| Allan, I think you're on to something really great here, and I would like to work on it with you. Just a few quick thoughts for now:
Building upon Tango and the GNOME HIG as a foundation, though, looks like an easy way to start but doesn't strike me as the best way. While I really admire the Tango Project and think that the GNOME HIG has been tremendously beneficial, I think we need something more ambitious, quintessentially Ubuntu, and probably tangential because, after all, Ubuntu is not like GNOME.
Also, the notion that Ubuntu should be "consistent" has always slightly irked me. We need to be careful to choose the domain in which we exhibit consistency -- do we want buttons, menus, and scrollbars to behave consistently within Ubuntu? Do we want Ubuntu to be consistent with other free desktops? Do we want to Ubuntu to be consistent with popular proprietary alternatives? You can see how consistency quickly becomes uniformity. In some ways Ubuntu is inconsistent to a fault; in other ways, Ubuntu's inconsistencies make it great. I guess what I am rambling on and on trying to say is that we should only be consistent when it's good for us, and never when it does more harm than good :) lol
David
On Sep 28, 2009, at 4:02 AM, Allan Caeg wrote: Ayatana Listers,
It is a good thing that Ubuntu has been paying much attention to UX through this project. This is what open source (and technology in general) needs very much.
I am aware that Ubuntu clearly defined what it is about. It is great that the members of the community knows what the organization stands for. The Ubuntu Code of Conduct ( http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct ) managed to put the community together for a common goal. This is a rare thing even for profitable organizations.
For sure, Canonical's hired Ayatana team has clear goals. However, I have not seen a list of Ubuntu's User Interface guidelines. The Code of Conduct tells the user what the Ubuntu community is all about, but not the product. I am here to propose the construction of the Ubuntu User Experience Guidelines if it doesn't exist yet. If it already exists, pardon me and please consider my suggestions if I am to state anything new.
I propose to include the following to the User Experience Guidelienes: consistency, simplicity, beauty, and the Ubuntu Spirit. By consistency, I am referring to compliance to the Tango desktop project and GNOME's HIG ( http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/stable/ ). Ubuntu always followed GNOME's HIG by including applications that will make the desktop experience consistent. An action that would prove this intention would be the inclusion of Empathy to Karmic. I know that there are many arguments against this move but let's leave the discussion to other threads. As for compliance to Tango, I always felt that this could use some development because the Human icons always seemed to me to be too glossy to be Tango. The community is developing the Breathe Icon Set, one that doesn't comply with Tango and follows KDE's Oxygen look and feel instead. This is a great project as it adds to the beauty/aesthetics of Ubuntu, an important part of the UX, but it makes the desktop experience inconsistent. Other artists stick to Tango because of all the work that has been done. It is the most complete icon set so developing on its guidelines would be much less painful for the artist. However, the Breathe icon set is slowly achieving completion with the help of the Oxygen project. This is going to be a long discussion so I am leaving this to other threads, but I am just suggesting now that sticking to Tango for official releases may be the best path at the moment.
As for simplicity, this is achieved by the distro by putting only what is needed. I do not have too much to say about this issue because I am personally contented with the state of Ubuntu in this area.
Beauty clearly is one of the focuses of the Ayatana project. This seems to be most evident through the Notify-OSD. I do not think that I have to justify the inclusion of this because Mark has been talking saying that "pretty is a feature."
Lastly, I suggest the inclusion of the "Ubuntu Spirit," which is best defined by the Code of Conduct. The biggest reason why I am sticking to Ubuntu, even if using a commercial OS could be easier for me, is my perception of it. UX consists of how the user perceives the tool. I may be using Shiki, Sonar or Clearlooks; but I feel that Ubuntu is warm. There was a thread in the forums where the OP was asking if Ubuntu is worth all the hassle, my answer was yes because I know that it is a product out of the love of the volunteers that build it. I stick to Ubuntu because of the integrity behind it and its community. By using the OS, the user would feel that others are there for him/her through the links to launchpad (like "Report a Problem" and "Get Help Online"). This feeling would even be magnified by joining the community online. I suggest researching more on how to make the community more accessible to the user to add to the "Ubuntu feel."
This is probably not a complete list so I invite the community to add.
Again, pardon me if this has already been done and correct me if needed. I'm just trying to contribute to Ubuntu's UX by proposing this because I haven't seen such a list of princples yet. I believe that having clearly defined UX goals will definitely improve the Ubuntu experience.
Best Regards,
Allan Caeg
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