1. User Observation Hackfest

Orlando, Florida, 2012

Primary contact: FedericoMenaQuintero <federico@gnome.org>

1.1. Description

This is the planning page for the User Observation Hackfest, to be hosted within the openSUSE Summit in Orlando, Florida (USA), on September 21-23 2012.

One key aspect of this hackfest is to go on a day trip to the City of Largo, Florida, where there is a public-sector deployment of Gnome. We would watch and talk to normal people who use Gnome on a day-to-day basis, to see how Gnome works for them. We would use this knowledge to seed Gnome's Pattern Language for user interfaces.

1.1.1. Agenda, goals

1-day trip to Largo, Florida, to see users in action. Have DavidRichards show us around and tell us about the most important usability problems.
- Fabiana Simões (2012-09-15): Anna Zacchi and I started some notes on what to look for during user observation. Everybody is more than welcome to edit them (:
If possible, use usability testing tools to see how users respond to Gnome 3.
Work on a prototypal version of Gnome's Pattern Language based on what works well for users.

1.1.2. Measuring your success

We'll have visited Largo and interacted with users there.
We'll have built a list of "nuggets of wisdom" about things that work well for people, and from this we can start seeding Gnome's Pattern Language for user interfaces.

1.1.3. Attendants

Name	Arrive	Depart	Confirmed	Flight cost (USD)	Hotel cost (USD)
Cosimo Cecchi	20	23	yes	293.40
Jan Holesovsky	?	?	yes	not needed
Federico Mena Quintero	20	24	yes	450.30	604.14 (Federico, Jan, Cosimo, Jasper)
Fabiana Simões	20	23	yes	998.00
Jasper St. Pierre	20	23	yes	247.60
Scott Reeves	20	24	yes	not needed
Anna Zacchi	19	24	yes	885.00	725.63 (Anna & Fabiana)
Total

1.1.4. Costs

The venue is paid for, as part of Susecon and the openSUSE Summit.

Attendees will get free meals, as part of the openSUSE Summit.

The Caribe Royal Hotel is USD 129 per night for a regular single room, and USD 179 per night for a villa (three beds plus sofa bed). Taxes not included.

1.1.5. Current sponsors

The venue is being provided by the openSUSE Summit, in the same hotel. See http://summit.opensuse.org for more venue information.

The City of Largo will sponsor USD 150 for a van rental and gas.

1.2. How to get there

On Friday, September 21 we'll drive to the City of Largo in the morning, and we'll come back to Orlando in the evening.

In the hotel we will hackfest in the Bonaire 8 room. This is available on Friday to Sunday, closing at 17:00, with 2 tables seating 8 people per table.

1.3. Accommodation and food

Meals while at the Summit will be provided to any hackers who have registered. Please see http://summit.opensuse.org Schedule for mealtimes.

There will be a party each night at the hotel, hosted by openSUSE and co-sponsors for all registrants.

1.4. Contact

FedericoMenaQuintero's phone will be +1-857-241-0958 while there.

1.5. Schedule

1.5.1. Thursday 20

Evening: meet at the hotel / sync up.

1.5.2. Friday 21

07:00-08:00 - Obtain van rental and get back to hotel

08:00-10:00 - Drive to Largo

10:00-10:30 - Settle into conference room, get computer equipment on WiFi

10:30-11:00 - Brief technical overview of thin client design and computer room tour

11:00-12:00 - Dave Richards slide show, customizations to GNOME, usability

12:00-13:00 - Working lunch, continued discussion and ideas

13:00-14:00 - User observation tour. Finance, Administration, Fire, Community Development

14:00-15:00 - Discussions of observations

15:00-16:00 - Demonstration of GNOME 3 to focus group users (who can do this?)

16:00-18:00 - Hacking, final conversations.

18:00-20:00 - Drive back to Orlando, drop off van.

1.5.3. Saturday 22

Brainstorming on what we saw.
Pattern language.

1.5.4. Sunday 23

FIXME

* FIXME: departure times?

Fabiana Simões: 18h04 FedericoMenaQuintero: until Monday 24, early morning

1.6. Blog Posts

1.7. Observations

1.7.1. Sponsors

This event could not have taken place without the support of the following sponsors: