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Hi Steve and thank you for the feedback!<BR>
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What kind of designer are you, and what are you likely to be the best at if you jump in? For the record I don't think we have a professional designer on board right now. I personally am a computer scientist, but do usability research and HCI theory research for a living. Because of that I might occasionally put a big emphasis on justifying why a change is needed and whose needs a proposed approach fulfills.<BR>
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Lately I specialize mainly in UI/UX, branding and digital art and I want to make those my main fields of focus, although I am good at editing photographs and doing manipulations. I am also a designer by degree who understands, that good design cannot be without proper in-depth research. For more info about me and what I did so far you can visit <A HREF="https://www.behance.net/Inoki">my portfolio</A>.<BR>
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I currently help out Ubuntu GNOME. I created their <A HREF="https://www.behance.net/gallery/25233455/Ubuntu-GNOME">visual identity</A>, which is yet to be approved by the GNOME foundation, but we don't see that being an issue, since using their symbol was the real problem that, when used as a standalone without the wordmark, created a great deal of confusion. My current work with UG involves everything from the interface to branding (wallpapers, icons, Ubiquity, Plymouth).<BR>
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Why I signed up to the list is, should an extra pair of hands, eyes and a brain be needed, help coordinate the way the Xfce desktop could go to improve its usability, aesthetics, and the general feel. I did so, because I am, like everyone here, a huge fan, and I see great potential. Again, a huge thanks to everyone involved in creating this awesome experience.<BR>
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I know you don't take seriously when someone plain bluntly sends you an email with "your app sucks", and you shouldn't. Mostly it's the users fault that the app "sucks". I admit there are times when things could be improved and more polished, but that's what designers are for, to help with UI/UX. Everyone here does an excellent job considering it's mostly a hobby, but then again, the best projects now were hobbies when they started.<BR>
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As far as the desktop is concerned, I focus greatly on details, which may not bother a programmer, but they might a consumer, because frankly, it's design that sells. It's like with food, the eyes eat first, and users tend to feel more at home when everything is more polished.<BR>
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The Shimmer project did an amazing job in this regard. I use some elements, particularly the xubuntu-icon-theme even in Gnome. I am yet to find a better replacement wide and far.<BR>
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If there's something I can be helpful with, drop me an email.<BR>
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On Tue, 2015-08-04 at 10:27 +0100, Steve Dodier-Lazaro wrote:
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Hi Patrik,
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Generally speaking I think we are at Xfce very open to non-development contributions (though right now what we need the most dramatically IS developers' time). I raised the issue because of the very obvious connotation that design has to people outside the field (aesthetics and visual aspect of products). I think we pretty much have the brand identity and looks of Xfce covered with the Shimmer project, even though right now the default theme hasn't been updated (because of technical issues as far as I recall). I'm not involved with that so won't talk about it further.
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What kind of designer are you, and what are you likely to be the best at if you jump in? For the record I don't think we have a professional designer on board right now. I personally am a computer scientist, but do usability research and HCI theory research for a living. Because of that I might occasionally put a big emphasis on justifying why a change is needed and whose needs a proposed approach fulfills.
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I think one of Simon's more urgent projects is to re-organise the settings UIs of Xfce, so it would be useful to have some information architecture skills (something I don't :p), to have experiment designs to either assess the findability of different settings options or figure out how potential Xfce users would express a need to change a specific setting.
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As I said in my previous email, another much needed contribution is to analyse some survey data and start redesigning the interactions around session saving/resumption (with a focus on documenting the capabilities you need out of the OS since I'm not sure yet how we can suspend and resume GNOME applications safely).
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Of course, if you are able and willing to do graphic design contributions, that is also equally welcome! As Simon pointed out there might be technicalities that we have to deal with, but I personally would love all my systray icons and panel plugins to behave identically (with regard to spacing, appearance on focus, and looks of the popup menu when clicked).
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Cheers,
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On 25 July 2015 at 14:35, Patrik Bubák <<A HREF="mailto:bubapa@privacyrequired.com">bubapa@privacyrequired.com</A>> wrote:
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Hi Steve,<BR>
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what you wanted me, or anyone else to be aware of by going through that article I understand.<BR>
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Talking for myself, the only reason why I haven't provided anything else but writing down some basic thoughts is because I wanted to know the community's standing on the matter.<BR>
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I am a designer by degree, dedicated to self-improvement in every area I am involved in, so believe me when I say extensive research and a proper design process are not something unfamiliar to me. Rest assured I am not somebody who needs to be lectured about the design process, but I understand why your raised this.
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On Sat, 2015-07-25 at 14:09 +0100, Steve Dodier-Lazaro wrote: <BR>
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Hi Patrik,<BR>
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I'm a bit too busy to go point by point through your email, but I urge you (and anyone else serious about making design contributions to Xfce) to read this: <A HREF="http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/visual-design-is-not-a-thing">http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/visual-design-is-not-a-thing</A><BR>
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Remember, design is a family of evidence-based processes. We currently have data sitting that needs to be analysed in order to redesign interactions around session saving and resuming, and I don't have the time to get started on that. Anyone is free to help, so long as they understand the basics of quantitative analysis and grounded theory.<BR>
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Cheers,<BR>
<BR>
On 25 July 2015 at 13:32, Nicolas Kovacs <<A HREF="mailto:info@microlinux.fr">info@microlinux.fr</A>> wrote:<BR>
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Le 25/07/2015 12:48, Patrik Bubák a écrit :<BR>
> Now I'm not going to give you charts, but it's a fact that visually Xfce<BR>
> is one of the least popular desktops, although I am aware it was created<BR>
> for speed and functionality.<BR>
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I don't know where you get that information.<BR>
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My company installs Xfce-based desktops for schools, town halls, SMB's,<BR>
public libraries. Nobody complained about it being ugly.<BR>
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<A HREF="http://www.microlinux.fr/mled.php">http://www.microlinux.fr/mled.php</A><BR>
<BR>
Xfce is perfect as it is.<BR>
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Cheers,<BR>
<BR>
Niki Kovacs<BR>
<BR>
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-- <BR>
Steve Dodier-Lazaro<BR>
PhD Student<BR>
University College London<BR>
Free Software Developer<BR>
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-- <BR>
<FONT SIZE="1">Sent using <A HREF="https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evolution/">Evolution</A> from <A HREF="http://ubuntu.com/desktop">Ubuntu</A></FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE="1">Nothing ruins creativity like too many voices weighing in. We call it the </FONT><I><FONT SIZE="1">Ice Cream Principle</FONT></I><FONT SIZE="1">. Tell 10 people to go get ice cream with one condition: they all have to agree on one flavour. That flavour is going to be chocolate or vanilla every time. </FONT><FONT SIZE="1"><FONT COLOR="#008000">Groups of people don't agree on what's cool or interesting, they agree on what's easy to agree on.</FONT></FONT>
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