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Ask Slashdot: Should Open-Source Developer Teams Hire Professional UI/UX Designers? 249

Posted by BeauHD from the deciding-what's-important dept.
OpenSourceAllTheWay writes: There are many fantastic open-source tools out there for everything from scanning documents to making interactive music to creating 3D assets for games. Many of these tools have an Achilles heel though -- while the code quality is great and the tool is fully functional, the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are typically significantly inferior to what you get in competing commercial tools. In an nutshell, with open source, the code is great, the tool is free, there is no DRM/activation/telemetry bullshit involved in using the tool, but you very often get a weak UI/UX with the tool that -- unfortunately -- ultimately makes the tool far less of a joy to use daily than should be the case. A prime example would be the FOSS 3D tool Blender, which is great technically, but ultimately flops on its face because of a poorly designed UI that is a decade behind commercial 3D software. So here is the question: should open-source developer teams for larger FOSS projects include a professional UI/UX designer who does the UI for the project? There are many FOSS tools that would greatly benefit from a UI re-designed by a professional UI/UX designer.
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Ask Slashdot: Should Open-Source Developer Teams Hire Professional UI/UX Designers? More

Ask Slashdot: Should Open-Source Developer Teams Hire Professional UI/UX Designers?

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  • WAT? (Score:2)

    by Balial ( 39889 )

    Like really, how exactly is this a legit question?

    • Like really, how exactly is this a legit question?

      Like really, how exactly is this a legit question?

    • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • As a developer and doing my own UI/UX I can say I can't really even think about the UI/UX much until I've developed a lot of the final product. Until then, fields and control come and go move from one screen to another, maybe completely change what sort of purpose it has. Developing is not a set in stone thing, and on independent projects like these where you may be pushing the envelope in features where there may not be a UI/UX paradigm for it.

      In the design phase for these projects, it is a great benefit if whoever does the UI/UX design know the the environment in and out and if it is a specific subject - should know that pretty well too, you can't just plop down and work up some awesome Blender interface unless you have really used Blender extensively and know what would actually make an awesome interface for someone working with Blender.

      Ao as most of these people say, Yes it's an awesome thing, no its not cost effective to pay people on an rarely unpaid open source project, and mostly if you want a great UI/UX you really need to be a lasting member of a project where you can develop the user aspects along with side the evolving technical aspects.

      And if you were able to make some awesome easy-to-use advanced interface for blender, you will be well recognized.

  • I would assume that such a position is only contractual anyways, so what's the problem?
    • I think it would be better if they would ask for volunteers.

      I would like a UI fix for Metapad [liquidninja.com] text editor.

      In return, I could help write the documentation.

      I need a text editor that is very quick to load. Metapad is wonderful that way. But when doing search and replace, it brings up a new window that requires a mouse click. It should just show the number of replacements.

      • What specific UI fixes do you need? List in detail the repro. steps of what you are trying to do please.

        Have you tried Notepad++ ?

        If you want a text editor that does search-and-replace without needing a GUI then use gVim. You type in:

        :%s/foo/bar/g

        Legend:

        : enters command mode
        % selects the entire file
        s search and replace mode
        / begins what text to find
        foo what you are searching for
        / begins what text you want it replaced with
        bar is the text to replace foo
        / begins options
        g replace all instances on same line

        Whil

  • Yes (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @07:34PM (#57495336)

    Developers who write code for free should absolutely hire millennial art school graduates for real money

  • Yes. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Narcocide ( 102829 ) on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @07:36PM (#57495346) Homepage

    I'm making this one simple for you. Yes, if you've got the money, hire them. Make sure they agree to the plan to open source their part of the work too, and ahead of time, or at least give you full rights to it so you can if you choose to.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by novakyu ( 636495 )

      Make sure they agree to the plan to open source their part of the work too, and ahead of time, or at least give you full rights to it so you can if you choose to.

      Unnecessary. See work for hire [wikipedia.org]. If you paid to have it created, then, unless there is a contractual term that says otherwise, you own the copyright. So, all you have to do is, make sure you don't give away more than you should to your employee.

      • Re:Yes. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @08:49PM (#57495662)

        The rules on "work for hire" vary by jurisdiction. There may be artistic exceptions. Or the designer could incorporate work from a previous job, or even from a third party.

        Get a written contract that nails down the IP, and makes it very clear who owns what, and who has what rights.

