Designers, how do we get you guys to contribute to open source projects? • Hacker News Board

Re: Designers, how do we get you guys to contribute to open source projects?

#241

Post by FiddlerClamp » Mon, Feb 28, 2011, 3:54 PM UTC

flink wrote: post #218

FiddlerClamp wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes - for example I'd love to keep up my tech writing and marcomm skills by contributing to open source projects, but I have no idea where to start.

I don't know if this is what you were looking for, but one option would be the Fedora project. General: http://fedoraproject.org/en/join-fedora Specific Areas: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Join#Content_Writer https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Join#Designer One of the proposed long term goals (still going through the approval process) for the Fedora project is to lower the barrier of entry for new members (Not a great…

Thanks -- I'm going to apply! I have always had a Linux flavor on dual-boot on my PC for learning and tinkering. I'm more about end-user and customization documentation rather than admin/install, but hopefully they can use me!

Re: Designers, how do we get you guys to contribute to open source projects?

#242

Post by khafra » Mon, Feb 28, 2011, 4:01 PM UTC

wlesieutre wrote: post #119

jxcole wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On that note: I thought that Inkscape was really cool until I tried Blender. The UI experience for Blender is hundreds of times easier because many of the things that you have to do regularly (like scrolling back and forth) are shortcuts. Not to derail the conversation too much, but Inkscape also needs some improvement where UI is concerned, many things that should be easy are not.

I assume you mean the Blender 2.5 beta? The UI experience for Blender 2.4 and earlier was the least easy interface I've ever seen. Granted it's fantastic once you know how to use it, but good luck with that.

Thanks for resolving that particular cognitive dissonance; I tried Blender once, then gave up in bewilderment after a few hours. I may have to give it another shot.

Re: Designers, how do we get you guys to contribute to open source projects?

#243

Post by cancelbubble » Mon, Feb 28, 2011, 5:33 PM UTC

How does the designer benefit from helping? I would imagine that "design" help in open source comes after the fact. The designer "pretties" things up with some gradients and rounded corners - basically decoration. Problem is, real design doesn't work like that so you're going to have a hard time getting a real designer involved in a community they're probably not active in, for free. Real design begins before a single line of code is written, they want to be part of driving decisions and solving problems.

Re: Designers, how do we get you guys to contribute to open source projects?

#244

Post by adev » Mon, Feb 28, 2011, 6:20 PM UTC

I'm seeing a lot of the replies here are only thinking about designers working on the final visuals of a project. While, yes, a designer might make the icon better than a developer, what about the actual interaction processes that designers often define? Those can be system level changes that need developers to do, which means the designers need to be working along side, or ahead of developers, not after.

Too often when I try open source software I see just a default list of options that really makes no sense, or I often see the developers trying to accommodate every need that might exist, resulting in overly complex user interfaces.

It takes someone (a designer usually) with knowledge of human interaction to know when a toolbar with multiple tabs works or when to keep it simple. Without doing this, designers are (in an overly simplistic description) just applying colors to existing boxes.

To get involved, Designers need a clear place to find projects to help on, and a clear way to help on projects -- as designers aren't about to open source code, install it on their own system and then begin work on the project.

I consider myself to pretty knowledgeable in the tech community and work as a full stack designer/developer, yet I have absolutely no clue where or how to get involved design-wise with any open source project. There's no "design" section on github or google code that I've ever seen :)

Re: Designers, how do we get you guys to contribute to open source projects?

#245

Post by Nadienka » Mon, Feb 28, 2011, 7:49 PM UTC

That is a great topic of conversation and potential source of something new coming out. I am an interaction designer myself and wondered about this issue more than once.

Designers are always seeking for some projects to do even with no money return. There are several platforms that work based on this sharing skills principles, but often money based. Usually seen as a contest platform where the client requests and users (designers) responds buy uploading their work. Examples of this are Crowdspring www.crowdspring.com and in a smaller scale DesignRider www.designrider.com. Why not build a sharing platform like these for open-sources projects?

For a best results return, the briefing (instructions, guidelines, rules, project intention description, for instance) should be clear and precise. For instance, by specifying the format in which you want your design work will already scan designers skills and give you more to the point results. Of course, conversation is always welcome, a mailing list /forum in such platform to discuss and share knowledge between developers and designers cannot hurt either.

"Designers are scared of developers. Developers speak a foreign language, they are like aliens." Simon Hørup Eskildsen. I don't think is there such a big barrier between designers and programmers or developers. It is time to drop that assumption. A web based platform that gets both working on several open sources projects is a solution to consider and that might bring more responses that you can think of.

Re: Designers, how do we get you guys to contribute to open source projects?

#246

Post by Shorel » Mon, Feb 28, 2011, 9:33 PM UTC

ThomPete wrote: post #226

nitrogen wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very powerful example. The Expression Blend interface (though it's showing a completely different function) feels very uncomfortable, while the Lightroom interface feels natural inviting. I'm glad to have learned that alignment lines make up a big part of that difference (I also prefer the Lightroom typography).

I am working on a small book about design for developers. Alignment is one of those things that people often don't really understand (besides left, center and right). Perhaps I should make that section a little bigger.

Here is another developer waiting with enthusiasm for your book!

Re: Designers, how do we get you guys to contribute to open source projects?

#247

Post by Shorel » Mon, Feb 28, 2011, 9:40 PM UTC

rorrr wrote: post #115

jrwoodruff wrote: post #95

During my day job I play the lone designer in an organization built from day one with only software engineers. I suspect the problems that I face there are similar to the problems faced by designers in OSS. 1. Communication. Developers use a completely different language than designers. If I come in talking about alignment, developers are thinking 'right left or center justified?' When developers start talking about…

Design IS optional and isn't as is important as you make it sound. Look at craigslist, hacker news, reddit.

Design is very important.

The way there are upvotes and downvotes on reddit is an important part of the design. It has deep repercussions on the user's dynamics, the way posts get popular or are ignored, etc.

Now, purely font-choosing 'design' is not that important, but if you think that's design, you are misguided.

And this comes from a guy who just codes and does SQL queries all day.

Re: Designers, how do we get you guys to contribute to open source projects?

#248

Post by texture » Tue, Mar 01, 2011, 12:12 AM UTC

rue wrote: post #97

texture wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other guy hit the nail on the head. Most developers aren't designers, and in fact they tend to think in ways that are the opposite of aesthetically pleasing. It's why there are so few developer/designers (I'm one of them). The problem with design is that it is something that is not easy, but it SEEMS easy, because everyone has an opinion, and they think it's just as valid as anyone else's, even a professional des…

For you and ErrantX, I think you're reading too much into my parallel: I was just replying to a statement made in the parent. Obviously I'll expect that someone making changes to my code is qualified to do so. It's presumably parallel for interactions between multiple designers on the same project – one can make reasoned changes to the other's work. In the described event, there clearly wasn't communication but we do…

You negotiate a price based on (x) number of designs and (x) number of modifications.

Otherwise the person will just keep draining you, because everyone thinks they can design, except they can't. So they dilute your work to the point that it's a terrible mess if you give them a chance.

Re: Designers, how do we get you guys to contribute to open source projects?

#249

Post by texture » Tue, Mar 01, 2011, 12:13 AM UTC

megablast wrote: post #157

texture wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other guy hit the nail on the head. Most developers aren't designers, and in fact they tend to think in ways that are the opposite of aesthetically pleasing. It's why there are so few developer/designers (I'm one of them). The problem with design is that it is something that is not easy, but it SEEMS easy, because everyone has an opinion, and they think it's just as valid as anyone else's, even a professional des…

"The problem with design is that it is something that is not easy, but it SEEMS easy, because everyone has an opinion, and they think it's just as valid as anyone else's, even a professional designer. " No, the problem with design is that every designer has a different opinion, and believes that their opinion is 100% correct, and there is no sway room at all. It has to be done that way, or no one will come to the sit…

Of course design is subjective, but my skill isn't operating photoshop. It's an understanding of the subjective forces in a way that I can interact with skillfully. Any random joe blow can have(and does) have an opinion, but it's not equal to mine. That said, there are definitely designers who are better than me, and who I would be in a similar position with.

Re: Designers, how do we get you guys to contribute to open source projects?

#250

Post by jxcole » Tue, Mar 01, 2011, 12:18 AM UTC

khafra wrote: post #242

wlesieutre wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume you mean the Blender 2.5 beta? The UI experience for Blender 2.4 and earlier was the least easy interface I've ever seen. Granted it's fantastic once you know how to use it, but good luck with that.

Thanks for resolving that particular cognitive dissonance; I tried Blender once, then gave up in bewilderment after a few hours. I may have to give it another shot.

Sorry for not being clear. Blender is by no means an example of a superb UI. The learning curve is exceedingly high and even after hundreds of hours behind the controls there are many things I do not understand. Much of this is because the UI controls do not make sense. Of course, with the release of 2.5 there were some improvements, but it is still not that great.

That being said, one thing they did EXTREMELY well was put shortcut keys on all of the things that you do frequently. After doing Inkscape for a while I get really frustrated by the lack of easy navigation.