[robin_reala]

Two things:

- Consistency. A good UI requires consistency throughout, which requires a good understanding of the entirety of a piece of software, and a willingness to work at a high level. For open source packages there’s rarely a UI standard to hold individual problems up against.

- User testing. UX design doesn’t work in a vacuum, it requires user testing to be effective. This costs a lot of time and effort to organise, and isn’t something you can hack on for a few nights. It’s possible to to A/B testing to gain data of course, but then you have to persuade your friendly developers to implement a testing framework and have some place to store data while waiting for the results to analyse.

[mark-r]

The easiest way to get consistency is to have a single person in charge of the UI. It doesn't need to be a UX designer specifically, just someone with a strong sense of style.

For a contrary opinion on the cost of usability testing, see "hallway usability testing" at https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/08/09/the-joel-test-12-s...