[ubuntu-art] RFC: Ubuntu 6.06 Improvement Review

[Viper550]

Michiel Sikma wrote:
> Frank Schoep wrote:
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> I'm having trouble finding time to do Ubuntu related things lately 
>> due to overtime, but I've managed to put in some hours over the past 
>> two weeks. I've got a lot of ideas and suggestions I want to vent but 
>> I'm going to have to find a lot more time before I can present them 
>> in a professional way.
>>
>> These past two weeks I started working on a document that is now 
>> temporarily called "Ubuntu 6.06 Improvement Review".
>>
>> My initial goal was to make a statement that "artwork is more than a 
>> GTK theme and a bootsplash image". I've tried to combine artwork, 
>> consistency and usability into a single review of the operating 
>> system. All points of improvement can be used as a checklist for 
>> Edgy, to see where we need to invest time and refine things.
>>
>> In the little time I had, I managed to review the boot-up screen, 
>> local login and remote login. You can download a work-in-progress PDF 
>> at this TinyURL:
>> http://tinyurl.com/s4crn
>>
>> A direct link (spanning lines, with spaces in the filename):
>> http://www.ffnn.nl/media/external/ubuntu/dapperimprovement/Ubuntu 
>> 6.06 Improvement Review.pdf
>>
>> I'm asking for criticism and comments, along with the question of it 
>> being worth continuing this effort.
>>
>> It is unfortunate that I didn't want to deviate from the 
>> chronological order while writing the review, because reviewing all 
>> default applications is going to be tremendously interesting and will 
>> result in a list of inconsistencies amongst the bundled applications.
>>
>> Having this list would then make it possible to make Ubuntu feel less 
>> like a bunch of applications thrown together to put it in a harsh 
>> way. For instance, something I've been involved with is creating a 
>> Human theme for Firefox, because it brings its own incompatible icons 
>> and colors by default. This is a case where artwork and the concept 
>> of a "desktop theme" crosses the GTK  boundary.
>>
>> I'm looking forward to receiving your comments. Keep in mind that the 
>> document isn't intended for public release yet, isn't finished and 
>> the page layout hasn't got any love yet, but it's the best I can show 
>> you right now.
>>
>> Thanks for reading.
>>
>> With kind regards,
>>
>> Frank Schoep
>>
>
> Thanks for your review!
>
> I've read through your review and find that you have great ideas about 
> graphic design and usability. You know what you're talking about. I 
> agree with a lot of your points, but also disagree with some of them. 
> I'm kind of busy with all kinds of things, however, so I won't respond 
> to them here, but I would like to request that maybe the data from 
> that PDF is moved into the wiki; it might be really useful to be able 
> to quickly look up your data later, and this would also make it easy 
> to respond to your criticism.
>
> I hope to see more of this review soon.
>
> Michiel
>
Some of the ideas are good and all, but you've overlooked one thing 
about the bootup:

Originally, when you made that minimalistic splash, you didn't like the 
new usplash artwork that had all the colors in it! But, now you WANT 
something like that? Oh, why don't you make up your mind!

Viper550