[libreoffice-design] Re: [libreoffice-marketing] Ribbon UI - A marketing problem?

Hi Mike, Sadiq, all

Switching to the design list - please subscribe there if you didn't
already...

mail@crazyhstudio.net schrieb:
> Hi Sadiq, @all,
>
> i'm following the Design-List and for the moment. The intentions are
> to fixe minor issues. Only little hacks, like the Developers calling
> it.

That's what we did in preparing the final version of LibO 3.3.

For the near future we'll be working on a "Community Branding Design"
(timeframe about LibO 3.5) as well as on new aspects of UX and UI design.

If we can find developers spending their time and effort in the task of
integrating a easy to be used theming modality to LibO (or provide it as
extension), we can work on switchable UI/UX themes.
> But I can say to you that there is intention (mine and some new
> followers) to make something new. And we are for the moment
> searching for new Icons and discussing some other problems.

The present iconset is nearly finished - as part of the Initial Branding
it might be replaced with the Community Branding but for the next
versions they just need some final brushing...
> For the moment there are more enterprises which are using
> Libreoffice and they don't like to change something, because they
> have to do for that investements for training,.... .

That's one important point: We don't want to cross our present users and
force them to change their workflow, so as long there is no switchable
UI possible, any changes will have to respect them leading to a more
evolutionary approach than anything totally new...
> I propose (and that's why I joined LO), to setup a real structure
> for the Design Team and move forward. We could make a group which is
> focused on the minor changes and the other on a (r)evolution of the
> UI.

The Design Team is defining it's structure right now - so everybody:
Come and join us :-)

http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Kick-Off
> In the group for the (R)Evolution i think it would be best to
> integrate 1 person which makes the link between each group here.
> (Developers, Marketing,...) So we can Research and Develope the new
> GUI in a Group which can concentrate only on this Developmnet.

I don't think that we need two different groups - even if we can't
integrate all the new and good ideas at once, they will find their way
during the time.

With different groups most of the people would like to discuss the new
approach while the work to be done more urgent might be less attractive.

We always have to keep in mind what is our main goal: To improve
LibreOffice.

And in a meritocratic system the one providing solutions to present
tasks has more influence than others discussing possible evolutions for
the future.

When we stay one team working on both tasks we'll be able to stay
consistent and have influence in the general direction LibreOffice takes.
> I know that their is a big discussion to not change the UI or to
> change it, but I think it's time that we create a group where we
> start to discuss the possibilities of the future for LibreOffice.

We should work on these future tasks in the existing groups - if they
are related to different teams, these discussions need to invite all of
them. Creating additional groups lead to repetitive discussions and
negative reactions because important and relevant opinions have not been
taken into account beforehand.

> In fact there are demands for Separated download, mobile version, web
> version and all this should be discussed with at least one of each
> group.

These topics are mainly developer-dependent. If you would be able to
find people interested in working on these topics, this would be great.

(From my personal impression the download topic might be the first to
become true...)
> In hope that I was clear, if not shoot me (with an email)

... I hope you don't feel shot - thank you very much for your reply 
covering several aspects of our work. :-)

> Mike
>
> Am 26.01.2011 um 04:19 schrieb Sadiq S:
> > I've been reading user comments on press releases on various sites
> > around the web (Lifehacker, ArsTechnica) and one of the hot topics
> > discussed was the UI.

We definitely should market our position when we after discussing the 
general approach on the design list.

Thanks for raising this topic!
> > People are saying that it looks like MS Office 97, and menu based
> > interfaces are a thing of the past etc.
> >
> > Now my question is, what is our official position on major UI
> > changes?
> >
> > (Ribbon etc.)
> >
> > Until this is made clear, I am at a loss as to what to say to
> > people if they ask about this topic.
> >
> > Perhaps someone from the Design team can reply to this. :)

Does this help?

Best regards

Bernhard

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