I've lost all hope in the KDE project, they simply don't understand UI / UX design.
I can understand why this happens even though the outcome is often an unfriendly UI. Imagine you're a developer who's spent time and effort contributing to an open source project. Naturally you'll have an opinion on the UX and what suits your preferences. Everyone else using or contributing will also have a strong opinion. The moment you try and delgate visual and interaction design to a small, dedicated team is the moment the whole project generates enormous resentment from the "community".
Plus, any attempt to (sincerely) improve or simplify an interface will always be met at some point with the charge of "dumbing down".
Open source and design have never had a good relationship. I wish it were otherwise, but I don't know how it could be made better.
- Mismatched visual styles: when you tap the phone icon, you get a bar of three icons. Two are simple line icons (History and Contacts), the third is a detailed picture of a keyboard to denote keypad. A minor thing and easily fixed.
- Interface inconsistencies: I noticed that a large red X is used for closing a screen (which I like over the sometimes unclear Back button behaviour you get in Android). But at 3:16 in the video the Wallpaper screen has a 'close' button (with X) and below that in the tab bar is the larger red X for closing too. So you have two close functions on the same screen. You see the same duplication on the date and Time screen at 3:41. By the way, I think the way Windows Phone lets you change date and time is much nicer. It's a similar spinner approach to Plasma but less cluttered. Here's a video of it in action: https://youtu.be/kIsWgCX7qtE?t=54s
Also, the commands 'close', 'cancel' and 'delete' all tend to use the same X icon in many UIs so if there is no label for X, then it's meaning (and behaviour) should be consistent across the OS.
- Weather app: there is a 'hamburger' menu on the left and another slimmer hamburger menu on the right. They feel too similar visually. Presumably, the right-hand menu is equivalent to the overflow menu you find on Android. But are two menus needed here? Could they not all sit in one menu?
Obviously, this is a beta and these are relatively minor points. I can see some influence from Android, which is fine - there's no doubt that Google, Microsoft and Apple all study and are influenced by each others work. I just hope the OS stands up well as a unique UI rather than just a clone of bits from other OSes.
Overall, it looks quite polished for a version 1.0 and I hope the project succeeds. I would love to see an open source project take the lead in design/UX over existing projects.
Both Android and iOS are horrible when it comes to easy of use and know what you are doing in my opinion. Everyone using those systems ends up just using a bunch of patterns of clicking and swiping that they repeat every time, because they don't know which of the things they just did actually causes the effect they wanted.
In my opinion UI/UX are huge research fields, which you can see when you look at how the paradigms and "dogmas" from two years ago are now known to be the exact opposite of what you want. I think the only reasons things appear easier these days is that people have been exposed to technical interfaces way longer and more intensely.
I am not saying that things don't get better, but I think there are a lot of misunderstandings. Users just get used to certain systems after time. They adapt. They adapt to their CLI-based interface, their Macbook (they need too, else they'd have spent thousands of USD for nothing), to new versions of Windows and do KDE/Plasma.
Show a completely new computer user (maybe generation 70+) various interfaces and they will learn each of them efficiently after a while. (yeah, I have done that with older people)
I think the main thing stopping people from using KDE and having troubles with it is that it's not the common thing that one usually starts out with. It used to be and people were happy until KDE4, which was something new to learn again.
This sounds way more defensive of KDE than I intend to. I am not a fan. I use it when I have to choose between Gnome/Unity or KDE (but would probably choose another option, if there is one), just because it feels way more intuitive and easier to use. I never managed to get along with Gnome, but I think that's all based on what I said above. If you are exposed to one thing you will probably stick to it.
However, I am happy about every alternative coming up, because it means there is a chance for them improving status quo.
I'm going to disagree with you there. I've seen toddlers use the iPad. My 60 year old aunt who never 'got' Windows (even simple things like managing application windows, or figuring out where files go after being downloaded), figured out iPad in about a day.
