Re: UI Guidelines -- What I'm doing

[Dan Mueth <dan eazel com>]

Generally, I really like the sound of this.  It reads very nicely.  I've
made a few minor comments/changes below.

I think this is generally the right approach, and while I think it is
very long overdue, I wonder if it is a bit premature in just one
regard...

We really need to think about what our goals and roadmap are.  Creating
and using a UI guideline will play a very key role.  However, we should
try to frame the project in terms of scope and time frame so that it has a
tangible effect on GNOME 2.0.  If the scope is too broad, if the time
frame is too long, if the quality is not good enough, if we can't all
agree to the extent that we can adopt the guidelines, if we are unable to
get developers to implement the guidelines, etc., then all this work would
be in vain and GNOME 2.0 will be as unusable as GNOME 1.4 or even more so.

Of course this is not only true for the UI Guidelines, but also for the
rest of the GNOME Usability Project (GUP).  In fact, I'd love to see Calum
give us a roadmap for the broader GUP leading up to GNOME 2.0 <hint>
<hint> which also includes user testing, application review,
accessibility, etc. I think we will find that GNOME 2.0 is approaching
very quickly and that (like the GNOME hackers) we will not have time to do
more than about 20% of what we would like to accomplish for GNOME 2.0.

I really hate to delay the UI Guidelines, but I think we have to address
some of these issues and come up with a real plan of attack before we just
jump in and start writing (which was our old, unsuccessful attack plan).  
I would suggest (briefly) delaying the call for volunteers until we can
better define the project.

Dan


On Tue, 1 May 2001, Joakim Ziegler wrote:

> Speaking of which, this is what I'm thinking about sending out to the
> various relevant groups today (or tomorrow if there are largish concerns
> that need to be addressed):
> 
> ---
> 
> Call For Writers

           ^^^^^^^
           User Interface Designers

> The GNOME Usability Project is attempting to organize the work on the GNOME
> User Interface Guidelines. To increase the signal to noise ratio andimprove
> efficiency, we are attempting to gather a small number (5-10) of dedicated
> writers who are able to dedicate considerable amounts of time to writing the

  ^^^^^^^
  user interface designers

> guidelines. The idea is that these people form the initial authoring group,
> coordinating on a dedicated mailing list, and producing and presenting
> drafts of the finished document for review by the GNOME community frequently
  ^^^^^^        xxxxxxxx

  sections

(It is important to work on the document in small pieces which can be
reviewed and then approved as finished.  It will probably be eons before
the entire document is finished, so we need to focus on the most important
sections first - keybindings, menus, dialogs, ... - and get finished
versions of these accepted and into use.)

> (once every couple of weeks or so).

> This work will build on Colin Z Robertson's efforts to resurrect the GNOME
> UI Guidelines, and people who have already agreed to take part in the group
> of writers includes Colin, Anna Dirks from Ximian, Calum Benson from Sun,
> and myself.

I would nix this whole paragraph:

The team should use whatever existing UI style guides they choose,
provided the end product is of high quality and consistent with GNOME's
style.  If we decide that certain style guides definitely should or should
not be used, then let's discuss this before we announce it.

I don't think it is a good idea to state that the team is already
(partially) pre-determined before people get a chance to apply to be on
it.

> If you have a keen interest in/experience with UI and GNOME, and are able to
                     xxxxxxxxxxxx

I hate to say this, because it is not as open sourcy as I like to be, but
UI design takes years of experience to do properly.  People with lots of
interest in UI design should definitely join the gnome-gui mailing list
and learn and discuss as much as they can, and I'm sure their
contributions will be valuable.  But for creating a first draft of the UI
guidelines, I think we only want people with a pretty serious background
in UI design.  (Well, we probably need to throw in somebody who is pretty
good at writing and DocBook/SGML.)

> dedicate time to writing substantial parts of the UI Guidelines, you should
> probably sign up for the writers' group. However, the intention of the core
> group is to produce the document quickly, so if you're unable to dedicate
> the time to being a member of the core group, you will probably be better
> off providing feedback/patches on the biweekly drafts, which will be
> published to the usability gnome org list (and other places, as relevant).
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                   gnome-gui-list gnome org

> The mailing list for the writers is not set up yet. Please respond to this
> mail if you're interested in participating. Introducing yourself when doing
> so is probably a good idea, too.

Let's replace this paragraph with something like:

  If you are interested in helping to create the first draft of the GNOME
  UI Guidelines and have experience in UI design, please consider emailing
  gnome-gui-list gnome org stating that you would be willing to serve on
  this team and listing you UI design and style guide experience.