Personal Hackfest 2011 Summary

Almost two weeks ago, we had our LibreOffice Hackfest in Munich. It's time for a personal summary what happened there, because my involvement was rather providing functional design improvements than committing patches (besides the logo).

But before I start, I want to say thank you to all those who helped to make that a unique event (e.g. the organizers, the City of Munich, the Café Netzwerk people) ... to all the friends I haven't seen such a long time ... and to Italo who prepared excellent pasta.

Now some of the stuff we've worked on ...

Header / Footer Handling (Writer)

Some of you may have noticed the headers/footers handling work by Cédric. The original issues were:

• Users often selected page background pictures (think watermark) instead of text. Usually, such background pictures are anchored in the header/footer of a page.
• User sometimes change the header/footer content on one page without knowing that this will have impact on other pages.

There are more issues that got resolved, but you're prolly interested how the solution looks like at the moment. Here is a "brushed up" screenshot of what Cédric is working on:

I don't want to reveal more ... due to time constraints I was unable to add a Whiteboard for the discussions. So either test a daily build, wait for another blog post, or dive into the extensive discussion at libreoffice-ux-advise.

Page Range Improvements (Calc)

Calc already features advanced "named ranges" (or "named expressions", as the developers prefer to say) since LibreOffice 3.4. But, a reasonable user interface to manage these ranges is still missing.

Markus was so kind to spend quite some time to discuss this issue - and he is already working on bringing that into LibreOffice. Although we need to resolve some open (one even fundamental) question, you may get all the updates on the: Calc Range Names Whiteboard page.

A (still in work) teaser:

This proposal is currently in review by Kohei, Eike, Markus ... thanks to you guys!

Improving the Extension Installation Experience

One of the very first contributions within this community was to review a specification of the "Extension Manager" some years ago ... already from a User Experience perspective. The more I was happy that Christian, one of the developers, proposed to work on "proper error reporting for erroneous OXT/ extension folder (missing files, missing keys, more specific and understandable errors)".
In the very first step, he thought about providing detailed insights why installing an extension might fail - which helps developers to debug extensions. But then we've discussed some ideas how to make such error messages also more helpful for less experienced users. For example, having easy-to-understand texts, having clues who developed the extension, how to provide feedback if the installation went wrong, ...
I'm curious with what he will come up with ;-)

Reworking the Options

The initial question from Regina and Reinhard was "How can we improve the understandability between document only vs. LibO settings?" A tough question, because I once tried to answer that question in the activity Improved Options in OOo times.

After some further discussion (and more ideas what should be improved) we came to the conclusion that it is required to to collect the information of all the available options first - from technical details to number of use. Currently, we try to figure out how to do that ... I hope that Astron (who started a similar activity some weeks ago) and others will join.

And there was much more ... for example the "how to better interact with the developers". That's something for another post, so let's take some breath now.

A more complete list of achievements by all participants is available in the wiki.

Cheers,
Christoph

Sliced Visual Design Time

Hi everyone,

the first blog posting since weeks ... although I'm still fascinated to experience the first time with our child, I'm still (at least mentally) with LibreOffice. Some vacation from my day job helped me to spend a bit more "LibO time" (which is currently hard to predict). Since we travelled a lot, visual design stuff was something easy to work on "in slices".

New Banners for the Website 

Currently, our different websites (e.g. the conference website, the donation website) are only losely coupled. For a quick-fix, banners had to be added to the  LibreOffice front page ... unfortunately, nobody within the Design Team was able to spend some time on that. Instead, David was so kind to develop a first version.

These banners got replaced by new ones following more closely our branding language (and using Nik's and Paulo's artwork). Now, our website looks like that ...

If anybody wants to pick that up, for example to derive default web banners, or to translate the text - the source SVG file is here.


Conference Presentation Template

Some weeks ago, Charles asked for a presentation template for the upcoming LibreOffice conference in Paris (side note: don't forget to register...). Since I was always unhappy about the conference templates we had for the OOoCons, I decided to give it a try ...

The template proposal implements what I've usually missed, e.g.:

• providing much space for the content (which is more important than any logo)
• proper use of master pages incl. footer area definitions: first slide, default slide, section header slide, last slide
• pre-defined shapes / graphic object styles / gradients for the presentation authors
• correct language settings (spellchecking should work for English)
• font fallback definitions if some are missing on the target system
• small size for those who want to download the final presentations afterwards (having no broadband access)
• taking care of our LibreOffice branding language

So, let's see what template proposal will be picked :-) If you want to have a closer look, here is the template proposal.

