Creative direction of plasma

[Robert Knight]

Hi Nuno,

Thanks for the mockup.  It is interesting but I really think that the
process of making a complete mockup and then implementing/discussing it
has not been the best approach because there is a lot going on in that
one screenshot.

For example, things to discuss in that mockup include:

1. The functions to be provided by the folder view
2. The layout of the folder view, including
	- The layout of icons in the main view section
	- The title
	- The available controls and how they work from a function pooint of
view
3. Colour scheme
4. Visual effects and aesthetic 

(1) and (2) are the most important aspects to get right and this is
something which needs input from UI designers and users.  They are not
as subjective as (3) and (4) which as you rightly say, everyone will
have their own strong opinion on.  We can clearly reason about who is
going to use the applet, how we expect them to use it and what they
should be able to do with it.  From those requirements a suitable layout
can be designed, taking your input on aesthetics into account.  The list
of requirements in (1) is a textual-description and the layout can be
described using a really rough and simple black and white 'wireframe'
with no colours, gradients or other distracting effects.  

In your mockup you have done all of steps (1-4) above.  If there is a
problem with the basic requirements and features of the applet or the
layout then that wastes your effort afterwards.  Since you have
presented a complete layout it is difficult to now discuss any changes
to it.  It looks like a "completed" concept in which you have invested a
lot of your own free time and I can quite see that you would not want
anyone to insist on major changes to it.

So what I really want to see happen is more collaboration on those first
two points to try to find an agreement on (1) and (2).  The developers
and artists can then work in parallel to implement it and I hope with
much less friction between the two parties.

Regards,
Robert.

On Tue, 2008-05-27 at 17:01 +0100, pinheiro wrote:
> A Tuesday 27 May 2008 15:24:59, Michael Rudolph escreveu:
> > Hello everyone,
> >
> > some of you might have followed Riccardo's discussion with Aaron the
> > other day. It was about some issues with plasma themeing and how these
> > could be resolved. The consensus seemed to be, that plasma needs more
> > creative direction; it was even talked about a creative director. Well,
> > I hope we don't need a creative director. I hope, we all can give
> > creative direction to plasma. There are two reasons, that together make
> > me hope that.
> 
> Think artistic direction is a good thing, but everybody maust agrea on that, 
> and agrea that design is more than  "make it prety" and will have impact on 
> the features presented to the user and how the user interacats with them.
> Any way I think plasma dosent need that, If any plasma developer wants design 
> help in a given plasmoid you know were to find us. :) 
> 
> 
> > First: everyone, who's involved with plasma needs to understand what
> > plasma is about. It's definitely not just about not having icons on the
> > desktop. Plasma is so much more. And everyone needs to understand that,
> > no matter what aspect of plasma they are working on.
> > That's why I'm writing the plasma vision statement. It's an effort to
> > spawn a common understanding of what the problems are, that we together
> > try to solve with plasma. After all, KDE3 was a really good desktop
> > environment, so why are we all doing this, anyway?
> >
> > And secondly, it is my believe, that the number one sign of a great user
> > interface is, that the innocent user will not even realize there is an
> > interface.
> > After this really easy (or was it extremely hard?) design principle is
> > understood, everybody in our community of creative directors should be
> > able to give constructive criticism, as to whether a new feature,
> > artwork or otherwise, is too intrusive and tries to push itself past a
> > user's content (which is the only thing, that should stand out on the
> > desktop).
> >
> > Of course this meta discussion is rather useful. No, wait: rather
> > useless :-) And the plasma community has proven itself to be rather
> > immune to this kind of talk, so I will try to come up with some more
> > concrete examples that can be discussed during the next couple of days.
> > Probably as part of the discussion of scenarios that I promissed
> > earlier. Also, nuno said he would like to bring some mockups to the
> > table. Exiting times lie ahead.
> 
> the mock up :)
> 
> http://nuno-icons.com//images/estilo/imagefolders.png
> 
> Ok this is a frist try at the desktop folders issue, notmart presented me the 
> problem yesterday and we talked about it for some time, the idea we had is 
> nifty i gees and goes in the linne of what i have read in anma blog.
> wen you drag an icon in to desktop you get a pop up asking "where should I put 
> this"?
> 
> the asnser would depend on the options available 
> 
> example:
> Peter has 3 difrent types of folders in is desktop
> 
> odf named work , normal, named files and image, named my pictures.
> 
> Peter drags a small movie clip from is camera int the desktop.
> 
> the folowing options are presented to him......
> 
> copy to files
> create a new folder for this file.
> 
> peter decides to create a new folder and he choses video type of folder and 
> names it "my cat movies".
> 
> Peter is one happy boy.
> 
> 
> We also thought about making the folders colapsable in to some sort of folders 
> container taht you can mouse over and see the items in each folder in some 
> sort of screolview.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > michael
> > _______________________________________________
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> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/panel-devel
> 
> 
>