Re: Design in the open

[Federico Mena Quintero <federico gnome org>]

On Fri, 2012-05-04 at 00:03 -0500, Diego Escalante Urrelo wrote:

> A common language of patterns is an awesome idea. I'd encourage
> Federico to expand on the subject.

Calum, Allan, and generally the people around the London UX Hackfest
have already done a ton of work in this area:

https://live.gnome.org/UsabilityProject/HIG3

There is a set of prototypal patterns there.  I've just added my two
favorite references for designing pattern languages:

http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/StructurePattern.html - by Nikos
Salingaros.  He explains how a hierarchy or graph of patterns works, how
to validate pattern languages, and how to ensure that patterns have the
right connections among them.  Consider it as "how to write a good
pattern language".

http://www.dreamsongs.com/Files/FinePointsOfPatternWriting.pdf - by
Richard Gabriel.  It's a presentation on the quality of writing in
pattern descriptions, and about the story-like qualities that a pattern
language should have.  Consider it as "how to make a pattern language
pleasant to read".

I think we can just start with the work on the HIG3 page and start
polishing it based on those guidelines.  I also want to bring in
patterns from other UX-centered pattern languages that could be useful
to Gnome.

Also, Emily said:

> Another idea would be to begin giving users a simple way to provide
> feedback on what they prefer in design. This could be done via a GNOME
> Design Blog or similar, where posts focus on upcoming features along
> with examples to be voted on – do users prefer buttons/menus/etc that
> look like X, Y, or Z? Should we remove minimize/maximize/close
> buttons? Do users want a journal? How important is privacy to you?
> Etc. Require users to register, and when they do so ask if they'd like
[snip]

This would be a very good way to start hunting for good things in Gnome
that can be turned into patterns:  this is exactly what Tom Erickson
describes in his paper, about what was done in the town of Manteo to
figure out the "sacred places" that should be preserved.

We had good success with an informal poll like the one for Gnome
Deployments, and the replies weren't hard to analyze... maybe another
informal poll, "What do you like about gnome2 / gnome3?", with answers
of limited length and a "no bitching and moaning, please"
guideline... :)

  Federico