  • Why don't pro UI/UX Designers volunteer? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @07:38PM (#57495354)

    If an OSS project can attract non-paid developers, why can't it attract UI/UX designers?

    Or is maybe the problem that OSS developers often just don't recognize that they're no good at UI/UX design?

    • Re:Why don't pro UI/UX Designers volunteer? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Narcocide ( 102829 ) on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @07:51PM (#57495406) Homepage

      Or is maybe the problem that OSS developers often just don't recognize that they're no good at UI/UX design?

      It's less that they don't know they're bad at it (some of that is happening too) and more that they just don't care about how learning curves affect software adoption. They're typically creating a solution to a problem they understand very well and simply haven't budgeted time to even think about how to approach it from the mindset of someone who does not.

    • Because it works for me (Score:5, Insightful)

      by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @08:11PM (#57495490) Journal

      I "know* that I suck at UI/UX. I've been programming for 20 years, and actively studying programming the whole time, so I can generally add a feature or option I want very quickly - sometimes in a matter of minutes. The UI for the new option will be another checkbox or whatever. I'm not improving the UI overall, and hopefully not making it significantly worse.

      So I spent 30 minutes and got the feature, fix, or option that I need. I suck at UI, but I don't suck badly enough that I then hire a *competent* professional to make the one part of the UX better for me. It does what I need it to do, the value prop isn't there for me to spend $10,000 getting the UI improved.

      There is something else going on. My last job was working full time on an open source project. I sent most of my work upstream. Our organization also had some graphics arts and UI types that made it look pretty after I was done. To my knowledge, it never occurred to them to contribute their work back to the project. Contributing to open source just isn't something they think about. Programmers know about open source. In college and early in our careers we're told that contributing to open source can be a resume builder. Are UI folks told that? Is there an awareness of open source?

      • Hear hear!

        The API is where the work gets done.

        The UI should be lightweight (example from my perspective: for an internal corporate app and a Windows shop, use basic WPF or even Winforms, Winforms are the roads and aqueducts the Romans built... - mature). The exponential user facing Web 2.0/3.0/4.0/5.0 libraries are getting stupid. Angular Material rewrites CSS (try centering something).

        UI design should be an important consideration of course. But it doesn't have to be shiny, just easy and intuitive to us

    • Re:Why don't pro UI/UX Designers volunteer? (Score:5, Informative)

      by darkain ( 749283 ) on Thursday October 18, 2018 @12:07AM (#57496248) Homepage

      I have a damn good answer for this. Because UX/UI cannot be handled by unit tests, and does not have a definite "better" or "worse" condition at face value. I cannot count the number of times I've proposed pull requests for UX issues in open-source projects, only to have them either massively argue about the need, or flat out reject the PR. One of the more recent ones, a router OS which has basic IPv6 support was displaying IPv6 delegated subnets wrong. As an end-user, this confused me and went against my knowledge of being a network admin. As a software engineer, I went in and check the UI code which displayed the info. It was a trivial bug to fix, but instead of fixing the bug, the project lead decided to take the entire feature out as a way to "fix" it. So, instead of display correct information or even wrong information, just display NO information at all to the end-user!

      The two key areas where developers need to learn to open up more to contributions is for UX/UI, and for documentation. Recently I discovered that there is a dedicated group of technical writers in Seattle who are the equiv open-source software engineers, they give some of their spare time to help document open-source projects. They've been really nice, host workshops, and teach their trade openly. *THIS* is what we need in open-source, more disciplines besides just software engineers.

      • What part of UX/UI can't be handled by unit tests? I've written UX/UI unit tests for WPF for (insert your favorite god here) sake and many others for angular and other JS frameworks.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by darkain ( 749283 )

          You can unit-test interactive elements, sure. Or maybe that "this element should be at this location" - but that isn't the entire story of UX/UI. "Does the navigation properly flow from page A to page B when click on button C" can be tested, but the logic behind "SHOULD page A navigate to page B, and how do we properly convey this to humans who are using our software" cannot be tested. There are finite and well defiled rules for how computer languages and interpreters work, so they're easy to test. Each use

          • You aren't talking about unit tests then if you are adding the human element of using the UX at large. If you want to test if page A should navigate to page B well then you have a problem. You know that it should or shouldn't and test accordingly.

