| Sadly, my experience is that the number of designers that are willing to contribute is small, even if lot of them are ready to complain about the state of free software. The saddest part is that when they dare to contribute, they simply create a fast and dirty bitmap / screenshot... With a few arrows and comment here and there. In the worst case they just provide a screenshot of a similar commercial software: "Do like them." I've heard it so often. Also in this thread. Most designers who want contribute are ready to spend half an hour to a couple of hours on the issue. Not more. Then expect the programmers to spend their evenings and weekends programming. Create the proper files. Solve the edge cases. And they're surprised that the end result does not correspond to what they were proposing. Very few are ready to spend days or weeks on a dialog (of course not in one shot). Study the use cases, go through the possible interactions, develop proper specifications. I also noticed that many are loudly asking for nicer UIs, but very few can think about usability and user interaction. But I've also met some really amazing designers! Like the one who has learned enough C++ to create a running mockup and could convince the programmers that what he is proposing can be done!
He has been working on it during the past year! So, dear designers, if you want to contribute to free software, you will probably be facing small teams of very busy programmers! And, yes, creating free software is hard and dedicated work. For everyone who is involved! If you want to be taken seriously, you'd better deliver files that are directly usable for the programmers (as an example: high quality individual files in the right format and size(s), not a big PNG/PSD). You'd also better deliver a document explaining the concepts behind your work, so that the next designer can build upon your work. And the programmers will know how to use your files. And don't forget to also provide the sources for generating those files! (If possible, sources that can be further edited with free software!) You don't have to learn programming, but there is some serious work ahead! And there are a few designers who managed to achieve amazing results with their contributions! It's worth it! |
Designing in the open is much harder than coding in the open as creating and implementing a consistent ui takes discipline and consensus. The design can't be just a pretty coat of paint over the top, which is what I think a lot of people assume it is.
Also, free software is about providing choice, whereas good design is often about limiting it. If free software users wanted opinionated interfaces they'd be using iOS, not Arch or whatever.
Calibre is a great example. It's an amazingly powerful bit of software, but good grief is it ugly. It'd be fantastic to take it apart and put it back together in a way that doesn't make it look like a taxidermist's sink trap.