Canonical Design Blog

- FLAVOR: Ubuntu Desktop

- HEADLINE: Iterate on the design

- DESCRIPTION: Some versions ago, there was a lot of movement in designing Ubuntu. There were general improvements like the new scrollbar, new icons, a new gtk theme, and on the other side a general push to make it more like an Apple desktop. Some of it worked, some did not. But it all feels unfinished, abandoned. Nowadays every Ubuntu version looks and feels the same, all that is changing are the geometric forms of the pink-brown desktop background, and the old issues remain untouched. There is so much unfinished stuff here one could work on:

* Integrate the modified overlay scrollbar fully into the system. It for example never worked with Firefox, despite that being your default browser. Patch FF if necessary to make it happen.

* Fix the remaining UI issues of that scrollbars, like not being able to fully scroll to the bottom if the overlay reaches the bottom of the scrollbar before the window content.

* The GTK themes could use new variants and a general modernization.

* The icon set looks dated now, and Unity does not present them very nicely. It is a great opportunity to improve the overall look.

* Make your design team actually develop a design concept linked to the new version and code name, and not produce another interchangeable wallpaper of geometric lines on brown and purple each time. Remember what you did for intrepid - it doesn't have to be brown again, it doesn't have to be an animal, but at…

While I agree that to this day Unity still has a long way to go, I firmly believe that in the long run all the effort and focus Canonical is devoting to UX could become ubuntu's unique selling point.

What is left to see is how long this "long run" will be, but as a rule of thumb and as far as Unity goes I think it is more fair to consider non LTS releases as experimental builds.

I am very positive about initiatives such as http://design.canonical.com/2010/11/usability-testing-of-unity/

The sole existence of a design group within Canonical [1] singles them out - AFAIK - from other major distro vendors.
In a way, though I generally dislike this kind of comparisons, I can see ubuntu as the potential osx/nextstep of the linux ecosystem: full blown unix user space coupled with a distinctive, reliable look & feel and a consistent UX.

I know many long time *nix users that switched to osx for this reason [2] and I'd like to see a linux distro able to appeal this audience. Actually I would really
like to know if there exist studies or data points that show whether such a market share
indeed exists.

Ultimately the only thing I can say is kudos to Canonical for the courage shown in taking a somewhat radical decision and keep up the good work :)

[1] design as in UX and interaction desing, not limited to artwork or wm themes.
[2] this is not intended as a statistically significant statement.

The good tech picks are already posted, so I'd like to share a bit of a broader scoped list:

- Adrian Kennard's (revk - CEO of Andrews & Arnolds UK ISP) blog: http://www.revk.uk/

- GOV.uk's digital services blog [UX, Design, Govt]: https://gds.blog.gov.uk/

- Canonical design blog [UX & Design]: http://design.canonical.com/

- CGPGrey, excellent youtuber and podcaster [misc. history/politics/sciences]: http://www.cgpgrey.com/

- Martin Graesslin's blog on KWin/KDE [programming]: http://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/

- Alexander Brazie's (Blizzard/WoW, League of Legends) blog [game design]: http://xelnath.com/

- Eric McClure's random ramblings [programming, misc personal] - http://blackhole12.blogspot.com/

- EFF Deeplinks [tech politics/activism] - https://www.eff.org/rss/updates.xml

Also on gaming opinions, history and news: Totalbiscuit (soundcloud + youtube) and SuperBunnyhop (interesting pieces on game design incl. https://www.youtube.com/user/bunnyhopshow/videos)

"elementary OS sets out to settle the number one complaint casual users have of other Linux distributions: design."

In this regard Elementary seems to be part of a larger trend in the linux desktop world, rather than unique. GNOME 3 has been heavily influenced by designers, to the point where there's been developer backlash. [0] Canonical employs thirty people to work on the design of Ubuntu and their other products, and they're still hiring. [1]

[0] E.G. https://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2012-April/msg00132.html

[1] http://design.canonical.com/team/

UI design - how would someone with strong views (and experience!) on gestures and UI features but with little coding experience get involved? Just put some mocks somewhere and post them to where the UI team meet?

Edit: In fact, where do the people interested in UI design actually meet and make their sausages in KDE? I can't seem to find a central place similar to http://design.canonical.com/

There is this gap between having the programming knowledge to 'submit a patch' and other kinds of large scale organisation/design skill.

Disclaimer: not me I'm a civilian.

Canonical have really upped their game recently. These days a fresh Ubuntu installation looks pretty slick, compared to a just few releases ago. Maybe it's not quite up to OS X standards yet, but reading the design team and Mark Shuttleworth's blogs it's clear they're thinking things through, and not just throwing bling at the screen:

Ubuntu 8.04: http://polishlinux.org/reviews/ubuntu-8-04/default.png

Ubuntu 10.10 Preview: http://design.canonical.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ambiance-maverick-preview_update.png