Re: [ubuntu-art] Who is our target audience?
On Sun, 2007-12-23 at 22:58 -0600, xl cheese wrote: > That is the question we need to ask. Do we want to target noobs to > linux or the vets of linux? Maybe I'm wrong, but new linux and > novice computer users are typically enticed with eye candy. It's > the veteran linux users that like things functional and plain. I don't think those are the right categories. Don't forget that Ubuntu strives for more market share. The term noob is a sign of the wrong mindset. Inexperienced users would be hurt the most by a 'bold' design. Having a clearly defined target audience would be of advantage. But I have to say that during my industrial design studies, this part was mostly guesswork. We defined a number of users and thought about their needs and wants. That's better than having no structured base at all. For an operating system environment, the target audience can be very diverse. Even if we got to know (as opposed to just assume) that one important fraction of the audience is mothers between 40 and 50, who mainly browse the web, use email and do a little office work ... what exactly would that tell us about the style to go for, the means of communication to express what we want to say? Still, how could we define our target audience? Gender: Female, male, everything in between or outside ;) I'm not at all sure how and to what extent the female tastes and needs in visual communication differ from the male. I only know that colour-deficient vision is much more common in men. Nationality/Region: The world is the market, but it would be great if we could get a grip on some cultural differences, as the whole software world is ... western-centric. What can we express with colours that will not be understood differently in some part of the world? Mainly for icons: What artifacts and metaphors can be used for the largest part of the world? Age Education Occupation Interests and Hobbies A quick stab at a list: - Home user - Enthusiast user - Developer - Office worker - Student ... probably more and each one would have to be fleshed out. We could build personas http://www.cooper.com/insights/journal_of_design/articles/perfecting_your_personas_1.html But to not just guess, some research is needed. I tend to think Canonical should do that, not an outside group. Closely related to the target audience is the environment: - Private and/or professional use of Ubuntu? - Room and furniture. - Organisation (hierarchy, department, team, family ...) We could tackle "what do we want to say?" with only a vague idea of the audience. I don't think it would be all that bad for the results. Part of the "what to say" is rather technical: - What can be done with a widget (try to always use the same 'words' for the same kind of action)? - Which window has focus? - What's disabled? - Where can you drag a window? - What is the scope of some controls or how are they grouped? An example: Title bar and menu bar of windows shouldn't be unified as long as you can't drag the window on the free space of the menu bar. Because you don't say one thing and do another. Merry Christmas or just happy holidays :) Thorsten Wilms thorwil's design for free software: http://thorwil.wordpress.com/ -- ubuntu-art mailing list ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
Re: [ubuntu-art] Who is our target audience?
Firstly Merry Christmas - I am off and wont be back 'till after. Hope santa is good to you all! Secondly I agree. When I undertake a traditional graphic design project or website, I'll usually do a mockup, the client will then say if they like it/hate it and suggest changes. When your creating something it's hard to see the wood for the trees a lot of the time and you lack the ability to take a new look at it as you know it so well already. It takes a critical outside eye to bring your attention to everything you missed. It would be a shame to get to the end of the process and whoever in charge says 'nope, I don't like any' when the situation could have easily been avoided with regular feedback from the people up top. xl cheese wrote: > That is the question we need to ask. Do we want to target noobs to linux or > the vets of linux? Maybe I'm wrong, but new linux and novice computer users > are typically enticed with eye candy. It's the veteran linux users that like > things functional and plain. > > I would submit that we want to bias the artwork towards new users and have it > on the bold side of things. Long time users generally change the default > right off the bat anyway. > > At any rate, I think it's safe to say that we, the Art Team, are getting > anxious for the folks on top of the totem pole to throw us a bone and show us > something official. At least a hint of what they're thinking would be nice! > ;) That way our enthusiasm and efforts would be directed at producing > relevant fruit. > -- ubuntu-art mailing list ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
[ubuntu-art] Target Audience
Hey happy festive times all :) >From a marketing point of view I agree with xl cheese: Bias the GUI towards novice users. The discussion regarding upper levels - I think they'll all agree we want to make Ubuntu a real alternative to Vista & Leopard. Thus the GUI needs to be as easy to use, yet more innovative in some ways as the same time. Recently Walt Mossberg from Wall Street Journal pointed Ubuntu's shortcomings/complexities that scare average users from Linux: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118963540721725614-FnJzx_wcNlkRFOef4cgq74PBW3g_20080912.html We need to make things at least as simple, cool, striking etc. as any competing GUI/OS to have new users 'get it', and 'get excited' about using the OS as an alternative that's as simple as windoze, yet comes with more under the hood. I think there's a reason Mac geeks and newcomers freak about OSX - Aqua is slick but also generic. It's consistent - people digg the elegance. Not sure if you're all familiar with Apple's Human Interface Guidelines: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGIntro/chapter_1_section_1.html In Summary: a) I think the reason windoze and tiger/leopard has a great market share has to do with ease of use. Their GUI's are common denominators for millions of 'average' users. b) To make inroads into this mainstream OS market - the GUI needs to be easy to use for most users. c) I agree the 'cool' factor attracts novices, compiz etc. is great - but balance is key. d) Experienced users will enjoy 'cool' features and shouldn't mind to change the theme with 3 clicks if that helps getting Ubuntu on millions more desktops out there. I'm new so let me know if I'm repeating things. Enjoy the next few days and thumbs up for an exciting few months of Ubuntu Art :) Henning -- http://www.henningludeke.com +2783 3208022 -- ubuntu-art mailing list ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
