[kde-guidelines] Hi! Introduction and short notes about the Plasma Sprint

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

On Friday 17 January 2014 12:12:12 Jens Reuterberg wrote:
> Hi my name is Jens Reuterberg, I was present at the Plasma Sprint in
> Barcelona as a "design dude" (which is what I work with AFK) and I read
> about this mailing list on Sebas blog and thought I should be present in
> it.

First of all: Welcome from me as well, Jens!
Actually, I meant to invite you to our list because I definitely wanted to have 
you on board, but you preempted me :)
Not only did we want you on this list because you're working on the Plasma 
visual guidelines, but also because we really need design talent for the 
application HIGs as well, especially for those concerned with visual aspects ( 
http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Usability/HIG#Presentation ).
I know your time is limited just like everyone else's, but I still hope you 
can help us with your design expertise (just like we will help you with our 
HCI/psychology knowledge any way we can, of course).

> Anyway during the Plasma Sprint we talked some about the visuals of "Plasma
> 2" (which from what I can understand from the plasma-devel list is simply a
> working title, it seems a fish motif for every version is being set as we
> speak).
> As AFK work is weighing me down a bit right now I'll do the short version
> and then later next week post some images and something more precise.
> (edit: I took a bathroom break and suddenly the mail got really long, sry
> for wall-of-text)
> 
> 1) A large section of the discussion was the visuals of the various pop-ups
> and sections of Plasma and the idea was to unify the visual experience of
> these to create a feeling of "one system" instead of several independent
> applications.
> (there is a "design spec" draft being written by me right now that is ment
> to be used by anyone producing a applet/plasmoid/application to introduce
> them to not only the blueprints and the visual concepts but also THE
> REASONING behind them and visual design. A sort of reference point to
> create a more welcoming feeling for anyone interested in the design process
> - its just a draft obviously and it will be posted here and in the devel
> list for criticism and edits and right now its 7 pages long and thats
> without code snippets, visual examples and boxed wiredframes)

Sounds like a great idea! I think these guidelines are something that should 
live in parallel with the application-focused KDE HIG (and the Active HIG 
focused on applications for Plasma Active), cross-linked with them.

> 2) there was some shorter questions (by me) about the marketing concerning
> Plasma 2, not only the actual release but the visual branding of Plasma 2.
> Everything from logo to point colours needs to be adressed by a dedicated
> team of designers to modernize the current plasma desktops branding and
> find a suitable set of branding goals from which we can more confidently
> build a visual guideline.
> (here it would be awesome to create a design-event, like either a google-
> hangout session NOW and then perhaps (if I have the time for it) a meetup at
> the Akademy this spring)

A Hangout sounds great!

> 3) Another issue that became appearent during the Sprint was the lack of
> designers and designer control within Plasma.
> On a personal level I really think this is awesome. One of the things I as a
> designer is sceptical of is the marketing -> designer -> developer
> production chain common in many companies. It will create a stunning visual
> interface BUT it tends to create an environment that makes the developers
> work allot more complex and difficult. Sebas said something really great
> here during a discussion when he said that Plasma has a "Form follows
> function" idea - which is exactly what it has and I personally think that
> this should be a large chunk of the marketing, branding and visual
> guidelines. And we shouldn't forget that that IS a design choice and one
> that very few other DE's have making it "an easily cornered market".
> Perhaps look at other design areas where Form Follows Function was used and
> see how they did it?
> But at the same time - we really need to talk about how to welcome designers
> more. There is a ton of design work to be done, from large changes, to
> documentation and "1000 cuts" work. Creating a good documentation for devs
> is just step one.

Absolutely! The lack of designers (both visual designers and interaction 
designers) is indeed a big problem in KDE. While I personally still like the 
look of Oxygen (widget theme, window decoration, icons), it is something we 
often get criticized for (icons too old-fashioned because they are not 
minimalistic, imperfect layout, etc.).

> 4) beyond those things there was also talk about the Oxygen Icon theme and
> ways to modernize it, marketing of various effects, we talked about the
> "Metatheme" (where you set one theme and it edits
> desktoptheme/windowdecorations/panel placement/etc) and a Desktop theme
> editor to simplify editing of theme (which is at the moment a pain in
> the... tuchus). Also some short talk about a design competition for
> users....

All valid and important points!

> Again sry for wall-of-text, now I gotta get back to work.
> 
> (oh and if you want to grab a hold of me quickly my name is (obviously) Jens
> Reuterberg, I have a g+ account - just add me and mail me)

Well, we already know each other on G+ ;)

Cheers,
Thomas