Re: [libreoffice-design] Roadmap - More structure, please!

Hi Ivan!

Thanks for starting / continuing the idea of a better roadmap!

Am Montag, den 22.11.2010, 22:53 +1300 schrieb Ivan M.:
> Hello all,
>
> As we all know, there's a lot of design work to be done over the
> coming months/year. Recently, we have had a broad, general roadmap
> proposed, which is a good first step. However, there are specifics
> that (IMHO) should be decided as early as possible so that we can
> channel people's creativity into areas where they will confidently
> have a good chance of making a difference and seeing their work in the
> hands of LibO's users. So, this is one of the first discussions I
> would like to continue here on the design list.

Absolutely! One thing I'd like to clarify in advance (or at least in
parallel), is the collaboration between Design and Marketing. There have
been lots of mails - I consider to talk about that in my very next mail.

> Just for reference, here is the proposed roadmap [1]:
[... roadmap ...]

> For 3.3, is there anything left to refine, and is there still time to
> do it? For example, I noticed that the LibO installer icon comes in
> only 32x32, which looks bad on versions of Windows where icons are
> scalable - is there time to change things like that?

Oh, there are some more important things ... like the application icons,
or the MIME type icons. Some of us might accept the old OOo icons to
serve as placeholders, but if anybody comes up with a viable alternative
(that continues the design language of the LibO branding and the old
icons), it might be possible to ship them (he said that, without having
talked to the development or even QA).

> Between 3.4 and 3.5, there will be a transition from initial branding
> to community branding, but we will supposedly already have new
> mimetype icons in 3.4. If the community branding is different, the
> we'll have a different set of icons in 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5. The examples
> of community branding given are broad, but what about specifics, such
> as the logo? We've already had lots of logo proposals; will the logo
> be up for change between 3.4 and 3.5? If the community branding is
> going to involve such a major overhaul, then I don't think spending
> too much time refining initial branding would be a wise decision since
> it's probably going to be dropped in 3.5.

Well, since we don't have all required items yet (e.g. presentation
material), there is no time spent un-wisely ;-) However, the better the
initial branding is, the better the first impression within our user
base ... and the more relaxing will be (and better in terms of quality)
the transition from initial to community branding.

> Of course, this depends on the time spans we're talking about (i.e.,
> will the time between 3.3 and 3.4 be the same as the time between 3.4
> and 3.5). It also doesn't even begin to consider UI & UX changes - can
> we expect any (bigger) UI changes in 3.4 and 3.5? Is there anything we
> can start working on in that domain?

Let's say that UI changes (improvements) are to be expected - but I
consider them rather small. We already do have developer asking for the
famous "UX easy hacks". Here, we'll require some input by people who
have some experience with usability and GUI design ... e.g. to pick up
some of the requests that are already available (there has been a
message concerning that on one of the lists ... mmmh ... I should should
look up my own mails).

> I don't mean to say that all these questions need to be answered now
> (or that we need a super-detailed point-by-point roadmap to hold our
> hands each step of the way). I'd like to see how many of the blurry
> details can be brought into focus initially so that we can start
> working on things that will have tangible results soon.

I'd be happy if somebody could step in to support the work on a refined
plan. As we already discussed on the marketing list, we need the
"community briefing" (goals, values, ...) serving as input, the schedule
of the website team, and ... Furthermore, I do have an idea how we can
make the visual artwork within LibO rock (in comparison to the past).
I'll post that later ... and here, we do need dev support.

> Regards,
> Ivan.

Cheers,
Christoph

> [1] http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Marketing/Work_Items



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