  • Conversely..... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    There a lot of commercial software products where the UI/UX is truely hideous and as the commercial product tries to cram more unnecessary features to encourage more people buy the latest version or signup for a software lease, the UI/UX get steadily worse.

  • Why do only UI/UX people get paid? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by euxneks ( 516538 ) on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @07:43PM (#57495374)
    Maybe the question should be: why aren't UI/UX designers donating time like developers are?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Narcocide ( 102829 )

      Yes, that's the better question to ask. I think it's simply a matter of exposure. Designers just aren't as aware of the potential of open source to show off their creativity. Some sort of outreach may be in order...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sebby ( 238625 )

        Yes, that's the better question to ask. I think it's simply a matter of exposure. Designers just aren't as aware of the potential of open source to show off their creativity. Some sort of outreach may be in order...

        I agree with this - lots of designers are eager to put their mock designs up, but don’t seem to want to do it on real projects, which would give them valuable experience.

    • When I taught at a digital design school I was always surprised that the students were not into the open source mindset at all.

      There is a large community of open source theme designers, like for Wordpress. But a website and, for example, a UX for smart home interface are two different things.

      That said, I've also noticed how a lot of developers have an "I understand HTML so I can design well enough" mentality, which drives designers away. An example is the Domoticz project, an open source smart home home

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Maybe the question should be: why aren't UI/UX designers donating time like developers are?

      I would ask why professional UI/UX designers aren't making good UI's to begin with.

      Also, why would I want them to touch a program I use? I don't want another ribbon experience.

      Most UI designers are incompetent and the problem with UI design in open source software isn't that the UI is badly designed, it is that it has organically grown instead of being designed.
      If one of the programmers sat down a day and focused on the UI design it would probably turn out a lot better than if you hired some outsider to do

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The used to... And then everyone decided that they hate UI/UX designers for ruining Gnome and everything else they went near.

      Seriously, why would they want to help out when the other people working on the project think they are liberal arts graduates who know nothing and ruin everything? Even lawyers get less flak.

      • Your talking specifically about the people who ruined Gnome? The 'other people' on the project are RIGHT.

        90% of everything is crap. UI design groups aren't selecting the right designers. Didn't do it for Gnome, didn't do it for Blender.

        Blender is worse, you can't switch away to another UI.

  • The answer is "yes". Open-Source developer teams should hire professional UI/UX designers.

    Next question, please.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by 110010001000 ( 697113 )
      No, the answer is "no" because professional UI/UX designers are a joke. Anyone can do what they do, just most people don't want to bother.

      • Re:The answer is "yes" (Score:4, Insightful)

        by jeff4747 ( 256583 ) on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @08:21PM (#57495528)

        The almost universally-terrible UX in open source projects would indicate otherwise.

        • Not that the almost universally-terrible UX in other projects would indicate a better option. Most UX principle driven designs are a race to the bottom. Like 80s and 90s era GM corporate bean counters in control of an interface because some focus group of idiots liked something and some analysis of clicks and mouse movement pointed to something else.

        • Re:The answer is "yes" (Score:5, Insightful)

          by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @09:53PM (#57495866)
          But look at the amount of terrible UX in closed source software. I don't think there are many people who will praise the direction that Microsoft took with the more recent installments of Windows. Some UX designer was responsible for that. Hell, there are people who still hate the ribbon with a passion and that's a decade gone at this point. It almost seems more like tossing darts in terms of successes, and a lot of good UIs are merely refinements on something created ages ago.

          UX is almost more like a religion than a science. There are some core tenants that everyone generally agrees on, but you can interpret the scripture almost any way you like to support whatever crazy ideas you have as long as you get get some followers on board.

          The UX in open source is largely bad because no one tried or wanted to spend any time on it. The UX in closed-source software is generally good when someone ripped off the one good example discovered years ago or just as terrible as the open source software despite huge amounts of man hours and other cost thrown at the problem. I suspect that the good UX comes from the developers who are users themselves and have a good understanding of the software and the needs of the users. The people who generally do UX for commercial software are so divorced from the users and the product that they end up creating some heinous monstrosity in their pursuit of artistry.

          • But look at the amount of terrible UX in closed source software.

            Don't try to prove a negative or build up strawmen. There's a big difference between "universally terrible" and "look over there, I see something nasty"!

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            It almost seems more like tossing darts in terms of successes, and a lot of good UIs are merely refinements on something created ages ago.

