Re: [Usability] Cross-Desktop UI Pattern Library

[Calum Benson <calum benson oracle com>]

On 13 Oct 2010, at 16:30, Allan Caeg wrote:

> We can sense that a huge part of the issue here is organizational. We'll
> have to invent ways to create a UI Pattern Library, make it usable enough
> for devs to refer to them, and sustain its development so it's always
> relevant.
> 
> Inputs please

Obviously something to take up at the IRC meeting, but FWIW, I'd originally envisaged something like:

* Initial round of patterns are devised (and ideally usability tested, to whatever extent we can) by a core 'pattern team'.  Those patterns are tagged as 'stable', or 'approved', or some similar term.

* Anyone can submit new patterns, or code snippets implementing those patterns, at any time (mechanism TBD).  These are reviewed by the pattern team, with review back-and-forth recorded as part of the pattern.  If the patterns are good enough for primetime, they're tagged as 'stable'.  If we think they need to be tried out in the wild before we can decide, they're tagged as 'experimental' or some similar term that means 'you probably don't want to go back and implement this in existing applications, but if you're writing a new application, we'd appreciate you trying it out and letting us know what you and your users think. But be prepared to change it again relatively soon if we iterate the design, or decide to drop it.'

* Over time, 'stable' patterns may be revised, or become 'deprecated' or 'obsolete' as the GNOME look and feel evolves.

Of course, none of that process is specific to GNOME, and with suitable tagging mechanisms and code samples, could just as well apply to a desktop-agnostic pattern library.

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Interaction Designer     Oracle Corporation Ireland Ltd.
mailto:calum benson oracle com         Solaris Desktop Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum             +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Oracle Corp.