Re: [libreoffice-design] Design Tenets Proposal

> 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.
I couldn't agree more with the propsal that we should be guided by principles. 
What I have found a little frustrating, by way of comparison to the 
developement of commercial software is the disconnect between genuine user 
requirements and development. What I think is consistently missing here is the 
next layer down from your excellent 'tennets'; user validated  requirements 
(not personal opinion or anecdotal observations). A corpus of well structured 
use cases, including those for the product architecture, will help us set a 
strategic direction. We should research requirements before too many folk 
pitch in with alternative designs and prototypes that may or may 
not be any kind of solution to users' real needs. It is precisely this which 
will make or break Libre Office and will set it apart from other office 
software.

If we know what users want then we can stage implementation in deliverable 
chunks over several releases. There's no need to implement the whole deal in 
one hit. 

One final thought. If the current implementation or architecture is part of an 
impediment to realising a long term roadmap to a redesign, then that too 
should  appear as one of the tennets.
> 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
>
> P.S. Sorry for the re-post - I sent this just before the list changed
> addresses, so I'm re-posting it with the new one!

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