Novell aids open source desktop designers

Novell has announced it will release its research on desktop software designs to help open-source developers know what is appealing to end users.

The move, part of the company's Better Desktop initiative under its openSuse project, will help open-source designers build better applications and further promote the adoption of the Linux OS on desktops, the company said in a press release. Most developers lack the resources to conduct user research, Novell said.

Novell used people who were familiar with Windows but had never heard of Linux and asked them to perform basic tasks using a Linux desktop. The analysis and video footage, which includes information on menus, screen layouts, dialogue boxes, icons and colors, will be available at betterdesktop.opensuse.org, Novell said.