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Desktop OS (Mac, Linux, Windows) needs an authoritarian single person designer that can dictate how UI/UX would work. Democratically developed interfaces suffer

Desktop OS (Mac, Linux, Windows) needs an authoritarian single person designer that can dictate how UI/UX would work. Democratically developed interfaces suffer from the same paralysis that industrial design faces - You need Ettore Sottsass, Dieter Rams and Jony Ive of software UX/UI. Otherwise it’s an unfocused trend driven graphical gore that community tends to develop. A thousand squeaky wheels can’t stay aligned on the road. I think they’re all broken. Not just Linux Desktop.

BurningFrog 5y ago
Back in the 90s, I think the Apple UI design team (whatever it was called) provided the best such dictated UI guidelines I've seen. Just to make the point that it doesn't have to be one person.
- systemvoltage 5y ago
  Agree but it needs to behave like an authoritarian little group - lots of autonomy and decision making abilities. A lot of car designs are done by a single person aided by a small group of exceptional designers. That brings me to a second point - that team has to be the cream of the crop. Not any goof with design degree but a demonstrated long history of exceptional understanding of human to machine interaction. Apple attracted such people back in the day.
- phendrenad2 5y ago
  It's still not the same though. There was a lead designer, who was accountable to the CTO, who was accountable to the shareholders. There's downward pressure to stop analysis paralysis when it appears.
mixedCase 5y ago
GNOME is the closest thing to that in an open source world, they build on top of one pretty specific vision and have a good set HIGs. And if you don't like it, you're wrong. Not because your opinion is not valid, but because that's what you're requesting essentially.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
> I think they’re all broken. Not just Linux Desktop. Agreed. At this point it is just a matter of which brand of brokenness you tolerate best.

BurningFrog 5y ago

Back in the 90s, I think the Apple UI design team (whatever it was called) provided the best such dictated UI guidelines I've seen. Just to make the point that it doesn't have to be one person.

systemvoltage 5y ago
Agree but it needs to behave like an authoritarian little group - lots of autonomy and decision making abilities. A lot of car designs are done by a single person aided by a small group of exceptional designers. That brings me to a second point - that team has to be the cream of the crop. Not any goof with design degree but a demonstrated long history of exceptional understanding of human to machine interaction. Apple attracted such people back in the day.
phendrenad2 5y ago
It's still not the same though. There was a lead designer, who was accountable to the CTO, who was accountable to the shareholders. There's downward pressure to stop analysis paralysis when it appears.

mixedCase 5y ago

GNOME is the closest thing to that in an open source world, they build on top of one pretty specific vision and have a good set HIGs. And if you don't like it, you're wrong. Not because your opinion is not valid, but because that's what you're requesting essentially.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago

> I think they’re all broken. Not just Linux Desktop. Agreed. At this point it is just a matter of which brand of brokenness you tolerate best.