Latest revision as of 04:11, 21 March 2014

Overview

Design Vision

The future that never was; clean, technical, but human.

The design vision is focused on two attributes that connect the KDE community's past to it's future.

Capable - Power and flexibility. KDE Applications and Workspaces allow users to be effortlessly creative and efficiently productive.
Human - Simple and inviting. KDE Applications and Workspaces are pleasant to experience and easy to use.

Design Principles

The following design principles are used in support of the Design Vision.

Capable

Solve a problem. Identify and make very clear to the user what need is addressed and how.
Always in control. The user should never feel at the mercy of the tool. It should always be clear what can happen, what is happening and what happened. Give the user the final say.
Be flexible. Provide sensible defaults but consider optional functionality or customizations that do not interfere with the primary task.

Human

Make it easy to focus on what matters. Remove or minimize elements not crucial to the primary task. Use spacing to keep things uncluttered. Use color to draw attention.
Make important things fast. Not all actions are equal. Make important information or functions easy to find and use.
I know how to do that! Make things easier to learn by reusing design patterns from other applications.
Do the heavy lifting for me. Make complex tasks simple. Make novices feel like experts.
Respect the user’s space Computing environments are personal. Carefully consider rearranging important aspects of this environment. Consider providing optional arrangements the user can explore with less risk.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 = Overview =
+[[File:VDGOverview.jpg]]
 == Design Vision ==
-''The future that never was; clean, technical, but human.''
+<div style="text-align: center;">''The future that never was; clean, technical, but human.''</div>
 The design vision is focused on two attributes that connect the KDE community's past to it's future.
@@ Line 13: / Line 16: @@
 * '''Solve a problem.''' Identify and make very clear to the user what need is addressed and how.
 * '''Always in control.''' The user should never feel at the mercy of the tool. It should always be clear what can happen, what is happening and what happened. Give the user the final say.
-* '''Be flexible.''' Provide sensible defaults but consider optional functionality or customizations that do not hinder the primary task.
+* '''Be flexible.''' Provide sensible defaults but consider optional functionality or customizations that do not interfere with the primary task.
 === Human ===
-* '''Make it easy to focus on what matters''' Remove or minimize elements not crucial to the primary task. Use spacing to keep things uncluttered. Use color to draw attention.
+* '''Make it easy to focus on what matters.''' Remove or minimize elements not crucial to the primary task. Use spacing to keep things uncluttered. Use color to draw attention.
-* '''Make important things fast''' Not all actions are equal. Make important information or functions easy to find and use, like the pause button on a music player.
+* '''Make important things fast.''' Not all actions are equal. Make important information or functions easy to find and use.
 * '''I know how to do that!''' Make things easier to learn by reusing design patterns from other applications.
-* '''Do the heavy lifting for me''' Make complex tasks simple. Make novices feel like experts.
+* '''Do the heavy lifting for me.''' Make complex tasks simple. Make novices feel like experts.
+* '''Respect the user’s space''' Computing environments are personal. Carefully consider rearranging important aspects of this environment. Consider providing optional arrangements the user can explore with less risk.