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.
I got the idea of such a list of guidelines from Google's User
Experience principles ( http://www.google.com/corporate/ux.html ). I
suggest reading that and Apple's ( http://developer.apple.com/ue/ )
to have a clearer idea on what this list is about.
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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