29 Nov
2018
29 Nov
'18
5:53 p.m.
Hey all,
I thought I'd spread the word about Open Source Design [1], which is a
community of designers and developers that wants to improve usability of
free software (never mind the name, I guess most people are not as
strict about it as e.g. Richard Stallman ;-) ).
A friend (hey Sam!) made me aware of this recently and I think the
community can be a great opportunity to either learn about design or
find someone to help your project get a facelift (or a logo, or
whatever). This can be done by posting a request for a "job" (paid or
unpaid) [2] on their site.
Maybe it's of help to anyone here.
Best,
David
[1] https://opensourcedesign.net/
[2] https://opensourcedesign.net/jobs/
--
https://sleepmap.de
29 Nov
29 Nov
5:56 p.m.
This is totally a great initiative! Will definitely read up on their
activities.
Louigi Verona
https://louigiverona.com/
On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 4:54 PM David Runge <dave(a)sleepmap.de> wrote:
Hey all,
I thought I'd spread the word about Open Source Design [1], which is a
community of designers and developers that wants to improve usability of
free software (never mind the name, I guess most people are not as
strict about it as e.g. Richard Stallman ;-) ).
A friend (hey Sam!) made me aware of this recently and I think the
community can be a great opportunity to either learn about design or
find someone to help your project get a facelift (or a logo, or
whatever). This can be done by posting a request for a "job" (paid or
unpaid) [2] on their site.
Maybe it's of help to anyone here.
Best,
David
[1] https://opensourcedesign.net/
[2] https://opensourcedesign.net/jobs/
--
https://sleepmap.de
_______________________________________________
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Linux-audio-dev(a)lists.linuxaudio.org
https://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-dev
6:33 p.m.
Interesting that on their goals page they never mention "users" or
"customers". So how are they going to understand what works if users are
never consulted? This could be a mistake that would make the whole
initiative void. Designers should help design the software, but it has to
be based on users feedback, with constant testing and iterations. I don't
see any process there that would actually involve actual users.
Louigi Verona
https://louigiverona.com/
On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 4:56 PM Louigi Verona <louigi.verona(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
This is totally a great initiative! Will definitely
read up on their
activities.
Louigi Verona
https://louigiverona.com/
On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 4:54 PM David Runge <dave(a)sleepmap.de> wrote:
Hey all,
I thought I'd spread the word about Open Source Design [1], which is a
community of designers and developers that wants to improve usability of
free software (never mind the name, I guess most people are not as
strict about it as e.g. Richard Stallman ;-) ).
A friend (hey Sam!) made me aware of this recently and I think the
community can be a great opportunity to either learn about design or
find someone to help your project get a facelift (or a logo, or
whatever). This can be done by posting a request for a "job" (paid or
unpaid) [2] on their site.
Maybe it's of help to anyone here.
Best,
David
[1] https://opensourcedesign.net/
[2] https://opensourcedesign.net/jobs/
--
https://sleepmap.de
_______________________________________________
Linux-audio-dev mailing list
Linux-audio-dev(a)lists.linuxaudio.org
https://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-dev
6:42 p.m.
On 2018-11-29 17:32:44 (+0100), Louigi Verona wrote:
Interesting that on their goals page they never
mention "users" or
"customers". So how are they going to understand what works if users
are never consulted? This could be a mistake that would make the whole
initiative void. Designers should help design the software, but it has
to be based on users feedback, with constant testing and iterations. I
don't see any process there that would actually involve actual users.
Valid
point and maybe something worth mentioning to them :)
The overall scope seems a little undefined, which could also be one of
the reasons why user feedback to "products" is not mentioned.
Best,
David
--
https://sleepmap.de
7:02 p.m.
On 29/11/2018 17.32, Louigi Verona wrote:
Interesting that on their goals page they never
mention "users" or
"customers". So how are they going to understand what works if users are
never consulted?
That's clearly up to every single project. So from the point of view of
"Open Source Design", the question is what works or doesn't work
regarding designer involvement and designer-developer interaction.
