Monthly Open Source Design call

Open Source Design meta Monthly call
208

Minutes from the Design Community Call on July 3, 2024:

Participants: Eriol, Matthew, Juhan, Anita, Scott, Jan D, Gerardo

Notes:

  • Quick Intros

  • The little core spiel

  • Topics!

    • Some of the best designers are Engineers.
    • Penpot, first time using and found it really great
    • How are others experiences
      • Constructing libraries are difficult with how things are connected and meta data etc.
      • Better than the older times
      • license metadata is pretty bad overall. There were some attempts in the CC hype in the early 2000s.
      • UI building and bugs. Flex layout is tricky and collaborating across designers is hard.
      • Auto layout is also hard in Figma
      • Design and development - should it have this abstract development model behind it? re. handoff.
      • Just in case anyone does need flexbox help, https://flexboxfroggy.com/ is still probably the easiest way to learn or brush up on your skills.
      • Playfulness is missing in adult pedagogy
      • When you don’t write the content it’s also tricky
      • We had some low fi problems
      • That also feels like a typical human trait… low-fi design = low-fi feedback
      • Using the lowest-fidelity possible (sticky notes, sharpies and paper, even) is often a great way to save time and create a lot of clarity in design work.
      • Sharing options in penpot are teams based which is quite restrictive. They think you have a consistent team and only share with them vs. an open sharing re.

  • Talks at Gnome conf

    • Prototyping talk to the community - share the topic
      • We could do so much more in desktop and we’ve over indexed on Mobile.
      • Deeper thoughts on the desktop
      • Doing more research on connectivity between devices
      • Proposing 3-4 things to research and encourage small teams to build prototypes and write papers.
      • CPU - saving phone usage for some things can help. The desktop should be fast, do the important stuff fats and the extra stuff can take more time. Re. raspberry pies trying to do so many things.
      • Lots of research to do with Assistive tech. Most of the latest gnome developments have hindered capacities of them.
      • OSS has some nostalgia for the old ways of doing tech. What could a computer be for creating things (in the 90s) now computers are for consumption.
      • If we really want the entire world to use more FOSS, we need to get beyond our current demographic.
      • I imagine you’re already thinking about it, but framing your thesis around a particular segment/demographic/role/persona might be crucial in making sure people in your audience don’t misinterpret. Otherwise your audience might start forming a counter-argument in their head as you’re speaking (eg, “my usual target audience is developers, and they’re not coding on mobile”).
      • And secondly, operating system/input-output/hardware advancement on desktop/laptop machines vs mobile devices is also driven by capitalism. If it isn’t profitable to improve the desktop experience (compared in priority at least to cellphones for example) then desktop/laptop UX improvements are going to be difficult to execute on, even if you do research/protoype/design a successful next-best-thing.
      • Literacy or how people learn via a support environment - connecting learning/reading in a different space.
      • https://www.sugarlabs.org/
      • Do people here know “Gnome developers suffer constant harassment”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOzTz6GQ64E
      • Ideas that come up with alternatives
      • https://ubuntu-touch.io/
      • Starburst window manager that uses Weyland
      • mentioned: Crossing-based interface - Wikipedia (Pen-based interaction)
      • CRDT → a way to collaborate gdoc like - atomise changes
      • see An Interactive Intro to CRDTs | jakelazaroff.com

Did some quick Open Source Design core updates re. Open Collective, Forum copy paste strikes and what new issues and contributions have been made lately!

2 Likes