Re: [libreoffice-design] Design Tenets Proposal

We come back to these great points but what is lacking is proper
infrastructure and channels of operation. We speak of users with no data to
back up with anything and most importantly, no brand identity. Nothing will
come forth from this type of infrastructure if we split hairs on how it
applies to every single user imaginable, nothing will get done.

I proposed a while ago with no comments a structure that dealt with the
foundation of the layout design. How can we speak of specifics, when we
cannot reach a consesus on keeping the layout as is, or introducing a
vertical toolbar, or customizable ribbon like layout (personally, we will
NEVER reach consensus if there is no BRAND IDENTITY of what LibreOffice is
and who its for...and lets not be cliche and say its for everyone because
that can be interpreted so many different ways).

We must come to a decision of what the GENERAL layout should be, then work
on menu/icon placement, then work on functinality, and last but DEF NOT
LEAST, visual appeal.

We will have to put time tables up, because we can never progress unless we
all are on the same page regarding the need to progress and if a great idea
can't be fit in the timeline set, then we wait to introduce it in the next
clycle release. We can forgo all these great ideas that we have just because
we have to iron out every single aspect of it.

The tenets are great, but again, if we don't have a structure and not use
the current infrastructure properly, we will do nothing more but right great
emails about great ideas that never see the light of day. Im sorry if I
sound a little over the top, I really care, like all of you, about the
advancement of the value libreoffice can have on so many people.

So, I decided to do something a little different and create this site for an
alternative infrastructure that is meant to be smaller in scale, but faster
in pace in some respects. If you are interested in experimenting with a
different kind of infrastructure, and flesh out some experimental
designs...I especially invite you (anyone really).

Here is the link.
http://libreofficedesign.weebly.com<http://libreofficedesign.weebly.com/index.html>

I look forward to seeing where this goes...

JL




On Sat, Jun 18, 2011 at 6:35 PM, planas <jslozier@gmail.com> wrote:

> Ricardo
>
> On Sat, 2011-06-18 at 10:46 +0200, RGB ES wrote:
>
> > 2011/6/17 Scott Pledger <scottpledger2005@gmail.com>:
> > > Hey all,
> > >
> > > One thing that I've noticed is that we have a lot of great redesign
> > > proposals floating around, but we have yet to establish a true
> direction for
> > > the Libre Office platform.  Someone recently posted this video (
> > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl9kD693ie4 ) which really made me
> realize
> > > the importance of having specific long-term goals for software design.
> > >  Therefore, I wanted to propose a few simple goals that I think
> LibreOffice
> > > ought to have for its design as we move forward (maybe even for the 4.0
> > > release)  as well as the basic tenets that I think we can use to help
> > > achieve these goals.  So, here we go:
> > >
> > > *The Goals:*
> > >
> > >   - *Make LibreOffice easy to use while retaining its power.*  This is
> by
> > >   far one of the biggest complaints I have when I suggest that my
> clients use
> > >   LibreOffice - they don't understand where things are in the
> > >   menu/toolbar hierarchy.  The best example of this is page margins.
>  The
> > >   easiest way for a lot of my customers to find this is through the
> > >   right-click menu.
> > >   - *Lead current trends in technology, don't just follow.*
>  LibreOffice
> > >   retains a layout that was first commercially phased out about four
> years
> > >   ago.  While the Menu/Toolbar paradigm is an excellent way of
> displaying
> > >   program features for less fully-featured software and smaller
> screens, but
> > >   let's face it - most desktop screens are no longer small and
> LibreOffice is
> > >   extremely full-featured.  Instead of copying another office suite,
> let's
> > >   pave the way for others to build on.
> > >   - *Help people to be more efficient.*  This is really important if we
> > >   want to get LibreOffice used in more businesses and schools, and is
> > >   ultimately the best way to get any piece of software adopted.
> > >
> > > *The Tenets:*
> > >
> > >   - *Allow users to focus on the content, not the UI.*  The document
> > >   viewport should never change size or lose/gain visibility due to
> pop-up
> > >   dialogs or toolbars.  The only exception to this is menus, as users
> expect
> > >   these to overlap their document.  One major subset of this should be
> live
> > >   previews.  For instance, you have to click through Headings 1-10
> > >   individually to see what the differences are.
> > >   - *Everything should be accessible within 3 clicks, not just the
> 'most
> > >   common' features.*  This will help reduce the clutter while
> increasing
> > >   users' mastery of the software.
> > >   - *Consistent UI areas (not features) across all individual 'apps'.*
> > >   Keep the UI as consistent as possible without sacrificing the
> > >   features/functionality of any individual app (Calc, Writer, etc.).
> > >   - *Value context over comprehensiveness.*  Users don't need to have
> table
> > >   tools up and at the ready when they only have text in the body of a
> document
> > >   selected.
> > >
> > > Let me know what you think of these and, in particular, how you would
> > > change/expand on these.  This is just a very very rough draft (and very
> well
> > > could be repeating itself or incomplete) of things that I see , but
> > > ultimately LibreOffice isn't any one man's software, but rather
> everyone's,
> > > so I invite everyone to put some thought into this and please reply to
> this
> > > so we can come up with a general UX direction for this incredible
> project!
> > > Scott
> >
> > I only have one comment to your e-mail: you use the word "user"
> > several times, but THE user is something impossible to define.
> > It is a fact of life that you cannot please everyone, and a great
> > design for some people will be a disaster for others so first of all
> > we need to define the "user CASE".
> > An invoice is not the same than a technical manual, and a technical
> > manual is not the same than a scholar's essay full of old ligatures
> > and typographical variants.
> > So ideally we would need a UI flexible enough to adapt to as many user
> > cases as possible, then identify the elements needed for each user
> > case, "group" those elements on different "user case UIs" and finally
> > provide a way to switch from one user case to the other.
> > That's a HUGE, almost impossible task...
> > The alternative (but I think it should be the chosen path) is to
> > provide a flexible enough UI that it is easy to configure and have a
> > "reasonable" (yes, we need to define "reasonably") set of default
> > values to start from so each user can quickly build what they need
> > without effort and without costly "learning curves".
> > Cheers
> > Ricardo
>
> I agree about the users will need to customize the UI for their
> particular needs. This is one area where MS made a mistake with the
> Ribbon. It is not that easy to customize by the user. On problem I have
> noticed with many users is they will not experiment with many of the
> features of any software package once they get past a limited period of
> learning. They will solve problems often with an awkward work around
> never realizing there is much easier way to accomplish the task
> available. In fact most users I have seen never modified their tool bars
> in the older MS Office suites. The problem is how make users aware that
> these features are available and if they need to use them regularly they
> can customize the UI to include them.
>
> --
> Jay Lozier
> jslozier@gmail.com
>
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-- 
Joed Lopez

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