Every Pixel Hurts

A quest for really open UX design

Pablo Cúbico - FOSDEM 2015

Psst!: Press V to see the slide notes

About me

What is Open Source UX?

What is UX anyway?

UX stands for USER EXPERIENCE

User Experience is...

the experience a user has while using a product.

It can be measured
It can be improved
It can be developed and designed

GOOD User Experience

Symbiotic, Prosthetic, Uninterrupted , Continuous

Common misconceptions and myths

"UX is a process"

No, UX is an attribute of your product.

UX design is a process.

UX is not beauty

UX is UI

UX involves many other things

Visual design
Interaction design
User testing
Performance
etc.

UX vs. UI: a few samples

Don't worry, I'll read aloud.

"Drop an asset library
and BAM!: UX"

The infamous
"Design is art" myth

"open source design is an oxymoron."
-Chris Messina

Design is form + function

Flawed design

Style varies

It's a visual design problem, not a UX one

Current status

"Free Software UX sucks"

"Commercial software does better"

Problems in FOSS UX

1. Lack of participation

2. No clear paths
for contribution

3. Devs don't know where to start

4. Disconnected lone rangers

5. Style differences

6. "Can I Haz" requests

7. Everyone is a designer

8. Customize all the things

9. No proper tools

10. No T-shaped devs/designers

11. Code health

12. No room for you

13. No visibility

14. Style dilution

This is mostly for pure designers. Style will always have a strong influence from a core designer. Why? Because that's the artistic part of design, it's really hard to develop a style for a product by trying to please everyone. This is one of the hardest points, because this is the place where collaboration becomes an obstacle. For that reason, you have to struggle to justify your stylistic and aesthetic choices with reasoning, good will, and be ready to discuss a lot. But as you know, a picture is worth a thousand words, so maybe if you show your work and the community engages with your style, maybe making a few compromises, then you can earn the trust you need to continue working. Community has to trust and value a designer's vision, your style, and your aesthetics. By having a single person's vision and trust, UI coders and interested people can work faster under that aesthetic umbrella.

15. Assumptions, assumptions everywhere.

16. Resisting change

17, 18, 19... many others...

Have you tried? Share your experience!

A roadmap for Contributing UX

Challenges and opportunities

0: Introduce yourself

Become a member

Invite yourself to the party
Identify some measurable problems
Do some work to show your potential
Be bold, there is always time to go back
Be humble

1. Get to know the community!

Biggest perk from FOSS projects

Always ask the community
Get validation
Be honest
Invite others to join your quest
Give recognition
Don't take over
Relax your ego

2. Consider starting with identity

Analyze current status (colors, fonts, etc)
Gather community opinions (survey)
Begin with a proposal
Explain why brand matters
Beware of sensitive stuff (i.e.: LOGO)

3. Identify current UX problems

Ask people, they know
How about some user testing?

4. Get UX into the integration loop

Make UX a phase of development
Get developers in the loop
Test everything

5. Prototype and discuss

A/B testing (if possible)
Test prototypes
Give UI coders a finished prototype

6. Baby steps, small changes

Don't go for the full redesign
Propose small fixes
Minimize coding effort
Identify as many small problems as possible
If possible, code something and show it

7. Find a team

There is people working on UI
Ask for participation
Identify potential "UX people"
Get coders, translators, users, testers
Create conventions and standards for consistency

8. Set goals and deadlines

Deadlines are the ultimate fast decision makers
Use UX metrics to set goals

9. Show the larger picture

Build a longer roadmap
Get approval from the community
Be realistic
Review constantly
If needed, reformulate

10. Avoid the "taste police"

Non-constructive criticism

"It feels weird..."
"I hate pink..."
"I don't like the font"
Ignore trolls and haters
Justify with reason and sources

11. Adapt to the flow

Version control
Issue trackers
Languages (ruby, python, etc)
Frameworks
Contribution platforms
Mailing lists
IRC Chatrooms

12. Use open formats

Educate designers on open tools (Inkscape, GIMP, etc)
Make assets freely available

What else?

It's up to you! Have any ideas? Share them.

A case study (kinda)

My first steps

Got advice (from Sean Tilley): get validation
Contributed a patch
Then contributed a greater patch

First proposals

Diaspora foundation site
Current site First proposal Current site screenshot First proposal screenshot
Explained every choice
Got some criticism = great feedback
Got some validation from the community

Going back a step

Realized there was an identity problem
Get to work on identity first
Find out some identity inconsistencies:
Helvetica vs. Roboto, etc
Started an identity project on github, made with Inkscape

Next steps (2015)

Get the UI team engaged
Work for consistency
Find proper tools for distributed work
Build a broader roadmap
Work on the Diaspora UI
Current UI My Stylish override My experimental UX pod
Want to join?

Main drawback: TIME

Don't have money, have to work
My speed for contributing sucks
Don't have a detailed roadmap yet for crowdfunding
Also, crowdfunding can't be just for me

An open UX ecosystem