Re: [libreoffice-design] Hi there!

Hi Sabin!

Although I'm still in the "parental leave" (which means to skip most of
the mails), I'd like to use the opportunity to welcome you - and some
other members who joined during the last weeks. "Hi all!" :-)

Am Freitag, den 10.06.2011, 10:23 -0400 schrieb Sabin Densmore:
> Hello all.
>
> I'm not sure what the "hey I'm new here" protocol is, so I figured I
> would risk it and introduce myself.

No risk ... but hopefully much fun. Ah, and you're already part of the
design team list - cool!

> I've used OpenOffice since the early days, and am glad to see
> LibreOffice continue strongly forward. I figured that since I've gotten
> so much from the good work that maybe I should give back what I can.

That sounds great, because: although I'm really happy that we get fresh
new ideas and proposals, we still have to agree that OOo/LibO is an
incredibly complex and powerful application. More detailed, it means
that it is very easy to break consistency to less often used (but still
important) parts. Having some people with us, who know "the past" is
absolutely helpful for ongoing discussions.

[...]

> Basically, I guess what I want to say is "hey there" and "how can I
> help?" I have experience in user interface/interaction design and
> presentation, user testing, Agile project management. I work fulltime as
> an Information Architect/UX Designer for a financial services firm in
> Boston, MA. I've been there for five years and have been doing this kind
> of work for 10.

Sounds great ... still ;-) [I hope German humor is okay ...]

Well, I'm working in a similar environment in the corporate research of
a rather large consumer goods company - doing all kinds of UX/Usability/
UCD stuff for nearly all kinds of products (but food) :-)

What you might already be aware of - we are both lacking major goals for
LibreOffice, and tiny but important improvements. Since the project is
very young, all teams still try to stabilize their own processes ...
Currently, the development is rather interested in small improvements to
clean up the UI and some behavior (helpful to let new developers join,
who can - later on - help with larger tasks).

> Should I jump in? Is there a list of things to tackle? Let me know how I
> can help.

Mmh, could you elaborate what might be interesting for you? Working on
the design team setup, certain topics within LibO, ... Here are some
starting points you might have a look at ...

An old "task list", mainly branding related - some items already
outdated:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Work_Items

Here is what has happened so far - and how we might continue:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Kick-Off

I held a presentation at the FOSDEM - a bit easier to look through, I
think:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Presentations

Here is what we will need in the next time to establish the Design Team
(data, goals, procedures, community stuff ...):
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Kick-Off/WhatWeNeed

And a whiteboards section that was meant to collect ideas being actively
worked on (in the best case: with some development support):
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Whiteboard

And, finally, it might be interesting for you to subscribe to the
libreoffice-ux-advice list. Developers start to ask for active support
concerning UI related issues and decisions. More information can be
found here:
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design#Communication
(One little remark, although it might sound annoying to you all. The
developers created this list because our libreoffice-design list is too
distracting for them ... so please post wisely. It might be extremely
helpful for them, if we discuss issues in advance on this list.)

That's it, at the moment ... I hope this was the right information. If
not, then please simply skip it and tell us a bit more about your
wishes.

Have a nice day!

Cheers,
Christoph


-- 
Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to design+help@global.libreoffice.org
Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/design/
All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted