Open-source software development and user-centered design: a study of open-source practices and participants

Despite its seemingly attractive adherence to user-centered design principles of participatory design and democratized technology, open-source software fails to effectively address the usability needs of typical software users. Instead, it embodies a system-centered design approach facilitated by the efforts of developer-users. Through a plurality of research methods including discourse analysis, rhetorical analysis, and primary research methods such as interviews and surveys, this study attempts to examine the representations of the "user" in the communication and development practices of open-source software developers.