Title: Open source usability
Last modified: August 19, 2016

---

# Open source usability

 *  [pilpi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pilpi/)
 * (@pilpi)
 * [16 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/open-source-usability/)
 * Hi folks,
 * I am studying open source usability in my master’s thesis (with my work on Moodle
   as a case study). I am very curious about how do you go about getting the design
   right in WordPress? It is just so good. The literature I have found on the topic
   mostly seems to repeat the fact that open source usability is _hard_ due to a
   number of reasons.
 * A key reason certainly seems to be keeping the design narrowed down to a specific
   purpose – and having a plugin architecture to allow people to fill in. But keeping
   the feature set small is an art of its own. Do you use any of the standard User-
   Centered Design stuff like Personas or Scenarios? What is the quantity of usability
   testing you do? Matt has mentioned that he employs usability experts from inside
   the community though, but there does not seem to be much actual discussion about
   getting to know the users in the documentation or the forums.
 * Thanks!

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  [MichaelH](https://wordpress.org/support/users/michaelh/)
 * (@michaelh)
 * [16 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/open-source-usability/#post-1337499)
 * I believe [Jane Wells](http://wordpress.org/support/profile/903128) runs most
   of the usability stuff for Automattic so you might review some of her theads,
   as well as review some of the postings to the <[http://wordpress.org/development/category/development/”>Developement](http://wordpress.org/development/category/development/”>Developement)
   Blog to see past ‘interactions’.
 *  [Gabe Young](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gabeyoung/)
 * (@gabeyoung)
 * [16 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/open-source-usability/#post-1337702)
 * I’m a web award judge and have been working with UX (user experience) for over
   a decade. I can tell you that most WP users entrust usability to the theme they
   choose.
 * While most theme creators do a decent job incorporating this into their design,
   since most are not well-versed in user experience, many of their customizations
   and configurations break very basic rules. Not only are many WP sites not user-
   friendly but there are huge readability issues.
 * Every niche has a specific audience but many bloggers can’t even identify who
   their demographic is. As a result, IMO, a good number of blogs start off with
   a somewhat usable site and actually degrades over time with blogger tinkering.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘Open source usability’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [development](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/development/)
 * [usability](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/usability/)

 * In: [Everything else WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/miscellaneous/)
 * 2 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Gabe Young](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gabeyoung/)
 * Last activity: [16 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/open-source-usability/#post-1337702)
 * Status: not resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics