Minutes of the Design Hangout: 2015-12-18

[Jan Holesovsky]

* Present: Cor, Heiko, Jay, Kendy, Michel, Samuel, Stuart, Tomaž

* UI changes integrated the last week:

    + Enabled double click in input list field dialog (Oliver)
    + Converted MN_TAB_POPUPMENU to xml (Maxim)
    + Table context menu improvements (Maxim)
    + Clarified advanced options (unstable vs. limited) (Joel)
    + Convert some Calc context menus to xml (Maxim)
    + Filter options dialog controls expandable (Oliver)
    + Convert RID_POPUP_TAB to xml (Maxim)

+ Incremental UI changes only?

    + Joel suggest to not change the whole UI but have small steps
        + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=91820#c25

    + mostly about the menu and toolbar reorg (Kendy)
        + Makes not much sense in this case since there is no half-conceptual menu organization (Heiko)

    + the hope is that the largest changes are now done (Kendy)
        + and we are back to incremental changes (Kendy)
        + should there be more changes, they'll be incremental again (Kendy)
    + pretty large change overall (Stuart)
        + there was support from the Design team (Stuart)
        + the change was needed, and long overdue (Stuart)
            + yes (Kendy)
        + now back to more easily manageable (Stuart)
    + there was a concept behind the changes (Heiko)
        + we are affecting people's workflows... (Heiko)
        + would be good to have 'something' that introduces the new features (Heiko)

    + when doing changes, we should prefer larger (but complete) change (Tomaž)
        + so that people don't have to re-learn all the time (Kendy)
        + agree (Cor)
            + better bundle the changes (per module) as much as reasonable doable

    + for NotebookBar, we'll need a switch between the old and new (Heiko)
        + that's easy - different concept, so a simple switch is possible (Kendy)

+ Save button behavior (Samuel)

    + Samuel talked to Maxim, Maxim agreed (Samuel)
        + only needs the new icon (Samuel)

    + what to do in 5.1 - revert? (Samuel)
        + let's wait a bit if Maxim can provide the proposed solution ~soon (Kendy)
            + and cherry-pick (Kendy)
            + late feature - will need 3 cross-company approvals (Kendy)
        + if not in time for RC2 (January 11), let's revert in 5.1 (Kendy)

+ Mail merge toolbar (Kendy)

    + implementation ongoing (Kendy)
        + have the basic toolbar now, working on moving the functionality to there from the wizard (Kendy)

* Area Tab design session (Heiko/Jay)

    + Area Tab - https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94551
      https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gf7wqYszXnbrbzbyNlLKbJelMb20ssuimxfszcHP_wM/edit?usp=sharing
        + not published yet

* Table styles blog post (Heiko)

    + published, some comments came in (Heiko)
        + nothing controversial, good (Heiko)

    + missing use case for the table style (Michel)
        + scenario / use case - for the persona (Heiko)
        + it is there, but not in a structured / strict way (Heiko)
        + scrum way: have there 'who' and 'why', in one sentence (Heiko)
            + so one can imagine that better
        + fine with that, if it is short (Kendy)
            + want to focus on the resulting work, not paperwork around :-) (Kendy)

* Mockups with Draw? (Michel/Heiko)

    + drafted a blog-post how it could work (Heiko)
        + https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MrSd7nwm3PJfKg_DQ79Sbc4jlqWeX280U_yF81pvQiQ/edit?ts=5672a18b
    + and what's missing in Draw (Heiko)

    + should we blog it, or keep internal only so far? (Heiko)

    + reinventing existing stuff a bit (Stuart)
        + if somebody wants to do the work, go for that of course (Stuart)
        + but people are happy with the tools
    + agree with Stuart (Cor)
        + blog post focusing on strengths of Draw would be good (Cor)
        + but not as a tool to create workflows (Cor)

    + some features are missing, some need adjustments (Heiko)
        + and could be useful in Draw (Heiko)
        + but should not be a replacement for people's tools (Heiko)

    + wanted to propose only a small step (Michel)

    + people should be using tools that fit them, no forcing of this or that (Kendy)
        + we can do recommendations, but that's only it :-) (Kendy)

    + important to manage expectations (Cor)

    + shapes tab in the sidebar - that could get us closer (Jay)
        + down to stencils / objects
        + https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sv3Q-XdnHElYGXX2m8OLbRAy1zyodcU231Gn2SkVRV0/edit?usp=sharing

    + have a feeling of feature creep (Kendy)
        + let's stay what we are - a general purpose drawing program, not specialized on UI design (Kendy)

* Draw problems (Stuart)

    + not that good in vector drawing - freehand/Illustrator/Krita (Stuart)
        + problem with beziers (as in hand lettering/cursive lettering)
        + svg's should be handled correctly
    + please file bugs :-) (Kendy)

    + Draw does not have too exactly defined use (Tomaž)
        + "does many things, but some of them not too well" (Stuart)

    + might be interesting to have a survey about what the users actually use Draw for (Tomaž)

* Bug discussions

    + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=NEEDINFO&component=ux-advise&list_id=527515&query_format=advanced&resolution=---
 
    + discussed, and acted on:
        + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=67860
            + Windows high contrast - http://www.picpaste.com/high_contrast-Q8rI1tg0.PNG (sidebar icons missing)
                + different bug, please file a separate bugreport (Kendy)
        + https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=86341