On Fri, 2012-05-04 at 00:03 -0500, Diego Escalante Urrelo wrote: > A common language of patterns is an awesome idea. I'd encourage > Federico to expand on the subject.
Calum, Allan, and generally the people around the London UX Hackfest have already done a ton of work in this area: https://live.gnome.org/UsabilityProject/HIG3 There is a set of prototypal patterns there. I've just added my two favorite references for designing pattern languages: http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/StructurePattern.html - by Nikos Salingaros. He explains how a hierarchy or graph of patterns works, how to validate pattern languages, and how to ensure that patterns have the right connections among them. Consider it as "how to write a good pattern language". http://www.dreamsongs.com/Files/FinePointsOfPatternWriting.pdf - by Richard Gabriel. It's a presentation on the quality of writing in pattern descriptions, and about the story-like qualities that a pattern language should have. Consider it as "how to make a pattern language pleasant to read". I think we can just start with the work on the HIG3 page and start polishing it based on those guidelines. I also want to bring in patterns from other UX-centered pattern languages that could be useful to Gnome. Also, Emily said: > Another idea would be to begin giving users a simple way to provide > feedback on what they prefer in design. This could be done via a GNOME > Design Blog or similar, where posts focus on upcoming features along > with examples to be voted on – do users prefer buttons/menus/etc that > look like X, Y, or Z? Should we remove minimize/maximize/close > buttons? Do users want a journal? How important is privacy to you? > Etc. Require users to register, and when they do so ask if they'd like [snip] This would be a very good way to start hunting for good things in Gnome that can be turned into patterns: this is exactly what Tom Erickson describes in his paper, about what was done in the town of Manteo to figure out the "sacred places" that should be preserved. We had good success with an informal poll like the one for Gnome Deployments, and the replies weren't hard to analyze... maybe another informal poll, "What do you like about gnome2 / gnome3?", with answers of limited length and a "no bitching and moaning, please" guideline... :) Federico _______________________________________________ desktop-devel-list mailing list desktop-devel-list@gnome.org http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list