Sprints/UX2011

Purpose

• To provide an opportunity for unbridled creativity and hacking on new and old KDE UX problems.
• The goal is to produce 3-4 design specifications and prototypes of new interaction and interface concepts that could be integrated into KDE.

Date & Location

• Date: 15-17 April 2011
• Location: Jägerstraße 65, 10117 Berlin, Germany [AG]
• Lodging: [All Seasons Hotel - Berlin]

Topics

Each participant is expected to come to the sprint with at least once idea they would like to explore. The idea can be all but a twinkle in your eye, or a series of hard requirements. You will be able to present your idea in a group discussion. We will choose several topics to explore in more detail, eventually leading to actionable design specifications and prototype code.

• Integration of webservices in a useful way: We have apps that are desktop portals to data on Facebook and Flickr, but we don't do anything interesting with it. To remain relevant we have to use the web, not just interface with it. Why can't we connect to Facebook as a calendar resource, or add Flickr as a seamless image location in Digikam and Gwenview?

• Keeping up with current trends: We need to consider next-generation toolbars, menus, and windowing. Browsers have been slowly evolving to optimize toolbars and tabs in the interface, but other apps remain archaic. Microsoft has worked out kinks in its "ribbon" toolbar design in the next generation of productivity apps. We've had very interesting proposals for flexible UIs and alternative menu designs. Why don't we take a serious look at proposals like this to see if they are the future?

• Designing UI that fit to multiple factors, multiple needs: Without going to the mobile arena, KDE applications are used on a wide range of computers, from netbook to desktop, with screens ranging from 1024x600 to 1920x1024 (so with a scale factor of one to four, in area). This is a challenge to make the application still usuable for the small screen while providing more information for the bigger screen space. Also different people have different workflow, and we want the application to fit their workflow, for instance, many people like to write text without any distraction on their screen, similary in Krita, some people want to give the maximum size to the drawing area, while keeping easy access to everything. So what can we provide as design, and code, to make it possible for developers to create application that takes into account the available screen space, and the workflow requirement of the users ?

Activities

Activities include brainstorming, designing, prototyping, and architecture:

• Brainstorming: I've provided a sample list of topics we could discuss. What else could we do? How would we do it?
• Designing: What are possible ways we can provide new ways to interact with and experience KDE?
• Prototyping: Let's see these ideas in action and code out some of these problems. What would our ideas look and feel like in KDE?
• Architecture: What new technology needs are there to support our ideas? Do we need widgets? Libraries? Or just a standardized way of doing things?

Participants

Please list your name and possible dates for now. Estimated travel costs will be collected when a location is determined.

Also add yourself to the mailing list: [1]

Name	Arrival	Departure	Cost
Celeste Lyn Paul	CO96 EWR Fri 08:05	CO97 EWR Mon 09:35	~ 1100 USD
Aurélien Gâteau	AF2334 Thu 17:20	AF1435 Mon 9:55	181.57€
Cyrille Berger	friday afternoon	Sun 18:00	3000 SEK ~ 340€
C. Boemann	arrive thursday late	Sun 21:00	187€
Thomas Pfeiffer	Thursday evening	Sun evening	110 €
Nuno Pinheiro	Thursday evening	Sun evening	300€ extimative
Björn Balazs	Weekend for sure (Fri / Mon potentialy)		0
Hugo Pereira Da Costa	Thursday, 5PM	Sunday, 6:40 PM	193.29 Eur
peter sikking, m+mi works			0
kate price, m+mi works			0
Hayri Bakici			0
Jan Muehlig			0
Sebastian Kügler	Thursday	Monday	Hotel ~200€ + ~Train 150€

Schedule

Here is the tentative schedule from the mailing list. Please adjust or add comments:

• THURSDAY
  • Evening
    • Arrive
• FRIDAY
  • Morning
    • Defined core areas to discuss during meeting
    • Intro to Plasma Active
    • Intro to QML
    • Developer & Designer Collaboration
  • Afternoon
    • Hacking
  • Evening
    • Group dinner and discussion
• SATURDAY
  • Morning
    • K3B Activity Design
  • Afternoon
    • Toolbars in Calligra
    • Plasma Activee
  • Evening
    • Group dinner and discussion
• SUNDAY
  • Morning
    • Flexible user interfaces (Calligra & Plasma Active)
    • UIs for different devices
  • Afternoon
    • Activity-centered design and the future of technology
    • Future of KDE Usability Project
  • Evening
    • Departure
• MONDAY
  • Morning
    • Late departures

Results

Design

• Sprints/UX2011/MessageWidget
• Sprints/UX2011/KritaSlideBar

Discussions

• Sprints/UX2011/Flexible UIs

Code

• Fluid layouts demo: [2]

Blog and News Articles

• User experience, one pixel at a time (Hugo, Nuno)
• inline outline —ps
• Add link to blog article