Topic: BCon (Blender Conference) and UI discussions

[kat]

The problem is that the chaps in charge don't have the necessarily skills, knowledge or experience with Real World (TM) UI Design to know what they are doing and are unable to make fully formed 'executive decisions'. As a result there is all too often rather open ended debate between them never mind everyone else. Naturally when mere mortal users see that they assume there's an actual real-life discussion going on, rather than it actually being an 'open' discussion between head-honchos and their respective 'status update' - the 'topic' isn't actually up for debate (as the quoted individual was highlighting), but they want everything to be 'open' - as in 'accessible', something that often gets misread to mean 'open to input/discussion/etc.'. It's not (or at least wasn't specifically intended to be based on the comments made at BCon 2013). Frankly, this sort of stuff happens when groups are poorly (micro) managed, and sadly there's not a lot 'outsiders' can do about situations like that unfortunately.

[ratty redemption]

thanks kat, that does make a lot of sense. i think i understand better now how they work.

i also find it ironic, that until recently andrew and jonathan were also mere mortals, and yet have now been granted god like powers, he he.

seriously, i'm not really envious of them. i would not want their responsibility. but likewise, if someone offered me a job in ui designing an app, i would turn it down unless i had prior ui experience at a professional level, and any app i had worked on had been successful with the users.

i do however apparently know more about certain parts of blender than andrew, which makes me think his role should, in my opinion, be more limited to the gfx design of some of the ui elements like the buttons, menus etc. and not be directly involved with the more technical sides of dev. which by his own admission he isn't very technical.

[kat]

As is oft' said, "enthusiasm trumps experience" Even though he may not specifically have a practical background in UI design, his recent foray in to it's principles, and the information he gathered in doing that, should be being capitalised upon. It's not, from what's I've seen, and that's a bit of a shame. But, it is what it is. And despite what Ton has said about 'openness', as was said above, unless outsiders (ostensibly) agree with already established core principles of development, they will largely go ignored or told to make their own version of Blender - both of which are not particularly productive responses (or attitudes to have).

[ratty redemption]

i see, good points kat.