Invitation to participate in an usability test for LibreOffice Writer

users
#1

Dear Users

My name is Roberto Pizarro Mendoza. I am currently researching for my
Information Technology graduation project titled “Integration of Adapted
Usability Techniques in LibreOffice Writer Open Source Software Project” at
the Autonomous University of Madrid, with the knowing of some experts
developers and designers from the LibreOffice community, like Samuel
Mehrbrodt, Michael Stahl or Heiko Tietze.

As users of LibreOffice Writter, you will probably have noticed that some
features are not easy, fast and accessible to use. This research aims to
provide empirical evidence to resolve some usability issues with which the
LibreOffice Writer community is unfamiliar. To be able to do this, we need
your help. We would like you to respond to a survey in order to identify
the characteristics of the possible LibreOffice Writer user profiles.

If you would like to collaborate, please send me your e-mail address. At
the end of the survey, the responses will be analysed. The results of this
analysis will be shared with the LibreOffice developer community to improve
the LibreOffice Writer user experience.

The survey is anonymous and will take no longer than 12 minutes to
complete. We would very much appreciate it if you would take the time to
complete the survey. Thank you very much in advance.

Survey Link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScN0GSHLLViW_kwmaDW7O3GSdKfO6A8jfiOtdGTWOlEEsumCg/viewform?usp=sf_link

My email is: robpizarro112@gmail.com

Regards

Roberto Pizarro Mendoza

#2

Yes, Roberto, there are features in LibreOffice - Writer included - that seems complex to me. If you use MS Office's Word, it seems that most of their options and functions are very hard or confusing to me. The may be just me. Of course, I have seen course listings that are dedicated to learning the more complex options/functions within Word and other MS Office packages. One regional college offers [or did] a Master Degree in the use of MS Office. To me that means that most users do not use most of what MS Office has to offer.

On the LibreOffice side of the market, Writer was designed for the "average" Office user. Sure, there are some complex functions added, but to me they are options/functions that the "average" personal and business user wants/needs to use sometime.

I use Writer more often as a Poster and Flier developer than use it to type multi -age text documents. I use to do more text with images documents, but now it seems to be images with some small amount if text involved with adding info based on the image.

Before my strokes, I use to type 10+ pages every day, for both work and pleasure needs. Now my fingers have a heard time typing 4 or 5 letters in a row correctly. I am told that my brain "goes" faster than my nerve damaged fingers [brain and finger damage issues] can type.

So, I can say correctly that I am not one of the "average" users. I use Writer mostly, and some Calc documents. Impress, Base, Draw, and Math, are almost never used for me now. One day, I will need to relearn "frames" like you use in newspapers and magazines breaking the text up to be viewed over multiple pages. I use to know how, after I stopped using Adobe's PageMaker 7 - and Windows as well.

I do hope you have success with your thesis. My last one involved the pros and cons of various networking options - i.e. coax vs. twisted pair cables vs. optical fiber vs. wireless, and the combined use for very large office and manufacturing facility. Mouth-full but after the first 50 to 60 pages it was easier to continue to the 150 page mark wanted by the professor and the one term only creation requirement. At the end of the courses, the 150+ pages per course were combined into one very large document explaining, and adding to, what was taught over the several years of computer networking and related classes. I was really glad that I had a desktop computer to do the work. An older friend had to retype his 1000+ page thesis several times on a portable typewriter.

#3

hello
i completed and participated in your survey.
thank you for your great and accessible form fild and God bless you!