Usability in Company Open Source Software Context - Initial Findings from an Empirical Case Study

In the company open source software (OSS) development context, usability is becoming an important issue due to a growing user population, who is only interested in usable applications, not in their development. Companies try to gain a competitive advantage of OSS by utilizing available components, but the openness is difficult to achieve in the business world with licenses, patents and intellectual property rights. This paper analyses usability and user-interface (UI) development in the company OSS context through an interpretive case study in a software development unit of a large, global corporation. Our initial findings suggest that there is a need for human computer interaction specialists in the OSS context. It is revealed that with the software based on OSS, more time can be spent on usability and UI design. In the company’s viewpoint, there are still many issues involved in deciding what parts of the product will be open source. Especially UI code may remain closed due to competitive advantage and patents.