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 (Relevantiv Office)
• Lodging: to be determined

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]

• Celeste Lyn Paul -- Fri AM to Mon ~ 1100USD
• Aurélien Gâteau -- March or April (except first week)
• Cyrille Berger -- March or April (except the week-end 2-4 april)
• Casper Boemann -- arrive thursday late, flight leaves sunday at 21:00, price 187€)
• Thomas Pfeiffer -- March or April (except the week-end 2-4 april)
• Nuno Pinheiro -- March or April
• Björn Balazs -- Weekend for sure (Fri / Mon potentialy) - no travel costs
• Hugo Pereira Da Costa -- April
• peter sikking, m+mi works
• kate price, m+mi works

Design

• Add link to design mockups or specifications

Code

• Add link to code archive

Blog and News Articles

• Add link to blog article