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Graham Spookyland🎃/Polynomial

@tsrberry @joepie91 @baldur but ultimately at that scale you need input from actual designers - people who really know how to make a good UI/UX, and who can tell you what you can do better. that can be direct, by getting designers to come help with the project and help come up with better approaches and workflows, or it can be indirect feedback. and be humble. don't get defensive because you're attached to the project or it'll be work to fix the issues. it's hard work to do it right!

28 August at 21:49 | Wall-to-wall | Open on chaos.social
3 comments
Sven Slootweg

@gsuberland @tsrberry @baldur One thing I'd want to add to that is that if it's not feasible to find experienced designers (funding reasons, community politics, whatever reason), it *is* possible to just learn how to do this stuff yourself on-the-fly as a maintainer, but it makes the "be humble" part all the more important, and to make that work, you *need* to have an attitude of "if a user complains about something, that means there's a bug, even if it's not where the user thinks it is" (eg. it might sometimes be a documentation issue instead of a UX issue, but as long as people complain, there's *a* bug somewhere).

@gsuberland @tsrberry @baldur One thing I'd want to add to that is that if it's not feasible to find experienced designers (funding reasons, community politics, whatever reason), it *is* possible to just learn how to do this stuff yourself on-the-fly as a maintainer, but it makes the "be humble" part all the more important, and to make that work, you *need* to have an attitude of "if a user complains about something, that means there's a bug, even if it's not where the user thinks it is" (eg. it...

28 August at 21:53 | Open on social.pixie.town
Sven Slootweg replied to Sven

@gsuberland @tsrberry @baldur Also, related to the 'user surveys' point - it's surprisingly helpful to just enter your project name into a search engine every once in a while, and read every blog post, Reddit thread, and rant you come across. Those tend to be *full* of things that never made it into 'properly filed' issues, and give a good impression of the general atmosphere around your project, because people tend to speak more freely and directly.

Of course that does mean that you should refrain from responding to them unless you are absolutely 100% certain that you can do so non-confrontationally, because seeking out confrontation with people talking in their own spaces is (deservedly) a very quick trip to the trash pile. Better to just take notes and work on fixing their complaints in the background.

(Bonus points: you can do this one as an 'unaffiliated' contributor with no formal power within the project. Whereas a proper user survey, although it can have better coverage, tends to require speaking formally for the project.)

@gsuberland @tsrberry @baldur Also, related to the 'user surveys' point - it's surprisingly helpful to just enter your project name into a search engine every once in a while, and read every blog post, Reddit thread, and rant you come across. Those tend to be *full* of things that never made it into 'properly filed' issues, and give a good impression of the general atmosphere around your project, because people tend to speak more freely and directly.

28 August at 22:01 | Open on social.pixie.town
TSRBerry replied to Sven

@joepie91 @gsuberland @baldur Thank you both, this helped a lot! :D
I'll note these down and try to do my part!

28 August at 22:21 | Open on ravenation.club
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