            So... Just like 90% of software development then.

          • But look at the amount of terrible UX in closed source software

            The difference is I can find good UX in closed-source software. Obviously not all UX is good, but there actually are some good ones. Everything in open source is bad until you've learned the random paradigm that the developers thought of (and broke several times in other parts of their product).

            For example, vi(m). If you've taken the time to read a ton about it and memorize a series of obscure commands, you can do great things with it. But if you're a novice who just launched it for the first time, you

      • Or can bother (to some degree). One of my former bosses was great a web design, HTML, getting layouts to look good on all sorts of viewing devices, etc.

        He was also color blind. Frequent conversations were like "Hey, is this blue more blue than this other blue? Do either of them match this green ? Is that even green?"

        So if he was limited to grey scale, he'd do great. And while he'd like to bother with picking complementary colors, etc. it just isn't something he is physically able to do.

      • No, the answer is "no" because professional UI/UX designers are a joke. Anyone can do what they do, just most people don't want to bother.

        The same goes for heart surgeons, architects, and astronauts, right?

        There's no real training needed, you just muddle on and fake your way through the interviews, correct?

    • The answer is No because OSS is primarily for command-line-using neckbeards anyway.
  • should have people who are interested in the project wanting to code for free.
    They can use their own free time to code for a project they enjoy working on.
    That will produce a great quality of code and ensure the project has years of support as OS and hardware advance.
    The code can then be given away to the world for free.

  • non STEM liberal arts students, to craft their Common Code, They will also be more than happy to help you understand why people prefer rounded corners more than actual functionality.

    Besides, non STEM hires/contractors will work for minimum wage, not including tips. /s

  • Betteridge

  • or another way of looking at this (Score:5, Insightful)

    by abonstu ( 682723 ) on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @07:51PM (#57495404)
    Why don't competent UI/UX designers feel compelled to contribute to open-source projects?

    Is it because UI/UX designers are universally a bunch of assholes? (unlikely)
    Is it because UI/UX naturally evolves as a secondary concern to software development? (possibly)
    Is it because the types that initiate/maintain open-source projects generally consider UI/UX to be of lesser importance? (now we're getting somewhere)

    Thats probably why (as a general rule) server side open-source projects are more successful.

    • Re:or another way of looking at this (Score:5, Informative)

      by Cmdln Daco ( 1183119 ) on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @09:25PM (#57495788)

      Is it because people right here in this discusison keep conflating UI/UX design with some sort of frilly artistic bullshit?

      It's design of a user interface. Not it's artistic merit. Not what it looks like. That is widget design, which comes after UI/UX design.

      The User Interface is the buttons, hierarchy of menu, graphical cues, etc. It can all be written as a guideline, which it actually for the most part has been designed [wikipedia.org] and just needs consistent implementation. Everybody has their boutique obsessions, the CUA just needs a little updating.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Is it because people right here in this discusison keep conflating UI/UX design with some sort of frilly artistic bullshit?

        No. it is because we have all used professional software with interfaces designed by professional UI/UX designers.
        Sometimes it is even the reason to why we switched to open source projects instead.

        You can't just go out and hire a UI/UX designer.
        If you get the wrong guy he will transform your usable project into an unusable mess that no-one want to touch with a ten foot pole.

      • Re:or another way of looking at this (Score:4, Informative)

        by famebait ( 450028 ) on Thursday October 18, 2018 @06:07AM (#57496912)

        "The User Interface is the buttons, hierarchy of menu, graphical cues, etc. It can all be written as a guideline,"

        Umm, no. That is like saying checkstyle can design your system for you. Styleguides are good, both for UIs and code, but they cannot replace design, and that goes both for up-front and incremental design.

        Anything but the most trivial user interface needs a coherent vision of how the interaction is meant to flow in order to end up any good.
        Many have none, and end up terrible to use as a result. Some get by by copying something that *was* designed competently, but even then they often get the little (or big) things wrong because they have not understood the reasons behind the model design.

        Reliably creating and maintaining a good interaction model requires some knowledge of how people use systems, and at least a minimum of user testing. None of this is impossible for an interested developer to learn, but it does require some investment.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • TL;DR: Muscle Memory.

    Yes. Then FIRE THEM. And even better, that solves the GUI problem that every-version-has-a-change-somehow. How? Because the "helper" still wants to help so they rearrange the GUI to look/be "better" for next time. And then they do it again. And AGAIN.

