Launchpad Entry: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+spec/kubuntu-userprofiling
Created: 2006-06-09 by El4
Contributors: El4, JonathanRiddell
Packages affected: none
Summary
Learn more about current and future Kubuntu users to allow for directed marketing and usability efforts. The idea is to have a stock of users who are willing to participate in different methods of gaining user data over and over again.
From a marketing perspective, the goals of user profiling are
- product placement in the market / shaping the product to fit current markets,
- market research to gain knowledge of current situation,
- identifying target groups.
From a usability point of view, goals are to
- learn more about tasks, goals and habits of different groups of target users,
- get directed feedback from the community,
- establish a user panel (which are users that agree to participate repeatedly in surveys, interviews and usability (remote) tests).
Rationale
Marketing and usability efforts need detailed knowledge about the target user base of a software.
Scope
Apart from the current user base, Kubuntu aims to be a suitable desktop for the following user groups:
- Occasional home users
- Recreational (fun) users
- Students
- Academic users
- Public administrations
- Office workers
- Decision makers
- Administrators
- Geek
The major focus is set on smart, non-technical users, people unlikely to accept bugs.
Special interest:
- First-time installers with prior PC experience, e.g. student in South America.
First Step: Survey Framework
OpenUsability offers a survey framework that can be used for an initial survey. It needs to be complemented by a database and queries that help to manage the follow-up surveys:
- Database must contain user id, demographics, user group and several usage characteristics, participation in several studies and how often user is willing to participate.
- There needs to be an interface to the survey tool to send invitations based on a query.
Second Step: Initial Survey
The initial survey serves the goal to form groups of target users by means of cluster analysis. The users will be asked basic questions regarding demographic data, educational background, job, computer experience, computer usage in different areas. They will be asked if they are willing to perform in follow-up studies.
To reach the target user base we will probe the "Snowball"-approach: Members of the community are asked to forward the survey link to two or three non-technical peers (along certain profiles).
- Ask on kde-promo for people with above profiles to fill in OU survey
- Ask on different usability-related mailinglists
- Have a look at www.kde-forum.org for target users to fill in the survey
- Ask in different forums to answer survey and also pass it to non-Linux and non-technical friends (we will pick out the ones that fit our profile).
If this approach does not deliver a sufficient amount of volunteers, advertisements in papers and magazines - possibly offering incentives (lottery, prize) - can be probed.
Third Step: Follow-up Surveys
For specific questions, follow-up studies can be performed with representatives of different user groups. One example is a better information architecture for the Kubuntu system settings with OpenUsability's cardsorting tool.