks to provide guidance to the product management, and development community to ensure that AOO offers the best user experience possible.

Our duties include gathering user feedback, distilling feedback into prioritized design opportunities for improvement, and then advocating usability within the design process.

Our work products include user roles/personas, usage scenarios, wireframes, design mock-ups, design evaluations, and user testing.

How to Get Involved?

User experience is an umbrella term that encompasses information architecture, usability engineering, user interface design, interaction design, and visual design, as components of the holistic user experience. Apache OpenOffice user experience is currently looking for creative, passionate people to join the effort. You don’t have to be a C++ guru (or even know what that means) to get involved. You just have to love software. Join our user experience community and contribute to the conversation. Your research, writing, drawing, sketching, and designing skills will be greatly appreciated.

• AOO User Experience Community Members - Passionate about design great user experiences? So are we. Join us!
• AOO User Experience Help Wanted - Looking to sink your teeth into a juicy research, design or evaluation task, check out our activity list.

OpenOffice.org UX Archives

The Apache OpenOffice User Experience community appreciates the efforts of the previous UX communities that have resulted in the great product we have today. We are fortunate to have inherited a library of great UX research, UI design and user evaluation work products. As part of the transition from Oracle to Apache, some UX content, and supporting links, are invalid or out-of-date. Other content is extremely valuable and will be integrated into the Apache OpenOffice UX effort moving forward. To ensure that the previous material is still accessible, we have archived the former UX wiki home page.

• OpenOffice.org User Experience Work Product Archive - OO.org UX archival content

UX Support Strategy

• UX Social Strategy - How might we use social media to learn more about our users, co-design and gather user feedback?

Current Activities

To ensure that OpenOffice resonates with our users, and aligns with their criteria of success, Apache OpenOffice UX is performing a number of user research, design and evaluation activities.

User Research

To help make informed design and development decisions, the OpenOffice community needs to understand who uses OpenOffice, what they use it for, and what is important to them. Beyond roles and goals, we need to understand user attitudes and behaviour, uncover latent and emerging needs, and understand drivers and barriers of change. User data is captured by asking questions, listening and observing people using our software. Activites include interviews, surveys and direct observation. The outcome of user research is enhanced insight into the user, their context of use and criteria for success. The output of user research are a collection of work products that tells the user's story, and criteria for success.

• Surveys - We need data! This activity seeks to develop a series of user research surveys that will to establish some insight into our users attitudes and behaviours.
• Who the? What the? - Who uses Apache OpenOffice? What do they want to do? This activity seeks to understand the AOO users, and identify what is important to them.
• Storytellers Wanted - How does OpenOffice help our users accomplish their tasks, and achieve your goals? This activity seeks to capture stories that share how people apply OpenOffice in their daily lives.

Design

Design is choice. How might we make the best design choices that deliver the best user experience and realize our criteria for success as identified from our user research.

• IBM Symphony Contribution UX Analysis - A UX-oriented analysis of the IBM Symphony contribution.
• PROPOSAL - UX Wish List - What features do we want from AAO in the next versions?

Evaluation

To ensure that our current offering, proposed enhancements, or new capabilities realize our stated criteria for success, as identified in our user research work product, we can perform user experience evaluations.

• Design Evaluations - Collection of design evaluations with feedback, guidance and recommended opportunities for improvement.

User Experience Design Backlog

• [[AOO UX Backlog|AOO UX Backlog] - Coming soon.