    You change it when you NEED to change it, not because it's Tuesday and this field suddenly needs to be over there.

    It's one thing if you get it wrong and everyone (EVERYONE) complains, it's another if it's a major upgrade with new f

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sebby ( 238625 )

      I think a lot of the problems with those types of changes is that they’re not incremental, like other code fixes/features.

      UI/UX changes can be valid/necessary to make workflows better, but drastic changes rub users the wrong way - the changes should be done gradually instead.

  • I dunno about paid, but I recall the gimpshop guy was working for free yet wasn't exactly celebrated. Even though it was a very good idea.

  • quality (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Unfortunately there are many, many, MANY bad UI/UX designers in the world. Everyone has an opinion of what good UI/UX design is. Very few have the experience or talent to actually do it well.

    Yes, a good UI/UX would vastly improve many open source tools. But UI/UX designers don't write code and honestly most of them aren't worth the opinion they carry into a project. So unless the 'developer' already has great UI/UX skills, any attempt 'tack it on' at the direction of a designer is bound to fail in a too

  • Are UX/UI designers special? (Score:3)

    by manu0601 ( 2221348 ) on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @08:28PM (#57495566)
    The question should rather be: how UX/UI designers are different from software engineers, if the former do not contribute to free software like the later?

  • Why should anyone consult a UI engineer (Score:3)

    by Archfeld ( 6757 ) <treboreel@live.com> on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @08:36PM (#57495600) Journal

    They are not real engineers of any sort, and actually the source of many of the problems we see in software today. UI designers demand change for changes sake rather than any sort of reasonable cause. You can't consult an efficiency expert and NOT expect them to recommend change just to justify their own existence. Why can't the UI default be a simple clean design and allow customization by the user, or the user base in general. A library of skins and such applied by end users based on their preference, rather than some group that's very existence is mandated by them finding something, anything to change...

  • I'm amazed at the level of retarded UIs we have seen from UI people getting involved in software development in general. I can write my own shitty UI than you very much.

  • 1st the project has to care about the users (Score:3)

    by lpq ( 583377 ) on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @09:10PM (#57495754) Homepage Journal

    It's not that most software writers can't write something that is friendly, its that they don't want to because they don't think it is necessary.

    If it works and gets the job done, then so what if it is complicated -- that will weed out the dummies and an I won't waste as much time responding to lame questions.

    I've seen some open SW groups that are proud of how difficult their project is to use. And they don't want to change anything, -- heaven forbid, because it might break compatibility with 20 year old server installations.

    I've seen more than one geek who didn't like the idea of making it easier to use for others -- there should be a learning curve that keeps out the dummies. Look what happened when they'd let anyone write code (especially web/net code) in the decade leading up to the 1st great computer-based tech crash in the 1990's.

    Now this lethargy is spreading to corporation as they rearrange their
    business model to get paid for doing alot less (or nothing). Adobe is "rolling in the bucks" now that they don't have to actually come up with new or better products/features in order to get customers to buy the next version. Now they just have to pay to keep access to their old programs.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by f00zbll ( 526151 )
      Honestly, most open source programmers I know suck at UX. Even if they were to try, it would still suck. It would be less shitty. I've been contributing to open source for over 15 years and I've done a bit of rich UI, but honestly I couldn't build a great UX to save my life. Someone that is truly great at UX thinks differently than some one that codes. There might be a rare bird out there that is a badass programmer and great UX designer, but finding one with time is basically impossible. I've known a few g

  • It's not a UX designer problem (Score:4, Insightful)

    by enrique556 ( 4461637 ) on Wednesday October 17, 2018 @10:41PM (#57495990)

    It isn't hard for the programmers who write this stuff to eat their own dogfood (use their own software just once) and notice how fucking obtuse, buggy and clunky the UI is. Gnome's System Monitor, which so many Linux desktop distros use as their process monitor, is god-awful, even with so many eyes on it every day. It doesn't take a UX designer to fix it, it just takes a programmer who is familiar enough with the source code.
    Another example: Gnome Maps has bugs all over the UI (not bugs at lower layers, because it doesn't crash) but you can left click / right click / menu selection your way into trouble very quickly and easily.
    People who write open source software are doing so out of their free time, and I bet they get to a certain point where the functionality is all there, and they get bored with testing and bugfixing the useability aspects.

