3 ms·

The aspiration to be on par is cool and over time, hopefully they pull it off. But it probably comes down to them having some dedicated graphic designers and Ux

The aspiration to be on par is cool and over time, hopefully they pull it off. But it probably comes down to them having some dedicated graphic designers and Ux designers (and an audio person would be nice too), and foss projects have historically done poorly at recruiting those people.

rollcat 3y ago
Agree, it's right in the FAQ: > I don't code but this looks awesome! Can I still help? > Absolutely! There will be art, documentation, testing, UX and UI work, [...]. I read this and immediately think the project sees UX as "I can't write code ell oh ell". You need to treat a UX role the same way you treat a kernel hacker role - it's a specialist whose input you must respect, or be left to deal with the consequences.
- bigstrat2003 3y ago
  I think you're reading too much into it. Saying "if you aren't a programmer you might be able to help in various ways, including UX" isn't the same as saying "UX doesn't require any particular skills".
  - rollcat 3y ago
    True, but this is literally the only mention of the words "UX", "UI" or "design" in the FAQ/docs; meanwhile they write at length about the various technical challenges and choices. This is inconsistent with their own tagline.
omnimus 3y ago
Its worse than recruiting. The main issue is foss projects work poorly with designers. Even if you have good designers their powers tend to diminish. Once any disagreement comes up if you cant code, if you cant PR it… wont happen. Also design is super hard to modularize and split into small pieces. With code random anybody can come and build/fix a feature. Not possible with design. Its mostly big picture work where you need to have deep context and follow it to get desired consistency. For projects like OS gui that requires huge commitment (most likely full time). But i think copying existing well made software can make this a lot easier. Just need to be very diligent about it and not ashamed (and its a lot less creative work).

rollcat 3y ago

Agree, it's right in the FAQ: > I don't code but this looks awesome! Can I still help? > Absolutely! There will be art, documentation, testing, UX and UI work, [...]. I read this and immediately think the project sees UX as "I can't write code ell oh ell". You need to treat a UX role the same way you treat a kernel hacker role - it's a specialist whose input you must respect, or be left to deal with the consequences.

bigstrat2003 3y ago
I think you're reading too much into it. Saying "if you aren't a programmer you might be able to help in various ways, including UX" isn't the same as saying "UX doesn't require any particular skills".
- rollcat 3y ago
  True, but this is literally the only mention of the words "UX", "UI" or "design" in the FAQ/docs; meanwhile they write at length about the various technical challenges and choices. This is inconsistent with their own tagline.

omnimus 3y ago

Its worse than recruiting. The main issue is foss projects work poorly with designers. Even if you have good designers their powers tend to diminish. Once any disagreement comes up if you cant code, if you cant PR it… wont happen. Also design is super hard to modularize and split into small pieces. With code random anybody can come and build/fix a feature. Not possible with design. Its mostly big picture work where you need to have deep context and follow it to get desired consistency. For projects like OS gui that requires huge commitment (most likely full time). But i think copying existing well made software can make this a lot easier. Just need to be very diligent about it and not ashamed (and its a lot less creative work).