LibreOffice Design Team

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

Transcript

1. 1 / 23 LibreOffice Design Team Jan Holesovky <kendy@collabora.com>
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
3. 3 / 23 Design Team Concepts • Platform for conflict resolution • Results oriented • Effective communication • Inclusive nature • Open to change
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
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
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
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
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
9. 9 / 23 In Action
10. 10 / 23 Sifr Icons • Thanks to: Ahmad H. Al Harthi, Issa Alkurtass, Matthias Freund, Norah A. Abanumay and more
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
12. 12 / 23 New Color Selector • Thanks to: Krisztian Pinter (GSoC 2014), Tomaž Vajngerl, Maxim Monastirsky, Adolfo Jayme Barrientos
13. 13 / 23 Improved Toolbars • Change tracking toolbar thanks to: Samuel Mehrbrodt, Jay Philips • Improved structure / usability: Jay Philips
14. 14 / 23 Better Dropdown in Toolbars • Thanks to: Maxim Monastirsky, Yousuf Philips, Jan Holesovsky
15. 15 / 23 Improved User Interaction • Style dropdowns thanks to: Szymon Kłos, Samuel Mehrbrodt
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
17. 17 / 23 Improved Context Menus • Thanks to: Jeffrey Stedfast, Yousuf Philips, Babu Vincent, Samuel Mehrbrodt
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
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, ...
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
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
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
23. 23 / 23 How to Get Involved • design@global.libreoffice.org • #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! :-)