    Writing a good UI is more about really caring than design problems. It takes a lot of time that nobody is paying for and it's not fun. That is why the UX with open source is mediocre. Any programmer can look at a commercial product's UI and try to get parity with what they're writing, but they don't, and that's perfectly understandable.

    So in conclusion, I'd say in my professional opinion, that we just need a company with deep pockets to sponsor extant open source programmers to put the finishing touches on their work. It's something they're far better suited to get done than a UX designer.

    • Judging from my experience editing Wikipedia, it's very easy for SOME of the project participants to realize that the interface is horrible. But there is always one participant who has an effective veto power who disagrees. Either they have so much experience with the project that the unintuitive things have become second nature, or else they are weird and don't understand how anyone else's mind works. Either way they are completely unreceptive to other people's complaints about the interface, and since the

  • It has a purpose.

    Yes from start its look like bad, if you had enough patience (which you will need a patience) blender has one of the best UI ever (for a 3d modelling software).

    This isn't apple sh*t. It primary purpose a fast, capable 3d modelling software. When you getting to use it. You will understand how inferior others interface.

    You are comparing shell with windows GUI.

    Which better for administering a server ?

  • UX designers should contribute to projects they use or find important and companies should contribute assets to lift all the boats? Why is SVG so different from Java in this regard?

  • This is not how thing should be done in the software world.
    If something can be done only for money, not for fun, it means that this is dull, boring job and no one gets fun from it.

    Really., UI programming using current UI tools is boring and dissatisfying job. So no good developer would like to do it, and will try to shift burden to the juniors.

    But computers are there to automate dull and boring things. What we need it is UI langiage (may be as set of other language functions/operators), which would let us t

  • Blender ist a fulll-blown professional 3D kit. Those are hard to use. They are operating systems by themselves and people good in then usually have years of experience and can't operate any other kit beyond basic functionality.

    That being said, blender has some quirks in the details. But on the plus side blender has a huge community, many on the design side of things and quite a few 3D UX industry professionals who maintain laundry lists of blender shortcomings and push for changes in that area. So hiring is

  • Many projects are in dire need of a good user interface. However, there are two kinds of UI designers:

    1. people from the field of human interface design. Responsible for things like Apple's Human Interface Guidelines book which set the rules for the original Mac OS interface. This group tries to optimize the user experience via solid design principles and user testing.

    2. Graphic designers with delusions of grandeur. These have no idea of what constitutes a good interface, and are responsible

    • Amen to that. What never ceases to puzzle me is why there are so few programmers with a bit of #1 in them. Sure, there are lots of coders who value their own ability to master complex shit over all else, to the detriment of everyone around them, but surely at least the ones who value clean code should also be motivated to learn some usability basics?

  • To get this right out of the way: I have no problem what-so-ever donating FOSS time for ux. I'm in the lucky position to be both usefully good at programming and UI/UX design, with arts and design diplomas and certs to emphasize that.

    The big problem is that good UX is hard. Like 'finding that right asynchronous model' hard or 'finding that obscure USB bug' hard. Plus, people doing UX for free want to do UX well - they have to compromise enough on their day jobs (sounds familiar doesn't it?) - rarely get app

  • Are the OSS tools/programs really that horrible in UI/UX design? Sure, some are, but is, given the example, Blender one of those?
    Blender is different and perhaps that is why you think the UI/UX design is bad, somebody who used Blender his whole life and would go on to use one of the more know commercial offerings would think the same because he's used to how Blender works.
    For example, I think 'vi' has great UI/UX, there are probably a lot of people who disagree (and think emacs is the pinacle of UX), but my

    • somebody who used Blender his whole life and would go on to use one of the more know commercial offerings would think the same because he's used to how Blender works.

      Likewise, a GIMP user like me would have some relearning to do if dropped in front of a copy of Adobe Photoshop.

      But I think what other people are trying to say is that applications for macOS ought to work like the applications included with macOS and other applications published by the publisher of macOS. Likewise, applications for Windows ought to work like the applications included with Windows and other applications published by the publisher of Windows. Things like Blender work like neither.

  • And they should stop redesigning it every goddamn iteration.

  • Has anyone actually asked for free consultation with a UX designer? They may just need to know how/when to get involved. In my experience though, developers always know exactly what the user should be doing, so therefore there is no need for a designer ;)
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  • Should I buy a boat?

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