Re: [Gimp-developer] about that student work...

[peter sikking <peter mmiworks net>]

Alexia wrote:

> > so you can guess my new motto: ‘from the first week we start
> > building the real thing.’
>
> Developers work in iterations. When you start you have a vague idea of what its going to be, a goal, but 
> you never know how it will make sense to reach that goal in the end. So you iterate, without polish and 
> beauty you make a draft, test, make sure the framework is solid, etc and then go over it again. At some 
> point you run into a fundamental issue and need to discard a lot of the underpinnings and the code above up 
> to and including UI concepts.

I am all for making UI from rough to polished. after an initial
analysis phase (which takes place in the first 20% of my work)
I can guide this, rough to polished, from the first week of
implementation, because I know exactly what we have to achieve
and where we have to go. the throwing away of non-working
UI concepts happens on my piece of paper, not in code written
at much greater expense (in time and motivation).

but you (I mean: all GIMP devs) have to let me guide you.

you have to accept and trust that I can ‘see’, ‘feel’ and judge a
UI idea/concept in a minute without it ever existing in code
or even a drawing. that I am able to tell you how it will work,
for users, three months after the release of the software.
that I can separate 977 bullshit UI ideas from the 3 that will
work, and concentrate us on making the best out of them.

you have to let me guide you and at this moment there is, I believe,
no developer at GIMP anymore that lets him or herself be guided.

> It also means that you do not wish to spend time polishing things that might get discarded - the work goes 
> from rough to good - from general to specific and in an ideal world, so would UI and interaction design. It 
> would start off as rough guidelines and complete in a finished product... Sofar, we have tried to make it 
> work in reverse - that the UI/interatcion is fitted on top of a ready bit of code like a mask. And in my 
> personal experience... That does not work.

I am happy you say that. it is encouraging.

UI is not a skin/decoration of back-end code. UI is the realisation of
the product, in this case the GIMP project. A lot of needs from
product, technology and users put a lot of requirements on the UI,
which I juggle in the design of it.

you notice that technology is only 1/3rd of the picture; of my puzzle.

and by my experience, the UI design has also an impact on
~33% of the back-end code. if developers refuse to harmonise this
back-end code with the UI design (as happens now) then the devs are
implicitly shaping the UI...

> It creates frustration for both sides, because we cant get the mask to fit and you feel that we disrespect 
> your work... And that is truly unfortunate, because we really really need your insights and input and I 
> personally believe it's of most use when it is given in form of concepts, rules, insights and diagrams 
> rather than ready made bitmap expectations of how it would have to look...

I am happy to develop and tune new methods of working, but
it starts with trust.

    --ps

        founder + principal interaction architect
            man + machine interface works

        http://blog.mmiworks.net: on interaction architecture