Stuff for the Hackfest in Munich 2011

Most of you have (should have) heard about the Hackfest in Munich, 2011. Florian asked for a logo ... so I initially drafted some fun motto:

Curious? Maybe this and that makes it more understandable...

However, others joined with proposals. After some mixing and matching, I came up with a combination of the conference logo text and our macro icon (LibO initial icon design). I hope the devs don't mind the gearwheel ...

Well, a logo doesn't help much. So I've added some information panels / sheets that can easily be printed (A4). There are versions without content (for on-site labeling), explanation text, different directions and the motto text. Here is an example:

Of course, source files are available - so feel free to use them for your meeting.

Final Words

Since I talked about "LibO time is less predictable", I owe Caolan, Cedric, Bjoern, Josh, Rainer, Nik, Drew, Andreas, Bjoern (another one) and many others a big thank your for their patience. Please, if something is urgent or I did miss to reply - then please feel free to send a reminder.

I really hope to continue with some user experience / usability related stuff ... some issues and other requests are still waiting.

Enjoy your day,
Christoph

Improved Download Page Proposal

Hi everyone,

the last time I blogged about the parental leave ... still enjoying that time. But, sometimes I'd like to continue supporting LibreOffice and among different stuff in the last weeks (e.g. in the issues, or the libreoffice-ux-advice mailing list), I had a look at the Download section of our main website.

The Issue
It has been reported several times that end-users are unaware concerning the release scheme of LibreOffice and may experience problems with X.X.0 releases. Converning the latter, this is also a problem of users who download the software on external pages unrelated to TDF - the corresponding warning/information might be missing.

Furthermore, there have been complaints that the TDF LibreOffice Download page is too complex for normal users. Consequently, the LibreOffice Download Experience has to be improved.

Here is the download page how it looks today:

Although everything works, it seems a bit crowded, very complex and sometimes even misleading (as reported by users).

The Proposed Solution
Since everybody likes pictures, here is are just two mockups.

First, a mockup that demonstrates how the initial website will look like for a Microsoft Windows user.

Second, a mockup that demonstrates the website for a user who decided to go for the "Latest Features" version using a Linux based operating system. Moreover, the user already expanded the Download Options area.

You know, mockups miss a lot of information ... so don't forget to read the Download Page Whiteboard page telling you all the details ... please read that page before raising any concern ;-)


Thanks!

A "thank you" to all who helped to shape these proposals ... the earlier discussions on different mailing lists helped a lot (especially Nik who provided great thoughts). Furthermore, I'd like to thank Christian who helped to collect some of the requirements for a revised page design.


Personally, I hope you like the propsal. I'll announce it at the website mailing list, so join the discussion - or much better: help with the implementation.

Cheers,
Christoph

Status of the Design Team Kick-Off, and a Personal Note

Status of the Design Team Kick-Off

You might remember our earlier blog postings concerning the Design Team Kick-Off, an effort to get to know each other and to build a sufficient structure that helps us to make LibreOffice a great software ...

So, we brainstormed a bit what we'll need ... not in terms of work items (improve this or that in the user interface, add missing icons etc.), but in terms of organizational stuff (how to make decisions, how to get data about our users etc.) Although it took a while (my fault due to parallel issues), we have now a comprehensive list of what's missing at the moment ... on the What We Need page.

We don't know each of the solutions yet, but sometimes it is more important to know what to work on, than to work on anything without knowing what for ... so I hope that the Design Team continues to work on that. Until know, it was great to see all the good brainstorming.

If your team has some ideas what might be needed to cooperate, then feel free to add it to the team sections on the same page. Björn and Thorsten have been so kind to look at it from a developers point-of-view: Thanks a lot guys!


Oh, and since I've noticed a few discussions in the last days concerning "user interface design", please have a look at my temporary working space in the wiki. I've listed some of the Interaction Guidelines for the platforms we support - of course, it is just about UI elements, but it should already help to keep the focus in discussions. If you like, please move the content to a page where it makes a bit more sense (e.g. Design/Guidelines). At the moment, I really miss the time ... but why?

Personal Note

As some of you already know, our son was born yesterday :-) And that's the explanation for having been less active (especially) during the last three weeks ... and the reason for being absent for some more. I'd like to enjoy this time without working on LibreOffice.

Why? The last years, I dedicated a lot of time to StarOffice / OpenOffice.org / LibreOffice ... user support, interaction design stuff, being the OOo User Experience Co-Lead, serving in the OpenOffice.org Community Council, and helping to shape the TDF (long before LibreOffice went public). I think its fair to - this time - spend a bit more time with the family.