Now one may complain that the Why is kinda missing. Obviously there's an
assumption that "opening up the design process" and so on is a good
thing that doesn't need to be explained.
It is then up to said designers and developers to care about user
feedback, iterations, testing. Or not. One may concentrate on general
fitness for purpose, pay not too much attention to the subset of users
that gets loud, and lack the resources to do real user testing, anyway! ;)
The last time I got across that job listing, the few paid items were too
old already.
--
Thorsten Wilms
thorwil's design for free software:
http://thorwil.wordpress.com/
8:10 p.m.
On Thu, 2018-11-29 at 18:02 +0100, Thorsten Wilms wrote:
On 29/11/2018 17.32, Louigi Verona wrote:
An issue advertising agencies know is the medium-sized business customer
of the advertising agencies who already has got an idea. "My wife likes
red pullovers and penguins. The logo for my power drill company should
contain a penguin wearing a red pullover." The advertising agencies try
to explain that the logo should represent the power drills and perhaps
something else, maybe environmental sustainability or what ever is up to
date, but there's no chance, if the wife of the customer likes red
pullovers and penguins.
At least the https://opensourcedesign.net job offers come with this
issue, too, see
https://design.blog.documentfoundation.org/2017/06/28/competition-libreoffi…,
the mailing list already knows what they like and every Tom, Dick and
Harry has some bikeshedding to contribute.
Regarding software development the users' needs are important, regarding
logo design the designers are the experts and nobody else. Big companies
usually know this.
Interesting that on their goals page they never
mention "users" or
"customers". So how are they going to understand what works if users are
never consulted?
That's clearly up to every single project. So from the point of view of
"Open Source Design", the question is what works or doesn't work
regarding designer involvement and designer-developer interaction. 
7:23 p.m.
On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 9:33 AM Louigi Verona <louigi.verona(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Interesting that on their goals page they never
mention "users" or
"customers". So how are they going to understand what works if users are
never consulted? This could be a mistake that would make the whole
initiative void. Designers should help design the software, but it has to
be based on users feedback, with constant testing and iterations. I don't
see any process there that would actually involve actual users.
From what I can tell, they're largely focused on
advocacy, awareness, and
focusing on improving tools and processes to allow
designers and developers
to work together more effectively. With some perusal of the forum and
articles there, I get the impression that job board is already more populus
than the design community surrounding it. And I believe any designer knows
improvements must be user-centric, but that isn't the current obstacle
preventing good design in FLOSS software.
Its a great community to be aware of, and I think we could all learn some
things by participating in it, even if we don't ever get designers
contributing to our projects directly.
_Spencer
p.s. I read this article linked from their resources section:
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/first-rule-of-usability-dont-listen-to-user…
from which I understand user feedback is a very poor way to design a
useable program. :p :)
https://ometer.com/preferences.html was also very good. I plan to read more
later.
7:28 p.m.
On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 12:24 PM Spencer Jackson <ssjackson71(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
https://ometer.com/preferences.html was also very
good. I plan to read
more later.
"Lisp is not a good user interface."
this is a fallacy. Lisp is an excellent user interface, for the right kind
of user. Knowing who you are designing for, or more generally, what
expectations you are trying to meet, is critical. No doubt Lisp is a poor
choice of user interface for a large majority of users. But most programs
do not target "most users", rather a small subset of users with particular
goals, workflows, skills and needs. For them, Lisp might be just the right
thing.
7:48 p.m.
On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 10:28 AM Paul Davis <paul(a)linuxaudiosystems.com>
wrote:
Lisp is an excellent user interface, for the right kind of user.
Good point, Paul. I was mostly lauding the article's main principle that
adding a preference has a cost and it's worth evaluating the benefit of
each preference offered in a program. I personally extended that to mean
each available control in the audio programs I'm writing.
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8 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
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David Runge -
Louigi Verona -
Paul Davis -
Ralf Mardorf -
Spencer Jackson -
Thorsten Wilms