this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
507 points (98.7% liked)
Programming
17503 readers
5 users here now
Welcome to the main community in programming.dev! Feel free to post anything relating to programming here!
Cross posting is strongly encouraged in the instance. If you feel your post or another person's post makes sense in another community cross post into it.
Hope you enjoy the instance!
Rules
Rules
- Follow the programming.dev instance rules
- Keep content related to programming in some way
- If you're posting long videos try to add in some form of tldr for those who don't want to watch videos
Wormhole
Follow the wormhole through a path of communities !webdev@programming.dev
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
nowadays, design work is code (or at least markup). Like .qml or .glade or even html/css.
encounter a problem and learning a new tool to solve it, is a pretty standard situation in IT. Designers have varying capabilities in that domain. While a print designer might have trouble learning a new software, a MMI-Architect or UI Designer should commonly be able to learn a new UI framework (designer software).
Generally, if you like to contribute to any project (not limited to software), you can't expect the project to adapt to your toolset.
But often it's enough to share an idea for it to get adapted.
Sure, you can pr the design files, but thats not how the messaging comes across. Even the "how to contribute" for most projects, if they have one, is usually entirely technical. The majority of designers (not all) I have worked with have been very shy about technical work, so having no clear "non-technical" contribution pathway is a deterent.
you can start by opening an issue, sharing your idea, uploading drafts etc. like I mentioned.
because what you wish contributing to is a technical matter. You can't modify airplane design without a single clue on aerodynamics. Same with software.
Design of UX is a separate craft from programing, to follow your own analogy, you don't need to know electrical engineering to design an airplane control panel
lol, of course you do. and A LOT more. Hence it's usually done by a team of experts. Pilots, eengineers, manufacturing, regulation/standards, safety,...
UX is just one of many parts of the expertise needed. same in software.
What you're claiming is wishful thinking that has nothing to do with real world workflows. I also don't know a single UI designer having the troubles you are pointing out.
That's the difference between designer and UI Designer. Just because you can draw an UI with your favourite tool, doesn't make you an UI design expert.
I feel like, with this reply, you are willfully glossing over my point. The issue at hand is that open source software is short on the ux design expertise. My claim is that by centering the programing expertise, and in fact by not going out of the way to be inviting to the non-programming expertise, open source projects are self-perpetuating these cycles.
We can find ways to invite good designers in, or we can continue with the "sufficient" design ost projects currently have.
I'm happy if people have ather strategies for overcoming the current problem, but the current aproach is not doing it