Same goes for elderly people with no previous computer experience. They have no prior familiarity, so they'll learn whatever is given. Of course they'll have natural preferences for one UI style over another, but many of them use WIMP just fine.
It's all a matter of preference and the user's threshold for degree of control. For a person like me, Android is a UX disaster and a regression. It took me half an hour to figure out how to delete a photo from the Gallery as I ended up finally descending into the proper File Manager directory, holding on the filename and selecting the Trash icon.
A convoluted and awkward workflow by all means. I agree with the parent poster that Android usage is a cargo cult ritual of swiping and touching, both from my experience with it and observing how other people use it.
Can you give some examples?
I think the main reason that smartphones still work is that that most people use them in a really reduced way. One could argue for feature hiding, which is a good thing. However hiding I think means "moving it out of the way" and not "make sure nobody finds it".
I am not saying that Android and iOS are bad, but more that there is room for improvement. It's good to see new projects doing things a bit different. I always found it weird when people complained about copying. I don't think that's bad, but right now there doesn't seem to be a lot of progress. I like how KDE at least tries to do things a bit different instead of copying without understanding why someone designed their UX a certain way. Not every design works for every project/product.
I've also heard a lot good about Windows Phones, even though this caused fewer apps that really integrated. It's great when Microsoft tries new stuff, like in Windows 8. Yeah, it didn't work out, but the UX designes that sometimes are called innovative don't seem to be on par with the amount of research going into other fields of the big OSs. It may also be due to the market settling, but there is still room for improvements, so I hope it's not stagnating. It would be great to see other players.
I know different styles make thins harder for people doing cross-platform applications. Sticking to status quo makes things easier, but it also leads to stagnation and it feels like KDE4 and Windows 8 made a lot of people scared of trying out new stuff.
I'm hopeful that Visual Design Group will have polished the UI/UX even better for the phone form factor, by the time the distribution becomes stable.
But their implementation of this philosophy seems to be - "don't think whether it's a good idea to put this button here, just make it an option in the settings". Which is clearly wrong.
Why is that?
Citation needed. From who? From where?
The latest KDE iteration has advanced in this regard in leaps and bounds, which is evident also in the favourable reviews it's seen. Just google for "plasma 5.2 review".
Disclaimer: I contribute to kde.
As for contributing to KDE, it's not as fun as starting a new project, things move slowly, you have limited options of what you can do and I just generally don't agree with the mentality / philosophy / culture of the KDE project.
Mind if I ask what do you dislike about it?
Or what is your perception of the mentality/culture?
"Should we do this or that? I don't know, let's make it an option in the settings!"
Also, they seem to lack design taste.
So, in the end, you're just a troll. You have no facts, no knowledge, no reference but just your "feelings" about "bloat"; and you keep spitting on KDE's work.
I'm quite sure you've not used KDE since a long time.
UX is all about feelings and intuition by the way. Designing user interfaces is mostly trying to make users feel good while they're using it.
That's not how it happens.
It happens like this:
Person 1 creates something.
Person 2 wants slightly different behavior and provides a patch to make it configurable.
And you know what? Its not a bad thing.
My KDE is heavily configured and you have no idea how productive it is for me. I love it :)
Why do you think things move slowly? KDE releases Frameworks 5 every month, and Plasma 5 every 3 months, that's pretty fast in my opinion.
Stop thinking and actually do and ship!
You keep complaining and say you know better, then show us!
For some people, that will seem really jarring and uncomfortable.
Those are what the VDG has made so far, there have been UI mockups for a lot of software from the file manager to software center that are leaps and bounds better than what are in place, but the manpower in general KDE is really lacking to keep up with the VDG's mockups to actually implement them.
I had high hopes for their new visual design effort, but in my opinion the new Plasma 5 theme looks like a really, really bad OS X Yosemite ripoff. (Which is ironic, since Yosemite came afterwards.)