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Maniphest T7124

KDE Leader in Design
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Description

Description

Although desktops have remained traditionally the same over time, the advent of mobile devices has made us rethink the way that people interact with personal computers. KDE needs to lead this conversation and approach design from a forward and functional perspective. In essence, creativity and innovation must be the hallmark of KDE.

What it will take

This means stronger collaborations or filters when approving the addition of new applications to the desktop. Granted, we must strengthen our HIGs and include designers in the approval process. The aim would be to help app devs align with KDE’s visual identity.

Stronger ties to from concept to production, devs with designers must be developed. Designers must go to developers when designing and developers must go to designers when starting development. There is no intention to have one lead or check the other, but KDE must make it a priority to have strong collaboration and willingness to create applications hand in hand.

How we know we succeeded

We will receive praise and recognition from the community and everyday users about the changes we have made.

Relevant links

None

I am willing to put work into this

  • Andy Betts

I am interested

  • add your name
abetts created this task.Oct 2 2017, 2:35 PM
abetts renamed this task from KDE needs to lead and push design forward! to KDE Leader in Design.Oct 2 2017, 5:00 PM
abetts updated the task description. (Show Details)
ngraham added a subscriber: ngraham.Oct 2 2017, 5:15 PM

We shouldn't try to jam mobile UI conventions into a desktop platform except in the very small number of limited cases where they make sense for specific, well-understood reasons.

I think it's important to keep in mind our users and their use cases. 10-15 years in the future, current trends will reach their logical conclusions, and most casual computing (media consumption, communication, playing games) will probably be done with large phones or tablets because they're more convenient. So why would anyone still use a boring old laptop or desktop? Productivity. These are still the best platforms for accomplishing real work, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. So any design changes we make for the desktop can't compromise productivity or ergonomics for intensive work. We have to remember that people who are trying to get work done *hate* change for change's sake. They don't want high fashion design, they want to be able to create at the speed of thought. That means things like better ergonomics and responsiveness, more consistent keyboard shortcuts, more consistent visual design, and greater ease of learning new software. A really excellent example of this is the ability to search for menu items present in Unity's HUD and the macOS Help menu. We should be willing to mine other *desktop* platforms for ideas, not mobile platforms.

lydia updated the task description. (Show Details)Oct 2 2017, 6:10 PM
abetts added a comment.Oct 7 2017, 1:07 AM
In T7124#112443, @ngraham wrote:
We shouldn't try to jam mobile UI conventions into a desktop platform except in the very small number of limited cases where they make sense for specific, well-understood reasons.

I think it's important to keep in mind our users and their use cases. 10-15 years in the future, current trends will reach their logical conclusions, and most casual computing (media consumption, communication, playing games) will probably be done with large phones or tablets because they're more convenient. So why would anyone still use a boring old laptop or desktop? Productivity. These are still the best platforms for accomplishing real work, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. So any design changes we make for the desktop can't compromise productivity or ergonomics for intensive work. We have to remember that people who are trying to get work done *hate* change for change's sake. They don't want high fashion design, they want to be able to create at the speed of thought. That means things like better ergonomics and responsiveness, more consistent keyboard shortcuts, more consistent visual design, and greater ease of learning new software. A really excellent example of this is the ability to search for menu items present in Unity's HUD and the macOS Help menu. We should be willing to mine other *desktop* platforms for ideas, not mobile platforms.

I agree with you so much! I think we need to treat each space on its own. If Kirigami is the platform of choice, we have to be sensible to the many ways it can be used.

jsamuel added a subscriber: jsamuel.Oct 7 2017, 6:01 PM
colomar added a subscriber: colomar.Oct 14 2017, 4:23 PM

I am definitely all for getting design more involved, but I feel that this proposal needs to be more detailed and concrete before I'm ready to sign it.

Check out other proposals for some ideas on how this could become more concrete.

lydia moved this task from ready for discussion to ready for voting on the Goal settings 2017 board.Nov 9 2017, 8:26 AM
lydia added a subscriber: lydia.

Thanks everyone for helping draft this proposal. The voting has started. If you are an active KDE contributor and have not received an invitation to the vote please send me an email to lydia@kde.org.