I'll be back soon :-)

Cheers,
Christoph

LibreOffice gets a Motif

LibreOffice gets a Motif ... a what?

Okay, let's start from the beginning. Since quite some time we have been asked to provide graphic material that fits nicely together - you may remember our earlier effort concerning the LibreOffice Branding Guidelines.

Sure, the branding guidelines tell you in detail what to do (and to avoid) with regard to our logo, the fonts, ... but a recurring element was still missing. Until now, we used the "triangle pattern" you see in the LibreOffice splashscreen, for example.

Nik took the initiative and started the "LibreOffice Motif Design Task" ... so I'm mostly quoting or referring in this blog posting to other people's work. He explained what a motif generally means:

For our purposes (it has other industry-specific meanings) a motif is a Design element that is used to bring consistency to a range of Design artifacts and sets a "mood" or "atmosphere" visually without taking up too much attention. It is a support element and should compliment the contents of every Design. As such, it usually takes the form of a background-image/vector.

If it wants to set the "mood", it's not an easy task - because it has to fit to the community and the product. So we had exciting days (although things never go as quick as you like, of course) of creating proposals, discussing them, and rating them.

To make a long story short(er), we had:

• 12 proposals by 5 people
• 14 votes
• And a clear winner: Scatter by Nik (10 votes)

Here is the basic design, which is based on the document symbol "triangle":

To prove that it'll be working, Nik provided the Scatter motif in context - although the green is a bit different, you'll get the idea:

To me, this design is a perfect example for our community. It reminds me of the diversity of the different people (different orientation, slightly different color of the triangles) while trying to archive something great together (group of triangles). By the way, Nik told me that he put a lot of effort into making something "organic".


Fine, and now? For example, Drew started to refine a postcard which had been made by Nik as an example. Here is the front:

Want to see more? Have a look at the Existing Designs Wiki Page and find out that even a professional publisher picked the motif (Thanks to them!).


Finally, thanks to all the guys who participated in creating and supporting such the fine motif design piece ... My deepest thanks go to Nik, who took care about documentation and guidance. If you want to see more, e.g. all the motif proposals, then go to the Design Motif Wiki Page.

I'm looking forward to see how our project will get "motifated". Website, LibreOffice product artwork, marketing material, ...

Cheers,
Christoph

No Light Without Shadow

Hi all!

A German saying tells us "Wo Licht ist, ist auch Schatten" - this may be translated with "No Light Without Shadow". Well, since I perceive a lot of light with regard to the amazing progress of LibreOffice, there needs to be shadow as well.

Some of you might have noticed some "document border" discussion weeks ago. Sébastien already implemented a much friendlier document shadow for Writer (see here) on the basis of Andrew's idea in bug (or better: Easy Hack) 31251.

Since there had been some intensive discussions, I finally spend some time on this topic and wrote my first (more or less) serious specification for all the LibreOffice applications: Document Background

In short, here is the outcome if an improved document outline, a slightly revised shadow, and a gradient get combined ...

Sébastien replied that he'll working on an improved Draw/Impress shadow at the moment. I'm curious whether we can beautify and harmonize all components of LibreOffice. So far, a big thank you to Sébastien!

Back to the "Light / Shadow" topic. What if we add some more decoration - maybe some some Document Triangles ...

Where do these triangles come from? Something to blog about later ... maybe another Design Team guy will talk about it.

That's it so far ...

Cheers,
Christoph

Idea: LibreOffice Mail Attachment Service

During the time with OpenOffice.org, it was quite common to come up with some ideas from time to time. But during the amazing first months with LibreOffice, I simply lacked the time ... until now. So here is the very first idea that is aimed to improve the handling of mail attachments on the mailing lists.

Summary

Enable sending attachments to mailing lists and keep in mind: security, traffic, ease-of-use, costs and misuse potential.

Solution Proposal

If a mail from a subscribed person is sent to a mailing list, and this mail contains an attachment, then the attached file gets extracted from the email and saved on a server. Then, the system embeds a link to this file (or a website containing this file). After this, the mail gets delivered as usual to the mailing lists and the mail archives.

Here is a draft how this may look like for the mailing list members, once they get a mail that originally contained an attachment:

And now?

If you want to know more, please have a look at the full proposal at the dedicated wiki page. There, you can find some user stories, a more detailed technical description, and a extensive FAQ concerning this idea. Go, go, go :-)

Cheers,
Christoph