2 ms·

KDE _functions_ well, but my god does it need someone with an actual design education to help out.

hnlmorg 3y ago
People with actual design education created macOS and Windows 11. Both of which strip back features in the name of design purity. I see KDE more like a professional piece of equipment. And when viewed through that lens, I think it’s designed rather well.
- askonomm 3y ago
  To be fair, the upcoming KDE release cleans up a lot of my UI annoyances (like having frames within frames), so it is definitely getting better.
- sph 3y ago
  It is very naive to believe that professional equipment do not benefit from well-thought design and UX. Design does not have to be fancy colours and flashy animations. Design does not mean Fisher-Price UI and massive amounts of whitespace. Ask Dieter Rams.
  - hnlmorg 3y ago
    > It is very naive to believe that professional equipment do not benefit from well-thought design and UX. I know. I never claimed otherwise. > Design does not have to be fancy colours and flashy animations. Design does not mean Fisher-Price UI and massive amounts of whitespace. Ask Dieter Rams I never said it did. You’ve completely misinterpreted my comment. My point was that commercial operating systems have design specialists and the end result is they suck for a great many professionals. Whereas KDE, despite “not having a design specialist” (I don’t actually know if that’s true, just quoting the GP) feels like it has the same well thought out design that specialist technical hardware does. I’ve worked closely with designers (because I have zero design skills myself) and seen first hand how an arguably less beautiful design can actually be more intuitive for users So at no point am I claiming that design is just about fancy graphics. If anything, I’m making the same point you were.
  - account42 3y ago
    The problem is that most design and UX is not "well-thought" but just cargo-culting and bad intuition. Almost never is there any real user study to show the design improves things in the real world.
account42 3y ago
To do what? Add more unremovable whitespace everywhere? No thanks!

People with actual design education created macOS and Windows 11. Both of which strip back features in the name of design purity. I see KDE more like a professional piece of equipment. And when viewed through that lens, I think it’s designed rather well.

askonomm 3y ago
To be fair, the upcoming KDE release cleans up a lot of my UI annoyances (like having frames within frames), so it is definitely getting better.
sph 3y ago
It is very naive to believe that professional equipment do not benefit from well-thought design and UX. Design does not have to be fancy colours and flashy animations. Design does not mean Fisher-Price UI and massive amounts of whitespace. Ask Dieter Rams.
- hnlmorg 3y ago
  > It is very naive to believe that professional equipment do not benefit from well-thought design and UX. I know. I never claimed otherwise. > Design does not have to be fancy colours and flashy animations. Design does not mean Fisher-Price UI and massive amounts of whitespace. Ask Dieter Rams I never said it did. You’ve completely misinterpreted my comment. My point was that commercial operating systems have design specialists and the end result is they suck for a great many professionals. Whereas KDE, despite “not having a design specialist” (I don’t actually know if that’s true, just quoting the GP) feels like it has the same well thought out design that specialist technical hardware does. I’ve worked closely with designers (because I have zero design skills myself) and seen first hand how an arguably less beautiful design can actually be more intuitive for users So at no point am I claiming that design is just about fancy graphics. If anything, I’m making the same point you were.
- account42 3y ago
  The problem is that most design and UX is not "well-thought" but just cargo-culting and bad intuition. Almost never is there any real user study to show the design improves things in the real world.

account42 3y ago

To do what? Add more unremovable whitespace everywhere? No thanks!