Hi everyone,
We're pleased to announce the launch of the FLUID Project, a new
collaborative project to improve the user experience of community source
software. FLUID includes members of the uPortal, Sakai, and Moodle
communities who are working together to address the precarious values of
usability, accessibility, internationalization, and more within academic
software projects. The project is supported by a two-year grant from the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information about FLUID or to get
involved in this open project, please visit http://fluidproject.org.
Goals of the FLUID Project
Our goal is to help improve the user experience of community source web
applications including Sakai, uPortal, Kuali Student and Moodle. FLUID
will combine both design and technology to create a living library of
sharable user interface components that can be reused across community
source projects. These components will be built specifically to support
flexibility and customization while maintaining a high standard of
usability, accessibility, internationalization, and security. The FLUID
framework will enable designers and developers to build user interfaces
that can more readily accommodate the diverse personal and institutional
needs found within community source. We will integrate these rich,
client-side UI components and the framework to support them into
existing presentation technologies used in Sakai and uPortal.
In order to encourage user-centered design within community source
software, FLUID will also create a designer's toolkit that will offer
useful design, accessibility, and usability strategies and
documentation. This toolkit will include the results of several
heuristic analyses and usability studies, a collection of design models
such as user profiles and personas, and a growing library of UI design
patterns. Members of the FLUID team will be available to provide
usability and accessibility support within the Sakai, uPortal, Kuali
Student, and Moodle communities.
Who is Involved?
FLUID is a community source project open to everyone. The project is led
by University of Toronto with UC Berkeley, University of British
Columbia, York University, and Cambridge University. Other partners
include Michigan State University, University of Colorado, University of
Michigan, Sun Microsystems, the Mozilla Foundation, and IBM. The FLUID
Project is funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. New
participants are welcome, and we encourage you to visit our website at
http://fluidproject.org to learn more about the project and get involved.
How will FLUID Help uPortal?
Our goal is to improve the user experience of uPortal and other
community source software projects. The FLUID team is closely involved
in the uPortal community, and will continue to ensure that our
priorities and deliverables are consistent with the needs of the
community. We will contribute all of our design and technical work to
the uPortal community under the ECL and Creative Commons licenses. This
will include:
* A collection of well-designed, accessible, and reusable UI components
* Integration of the FLUID framework and components into portlets and
uPortal 3
* New usability and heuristic studies of uPortal
* Ongoing user research and synthesis of usability data in uPortal
* A library of user interface design patterns
* A compilation of user research documentation such as personas,
profiles, scenarios, and other design models for uPortal
* Increased involvement and input from skilled designers, accessibility
experts, and UI developers
How can I get Involved?
Everyone is welcome to join the FLUID community and contribute to the
design and development of the project. Here are some ways you can help
shape the future of the project:
* Participate in the FLUID community mailing lists
* Share your design or usability expertise
* Develop new FLUID components
* Usability and accessibility testing
* Help integrate the FLUID framework into Sakai, uPortal, or other
community source projects
* More...
More Information
For more information about the FLUID Project, please visit our website
at http://fluidproject.org. If you have any questions or comments,
please don't hesitate to contact Colin Clark at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
or join our community mailing lists and get involved!
Best,
Colin
--
Colin Clark
Technical Lead, FLUID Project
Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto
http://fluidproject.org
--
Join your friends and colleagues at JA-SIG with Altitude: June 24-27, 2007 in
Denver, CO USA.
Featuring keynotes by: Phil Windley, Matt Raible, Matt Asay
Sessions on topics including: CAS, uPortal, Portlets, Sakai, Identity
Management, and Open Source
For more information & registration visit:
http://www.ja-sig.org/conferences/07summer/index.html
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