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Sampath Pāṇini ®

@scottjenson saying the UX of opensource isn't great is saying the Quiet Part Out Loud™?

6 April at 7:29 | Wall-to-wall | Open on mastodon.world
8 comments
Scott Jenson

@paninid There certainly are some strong counter examples of great design in opensource. And to be sure, there are lots of bad corp UX out there. I'm NOT saying "OpenSource is doomed to bad UX", I'm saying it's mostly run by programmers that don't understand UX and wonder why UX designers don't want to play.

6 April at 7:36 | Open on social.coop
SomeAnoTooter

@paninid @scottjenson no it's just plain wrong. Is UX even a word fitting for open source? Open source is a concept and not a program/app. Can a concept have user experience? If you say oss UX is bad you are generalizing everything written with this idea/ license, which might be true for a big part or even a majority but saying everything open source had bad ux is plainly wrong. Also why not fork instead of getting your PR in? Make a fork, make your UX improvements be happy if origin uses yours.

6 April at 7:41 | Open on mastodon.online
Scott Jenson

@SomeAnoTooter
I never said that. There are excellent examples of great UX in OSS, it's not doomed, there is a tendency for engineering-lead teams to overly focus on the functionality.

This can be improved. That's why I made this post, I strongly believe OSS can have great UX design. I'm just tired of *some* maintainers in OSS telling me that it's entirely MY responsibility to package up my work into tiny bites so it's acceptable to maintainers that don't really want a better UX.

6 April at 7:48 | Open on social.coop
SomeAnoTooter

@scottjenson you wrote: "for saying the "#UX of opensource isn't great"", so yes you at least wrote it here. Yes you are correct with the engineering focus.
I find it hard to say anything about responsibility in the space of open source. The beauty of the freedoms kind of free maintainers from any demands. So I can totally understand when they get annoyed by demands that might be camouflaged by legitimate criticism. I think what you are talking about is also a reason for toxicity with Linux.

6 April at 8:03 | Open on mastodon.online
Scott Jenson

@SomeAnoTooter I'm not trying to make a large categorical point. I'm just trying to say that there MIGHT be a better way to improve UX in #OpenSource other than "just do a small PR". Let's start with:
1. Have the maintainer want better UX (not hard)
2. Discuss the changes ahead of time so everyone is on board (hard)
3. Create a list of small PRs needed
4. ***THEN*** start with the individual PRs

That's a process that will get the work done and hopefully have everyone in sync

@SomeAnoTooter I'm not trying to make a large categorical point. I'm just trying to say that there MIGHT be a better way to improve UX in #OpenSource other than "just do a small PR". Let's start with:
1. Have the maintainer want better UX (not hard)
2. Discuss the changes ahead of time so everyone is on board (hard)
3. Create a list of small PRs needed
4. ***THEN*** start with the individual PRs

6 April at 8:06 | Open on social.coop
SomeAnoTooter

@scottjenson that sounds reasonable well, but I feel like 1. can sadly be more challenging with some people.
I'm convinced, that bad UX is a struggle for a lot of maintainers, so discussion about it is good. I just wouldn't frame it as a general open source problem. Maybe there are specific open source tips and guidelines but mostly it won't be coupled with just open source space in general.
Anyways, thanks for your input.

6 April at 8:14 | Open on mastodon.online
Julik Tarkhanov

@scottjenson @SomeAnoTooter I think it is this part 2 which is a problem here. A lot of UX stuff is highly subjective and about creative control, and this is where the design-by-commitee that is a cornerstone of OSS might not work. Or at least I've yet to see it work except in very few cases

6 April at 16:45 | Open on ruby.social
SomeAnoTooter

@scottjenson I feel the best thing on discussions is always assume good faith and probably misunderstandings instead of taking seemingly "bad words/ criticism/ demands" too serious. Ignoring might sometimes be the best strategy. Sure most things are easier said/ written then done.

6 April at 8:07 | Open on mastodon.online
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