Re: [libreoffice-design] Re: [VI] Consistent theme for screenshots

Hi David, hi Marc!

Am Donnerstag, den 07.07.2011, 19:16 +0300 schrieb David Nelson:
[...]
> Personally, I feel that it would be most useful if the Design team
> were to keep its eye truly on the ball and work on new UI/UX designs
> for the LibreOffice software. That is actually the most pressing task
> we'd have for you guys, IMHO.

> From my experience, UI/UX design requires different a slightly different
set of qualities but "graphical design" and understanding of "visual
identity". Thus, it is attractive for other people (as well) - so don't
worry about any slowdown.

Quite the contrary, if some people ask for our contribution (even if its
just comments), then we're happy to help. As (for example) Nik did, when
you directly requested his help for the website design some months ago -
having a nice design that harmonizes with our branding.

> > The LibreOffice project has many
> > tentacles but some of these tentacles do need to cooperate with other
> > tentacles. The design team does a good job at keeping the LibreOffice
> > "public face" consistent.
>
> My personal feeling is that the Design team is slightly over-extending
> its remit with an initiative that is non-crucial if not trivial, and
> for which there is not a general consensus. I'd much rather see you
> guys focused on working with the devs on UI/UX design for the
> LibreOffice software.

So who is the "Design team" in this case? As Marc pointed out earlier,
the discussion is held on this list, since it seems the natural place
for some people to have such a discussion.

What I see is, that many other people contribute to the theme discussion
- members of the marketing team, the documentation team, the design
team, the broader community, the local teams. Moreover, some people try
to manage the input from different (e.g. local) lists. So I'm not sure
to whom you are referring to when stating "slightly over-extending its
remit".


> > As to your reference again of "manage their own work, without anyone trying
> > to impose ideas on them > "from the outside" (meaning from people who are
> > not actively involved > in the actual work)." seems to be a little negative
> > when some of us who would like to contribute are asking for a little more
> > clarity in guidelines. It doesn't sound like people would have a voice to
> > express their opinions about a part of LibreOffice where they would like to
> > participate.
>
> Anybody who writes to the documentation list is always given advice
> and recommendations by one or more of the other contributors at first
> asking, and is free to make comments and suggestions - which get
> listened to willingly and objectively.

Same on the design list, of course.

> > You can't on one hand complain that there is not enough help to update
> > manuals and create more documentation and then complain when people ask for
> > clarity and better guidelines and infer that they are butting in where they
> > don't belong.
>
> I don't remember complaining about anything at all, Marc, except that
> you're trying to impose a standardized theme and working rules on the
> English docs team and website team when there is a non-negligible
> number of people voicing disagreement with various aspects of the
> premises you've adopted and what you're trying to achieve.

It seems that I missed a part of this discussion - but I'm wondering why
you are referring to Marc only? Why is "he" trying to achieve something,
if there are also other people who share his view?

> > If growth in contributors was a problem with OOo and that it
> > is again rearing its ugly head with LibreOffice, then maybe there needs to
> > be a little tweaking here and there to help new people join and contribute.
>
> Well, I'm not sure who's vision of "tweaking" is being implemented, or
> whether they correctly identified the reasons for a drop-off in
> contribution before doing so...
>
> > Or at least, is this not part of the project's hopes? Have more members contribute?
>
> Certainly. I'm not sure that this particular initiative by the Design
> team is going to contribute to that goal.

Mmh, is the initiative driven by the Design team, by Marc or by a large
part of the community. Now I'm getting confused.


> Perhaps you could just leave the details of documentation work and web
> content development to some perfectly competent people working in
> those areas?

So who is missing to take part in this discussion? I thought we do have
competent people from the different teams - like Jean who has years of
experience and who provided interesting insights.

Personally, I hope that we can soon solve the remaining issues to help
the project to get a clean and strong branding - something which is
relevant for users to get some more confidence in us.

Cheers,
Christoph


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