Xfce design SIG

[xfcemailing.kyoo at xoxy.net]

I'll give my opinion immediately: I'm glad to see UIs updated to look 
better, be more efficient, etc.  However, I really hope xfce doesn't go 
the way of Unity; I just got here from Gnome : ).  I do have a few 
things in mind to improve a couple xfce programs' UI layout and design, 
so I'll definitely contribute that much, at least.
-Matt

On 05/26/2011 02:16 PM, Simon Steinbeiß - 
simon.steinbeiss at elfenbeinturm.at wrote:
> Hey everyone,
>
> my name is Simon Steinbeiß and I've been working with the Xubuntu
> development team during the last two releases and contributed some
> artwork there. I'm also part of the "shimmer
> project" (http://shimmerproject.org/) and together with my colleague
> Pasi Lallinaho we're trying to contribute design ideas and artwork to
> existing opensource projects. I've always been interested in UI design
> and as a long-time Xfce user obviously also in Xfce design :)
>
> Up to now there haven't been any bottom-up design initiatives in Xfce,
> mainly users could file a bugreport/feature request, bug the developer
> on irc or use the mailing-list. What I want to propose together with
> Jannis Pohlmann is an Xfce design SIG (special interest group) that
> doesn't consist of a fixed number or panel of members, but instead
> features a very open approach: anyone can join the design SIG and
> contribute to a task or propose a new task. Naturally this doesn't mean
> that everything/anything the design SIG proposes will be picked up and
> put into code by developers. The idea is that users and developers try
> to get to a point where they say "This is what we think a good
> $application (as in: image viewer, file-manager, etc.) should look
> like."
>
> We really want to connect interested users, designers and hackers -
> create a platform for them so that none of them feels he/she is working
> in a vacuum. We hope that this way things get done more successfully in
> a cooperative manner.
>
> We decided to use the Xfce Wiki as our homebase, this is where you can
> find the current projects and project proposals
> (https://wiki.xfce.org/design/start). At the moment there are already a
> few Thunar related projects/proposals, but we hope that other
> applications will also get some attention. One project has already been
> completed, which improved Thunar's window layout
> (https://wiki.xfce.org/design/thunar/window-layout).
>
> There are different ways of approaching us and bringing about a new
> idea. One way is via the xfce4-dev at xfce.org mailinglist, but obviously
> you can also reach out to people on irc (#xfce-dev on freenode). If you
> already have a fully-fledged idea you can write a project proposal in
> our wiki page.
>
> At the moment we're working on a new sidepane-viewmode for Thunar
> (https://wiki.xfce.org/design/thunar/shortcuts-pane), we've already
> started gathering resources and information on that topic, but we could
> use your help with ideas and mockups.
>
> Looking forward to your contributions and fruitful discussions to make
> Xfce more beautiful than it already is!
> All the best
> Simon
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