| [cross-project-issues-dev] call for input: users and use cases for 3.5 p2 UI |
Hi, everyone.
In Eclipse 3.4, we introduced a new provisioning technology (p2) that included a new UI.
Presumably most of you noticed this by now ;-)
You also might have noticed that p2 was integrated into the SDK later in the release cycle than we would have liked, and as a result, many of the suggestions made (for both p2 in general and the UI in particular) had to be postponed while we were stabilizing for the release.
Now we are stepping back a bit to revisit the workflows before diving into solutions to the more specific bugs and problems.
Just as Ganymede released, we had a walkthrough with the UI Best Practices working group. Many interesting points were made (see http://wiki.eclipse.org/Equinox_p2_UIWG_Walkthrough), but a one hour walkthrough isn't near enough time to get consensus about the problems much less any solutions.
To help drive the use cases for 3.5, we want to be clearer at documenting the kinds of users that we are targetting. We had some loosely defined users that we used in 3.4 to make decisions, but we didn't write concrete descriptions (or "personas") for these users. It became difficult to discuss requirements, scenarios, and design decisions without them.
This time, we want to be more methodical. As a start for gathering input, I've created a wiki page to collect information about the user personas and their tasks, and in particular what software update tasks they need to perform. This is just a first pass, please don't be offended by any omissions or choices of names. I invite everyone who is interested to read this document and then append information about your users and tasks that aren't listed. I included a section for adding information, so we can follow who is saying what.
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Equinox_p2_UI_Use_Cases
The goal is to end up with a small number of user personas that we agree represents a decent percentage of Eclipse users. Even the word "Eclipse users" is generic. Are we referring to Eclipse SDK users? Users of any EPP package?
In parallel, we'll be discussing the process in general in the UI Best Practices working group (http://wiki.eclipse.org/User_Interface_Architecture_Working_Group)
Questions such as:
- balance between number of personas and percentage of users reflected
- how much detail do we really need for these personas?
- how much detail for tasks and scenario descriptions?
- does it make sense to try to define a standard set of Eclipse personas that other projects could use to help drive UI?
- has anyone else already done this work for Eclipse SDK and other EPP package users? (we are aware of various personas developed for specific products or companies, but not of any defined for the Eclipse community)
Please don't be shy about adding info about your users and their tasks to the wiki page. I'll try to organize it later on, capturing the input is the most important thing at this stage.
Thanks for your time
susan