Re: [ubuntu-art] Target Audience
On Mon, 2007-12-24 at 14:45 +0200, Henning Ludeke wrote: > From a marketing point of view I agree with xl cheese: Bias the GUI > towards novice users. What would that even mean, to bias the GUI towards novice users? Even if we would agree on this, it leads nowhere if there are no consequences that clearly follow. > The discussion regarding upper levels - I think they'll all agree we > want to make Ubuntu a real alternative to Vista & Leopard. > Thus the GUI needs to be as easy to use, yet more innovative in some > ways as the same time. I don't think ease of use and innovation are opponents. > We need to make things at least as simple, cool, striking etc. as any > competing GUI/OS to have new users 'get it', and 'get excited' about > using the OS as an alternative that's as simple as windoze, yet comes > with more under the hood. Please stop calling it windoze. I don't think Windows is that simple to use and I hope that someday, free software including Ubuntu will step out of the shadow of the giant. Your mind wouldn't be a bad place for that to start ;) > a) I think the reason windoze and tiger/leopard has a great market > share has to do with ease of use. > Their GUI's are common denominators for millions of 'average' > users. This suggest to me that you either don't know or chose to ignore history. Windows is where it is due to a lucky deal with IBM, being cheap and most important: the cleverness of having it shipped with almost every machine. I don't know the actual numbers, but the market share of OS X is likely small compared to that of Windows. Would anyone in their right mind say this is due to ease of use or some other quality of the products? But actually this is all off-topic. With this constant emphasis on ease of use - did anyone ever suggest to make Ubuntu hard to use? ;) > I'm new so let me know if I'm repeating things. Yes, you do ;) -- Thorsten Wilms thorwil's design for free software: http://thorwil.wordpress.com/ -- ubuntu-art mailing list ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
Re: [ubuntu-art] Who is our target audience?
On Mon, 2007-12-24 at 11:18 +0100, Thorsten Wilms wrote: ... I had users and environment, so I should also mention tasks. Quick draft: - Research - Browsing the web - Communicate - Email - Chat - VoIP - Video conferencing - Create - Graphics - Photography - Graphic design - Digital painting - 3d - Video - Audio - Office - Writing letters - Documentation - Doing Calculations - Play Now what could that mean for theming? - Work well with black on white text documents - Work well with typical websites - Provide a neutral backdrop for graphics work ...? Such a list should be part of an over-arching strategy. Theming should be embedded into strategy and interaction/interface design, anyway -- Thorsten Wilms thorwil's design for free software: http://thorwil.wordpress.com/ -- ubuntu-art mailing list ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
[ubuntu-art] MERRY XMASS
MERRY CHRISTMASS FOR ALL OF YOU AND FOR YOUR FAMILY AND HAPPY NEW YEAR... Sam7 (Sylvain) -- ubuntu-art mailing list ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
Re: [ubuntu-art] Who is our target audience?
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Thorsten Wilms wrote: > Having a clearly defined target audience would be of advantage. But I > have to say that during my industrial design studies, this part was > mostly guesswork. Then you didn't go to a very good school or for long enough. > We defined a number of users and thought about their > needs and wants. That's better than having no structured base at all. > For an operating system environment, the target audience can be very > diverse. Even if we got to know (as opposed to just assume) that one > important fraction of the audience is mothers between 40 and 50, who > mainly browse the web, use email and do a little office work ... > what exactly would that tell us about the style to go for, the means of > communication to express what we want to say? You are completely missing the point here. You can both define a 'desired' audience or cater to your existing audience if they are different groups. Apple has a disproportionate number of artists and designers under their umbrella -- why? Because they have constantly catered to the needs of that group and treated them as 'important'. Automobile designers also must carefully focus on how they present a product -- a rugged ATV styled truck needs to be attractive to the quotient that is going to purchase it and emotionally invest in the success of the product. The point of choosing an audience is not exactly as murky as you wish to paint it. It is perhaps one of the most valuable discussions this list has _ever_ seen. Unfortunately, in the end, the default installations presence and audience are outside of the scope of our realm and lays in the hands of the higher ups. Sincerely, TJS -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFHb/SWar0EasPEHjQRAvlqAKCeA4VgEjLSl+j1sh23rAOdCV9IFwCgrRWT gME5Zme31L07mLBEIU3bf74= =hDKS -END PGP SIGNATURE- -- ubuntu-art mailing list ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
[ubuntu-art] YAM (Yet Another Mockup) - Tropical Feather: Renegade
Title sounds cool doesn't it? =D Well this is a Hardy theme I made using everything included in the default Hardy Alpha - except for the wallpaper that is. Instead of being orange and black, it's more of a gold and black. I choose this because it looks better and **the title bars give off a cool glow.** Let me know what you think? I'm bracing myself. (>*-*<) Wiki: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate/Feather Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/sets/72157603534841580/ -- ubuntu-art mailing list ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
[ubuntu-art] "Union" Theme
A few days back I said I'd create a theme based from my own work: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate/BasicIdeals ...and another theme by forum user Floodcasso2... http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2620273#post2620273 The end result is linked below in a new Wiki, which also states the end goal. Just as a side note, this was the biggest pain to develop - I'm "Light Theme" impaired, so don't expect much. The theme also has several half-finished elements and is missing common features such as "Buttons" and "Widgets" (Who needs those, anyway?); The theme is called "Union", because it's the Union of the two themes. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate/Union I'll be away on the 25th (today), so apologies if I don't get back to any emails or anything expediently. Tear this theme apart, please. -- Ken Vermette -- ubuntu-art mailing list ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
