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LibreOffice Design Team

Jan Holesovsky
February 01, 2015

LibreOffice Design Team

Who we are, what we have done in LibreOffice 4.4, and how you can help.

Jan Holesovsky

February 01, 2015
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  1. 1 / 23
    LibreOffice Design Team
    Jan Holesovky

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  2. 2 / 23
    Who We Are

    Group of people who love LibreOffice & UX / Design

    No rigid structure
    – Just do design / UX related stuff in LibreOffice,
    and we'll include you ;-)

    Mailing list, IRC, bugzilla, git repository

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  3. 3 / 23
    Design Team Concepts

    Platform for conflict resolution

    Results oriented

    Effective communication

    Inclusive nature

    Open to change

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  4. 4 / 23
    Conflict Resolution

    In many cases, people have different views what is
    better in UX / Design

    To resolve, we try to find consensus

    If that fails, we search for:
    – Usage statistics / patterns
    – HIG – use the GNOME HIG's as the base

    Adapted where necessary – Windows / OS X

    And if even that is inconclusive, we try to do the
    change, and revert when it turns out problematic

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  5. 5 / 23
    Results Oriented

    Task is finished when in the git repository
    – We are not here to project crystal castles that
    nobody would be able to implement

    Everybody is encouraged to push his/her
    improvements himself/herself! :-)

    Gerrit, the (code) review system
    – Needs a bit of technical knowledge; still the
    setup is easy, low entry barrier

    Don't worry, we'll gladly help you should you have
    trouble setting it up

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  6. 6 / 23
    Effective Communication

    Avoid bikeshedding!

    Bugzilla is usually the entry point
    – People reporting problems / feature requests / …

    But that can easily become a long discussion
    – Important to get the involved people together to
    some faster media: IRC or G+ hangout

    Weekly G+ hangouts, with phone bridge
    – Everybody welcome, open to all

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  7. 7 / 23
    Inclusive Nature

    Maybe you don't even know you are part of the
    design team ;-)
    – We collect & report weekly about all UX / Design
    improvements that happened in the LibreOffice
    git repository

    All contributions much appreciated

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  8. 8 / 23
    Open to Change

    Changing user interaction is hard
    – Necessary to be careful about breaking of
    existing workflows

    But cleanups / removal of (access to) features is
    important

    If something looks like a good idea
    – Do it – and watch for problem reports
    – Revert if we get push-back

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  9. 9 / 23
    In Action

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  10. 10 / 23
    Sifr Icons

    Thanks to: Ahmad H. Al Harthi, Issa Alkurtass,
    Matthias Freund, Norah A. Abanumay and more

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  11. 11 / 23
    Templates

    Coding thanks to: Efe Gürkan Yalaman, GSoC

    New templates thanks to: Alexander Wilms,
    Edmund Laugasson, Jun NOGATA, Michael
    Kovarik, Péter Szathmáry, Zirk

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  12. 12 / 23
    New Color Selector

    Thanks to: Krisztian Pinter (GSoC 2014), Tomaž
    Vajngerl, Maxim Monastirsky, Adolfo Jayme
    Barrientos

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  13. 13 / 23
    Improved Toolbars

    Change tracking toolbar thanks to: Samuel
    Mehrbrodt, Jay Philips

    Improved structure / usability: Jay Philips

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  14. 14 / 23
    Better Dropdown in Toolbars

    Thanks to: Maxim Monastirsky, Yousuf Philips, Jan
    Holesovsky

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  15. 15 / 23
    Improved User Interaction

    Style dropdowns thanks to: Szymon Kłos, Samuel
    Mehrbrodt

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  16. 16 / 23
    More Space for the User

    More compact / better usable ruler thanks to:
    Dbeurle, Mattias Põldaru, Jan Holesovsky

    Sidebar condensed, on by default, better look:
    Samuel Mehrbrodt, Thomas Arnhold, Mirek Mazel

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  17. 17 / 23
    Improved Context Menus

    Thanks to: Jeffrey Stedfast, Yousuf Philips, Babu
    Vincent, Samuel Mehrbrodt

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  18. 18 / 23
    Help Appreciated: Sifr Icons

    Flat, modern, monochrome theme
    – Now the default on OS X

    LibreOffice has more than 1000 icons!
    – Still many to do

    https://github.com/libodesign/icons
    – Contains description how / what to do
    – https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=75256
    – https://redmine.documentfoundation.org/boards/1/topics/35

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  19. 19 / 23
    Improving Dialogs

    All dialogs converted to .ui files editable by Glade

    Help applying the HIG
    – We use the GNOME HIG:
    https://developer.gnome.org/hig/stable/essentials.html.en

    Glade 3 needed, with LibreOffice widgets catalog
    – Available in the LibreOffice installation

    And then just take one of the .ui files, and improve it
    – Better grouping, better resize behavior, ...

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  20. 20 / 23
    Improving Usage

    Toolbars and menubars described in XML files

    Easiest way how to change the layout of buttons is
    via Tools → Customize, and then to provide us with
    the changes

    Context menus: harder to do unfortunately
    – Compiled-in format

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  21. 21 / 23
    Programming Easy Hacks

    Collected in our Bugzilla
    – And categorized in many ways

    https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/Easy_Hacks

    Search for Easy Hacks with “TopicUi”:
    – https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/Easy_Hacks/lists/by_Topic#Easy_Hacks_about_UI

    Vary in complexity and in focus
    – Many are easy enough to start without any
    LibreOffice knowledge

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  22. 22 / 23
    Next Steps

    More!

    Better!

    More complex!
    – Larger user interaction reworks

    Have a proposal for the Customize... dialog
    – Thanks to: Heiko Tietze

    Change Tracking in progress

    All that with the user in mind – no bad surprises

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  23. 23 / 23
    How to Get Involved

    [email protected]

    #libreoffice-design on irc.freenode.net

    https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design

    Weekly meetings – via G+ hangouts / phone

    Or just participate in one of our Design contests!
    Join us – it's fun! :-)

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