UI/UX has seemingly many times been neglected by many open source projects, especially those that are supposed to be for end users that might not be developers themselves. It's easy as a programmer to kind of guess where the functionality should be based on previous experiences (with similar but different software) when you're using it, while many end users don't really think about the patterns and gets a grimmer user experience. This is why we need more designers getting into open source design. Open source can be competitive with paid solutions, we all know it's true for everything from OSes up to CLI tools. But once you slap a UI on it, which requires end-user focus for the UX, we developers tend to drop the ball.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately, as I recently started a project where, since I'm not a designer, I'm trying to get designers onboard to help out with everything design. So far we had some people, which is nice, shows that there is willingness in designers to do open source work. Hardest so far is for me as a non-designer to understand the best workflows for designers to collaborate on design. Figma helps us a lot to collaborate, but it's just one piece of the puzzle. I'm sure there is more we can do to facilitate designers to help out with open source projects, we just have to find a "send patch / pull request" workflow that works for designers, just as we did for developers. Once we have some workflow nailed down, it can hopefully be replicated to other open source communities in order to have more designers collaborate with developers on open source.
Those are some great points there. I work with the OpenSource Design group and we often have discussions surrounding topics you described.
Posting one link about a talk presented at the OSD devroom at FOSDEM last year which digs into the workflow aspect of design collaborations in OS projects: https://archive.fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/git_workflow_...
I often recommend "Don’t make me think" (Krug) for people who are interested in improving websites; my go-to resource for (desktop) applications would be "About Face" (Cooper et.al)
yes, I was looking on their website how to nominate that project, couldn't find a way to do the same, anyone know how? Can you propose Apache Open Meetings project?
I love that this gets some love.
I found it odd that the website is in itself not very pretty (like... that kind of goes against the main selling point of the community).
If you are looking for pretty websites you misunderstand what is going on.
People who want to create actual value for other people, don't spend time endlessly polishing look and feel of their landing page.
The content of this is informational value and networking for people, not polished graphics.
Companies can throw money in design because they get revenue from it. Individual open source contributors who are not paid for their effort don't get revenue from the design but rather reward from the actual value they provide to other people.
I did not realized that aesthetic was not correlated with function. Probably a clear visual understanding to the actual value of something is meaningless, I suppose.
I think that question is in itself a fundamental part of UX design and research. Designs are better assessed with a context - so design that is bland for one group could be read as being elegantly minimal by another, and the opposite.
A big part of UX research is figuring out the user base and making designs conducive for your target.
That is arguable, at best it is functional enough so that people can use it, at worst it is not functional for squat and it is mostly dominant because of the incubator attached to it.
In fact I wonder the rate of drop vs new user retention as it is hard to follow a thread, there is no clarity in the headline differentiations... it is really a tough argument to say that it lacks nothing and / or is a good example of function over design...
I agree. I mean I get it that it's for open source, and so therefore can be straight to the point. But it's missing a lot that would be easily recommendable, like clear calls to action; there isn't a clear option to Contribute or Support, or one pathway to Learn More.
I imagine a part of the problem with the design of a lot of open source software, especially the more 'casual' or UI heavy kind, is the discrepancy between who makes it, and who uses it. Someone who uses LaTeX is likely to have a STEM background, so they're more likely to to contribute to its ecosystem. On the other hand, a Libre Office user could be pretty much anyone, someone with no CS knowledge, who doesn't approach using it in the same way a Libre Office dev might. Designers are the people who bridge this gap, and I'd love to see it done.
(This isn't meant as a criticism of Libre Office. That's just what first came to mind when I thought of a piece of open source software intended for a general audience.)
I've been thinking about this a lot lately, as I recently started a project where, since I'm not a designer, I'm trying to get designers onboard to help out with everything design. So far we had some people, which is nice, shows that there is willingness in designers to do open source work. Hardest so far is for me as a non-designer to understand the best workflows for designers to collaborate on design. Figma helps us a lot to collaborate, but it's just one piece of the puzzle. I'm sure there is more we can do to facilitate designers to help out with open source projects, we just have to find a "send patch / pull request" workflow that works for designers, just as we did for developers. Once we have some workflow nailed down, it can hopefully be replicated to other open source communities in order to have more designers collaborate with developers on open source.
I'm looking at buying books on the subject at the moment. Then eventually I'll look at courses.
https://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-4th/dp/0133...
People who want to create actual value for other people, don't spend time endlessly polishing look and feel of their landing page.
The content of this is informational value and networking for people, not polished graphics.
Companies can throw money in design because they get revenue from it. Individual open source contributors who are not paid for their effort don't get revenue from the design but rather reward from the actual value they provide to other people.
In fact I wonder the rate of drop vs new user retention as it is hard to follow a thread, there is no clarity in the headline differentiations... it is really a tough argument to say that it lacks nothing and / or is a good example of function over design...
(This isn't meant as a criticism of Libre Office. That's just what first came to mind when I thought of a piece of open source software intended for a general audience.)
https://www.caelinux.com/CMS3/ https://www.linuxcnc.org
Those two projects should get together an spawn a new era in computer aided design-fabrication.