Open source software is flourishing in terms of code. The interface design aspects have improved dramatically in the last few years. There has also been improvements in the aesthetics and visual design aspects of many prominent open-source projects. Firefox and Thunderbird are getting to be better looking than any proprietary app I know of. The BlueCurve theme by Garrett LeSage, formerly of RedHat, was a dramatic improvement for the overall look and feel of desktop Linux.
That said, there is a both a great need and a great opportunity for visual designers in the Linux desktop world. The Gnome and KDE desktop environments are themeable, and have plenty of themes available. However, like with Firefox, it’s the default theme that matters to me, and to the majority of people using the software.
I get the impression that many interface and visual designers have pledged allegiance to Mac OS X, or are living with the majority (understandably) in the world of Microsoft Windows. Come and help us!
There opportunities are significant. Right now, for example, Gnome is debating an updated default theme and RedHat has several full-time positions for visual designers in Massachusetts to work on the RedHat desktop.
Garrett LeSage, in his two years at RedHat, made a dramatic impact on the visual aspects of the Linux desktop with his BlueCurve theme for Gnome and KDE. Garrett has left RedHat, and they need people to take up where he left off.
You’ll often hear that Linux “isn’t ready for the desktop”. Maybe, maybe not. However, it won’t ever be ready if people don’t use it and contribute it (which they are doing, in great numbers).
Are you a designer that thinks Apple and Microsoft are stupid for not hiring you to improve their interfaces? Go work for RedHat, help out with the default theme Gnome.
For some artists, there might be hesitation towards the idea of open sourcing their work. There’s still a lot of issues and questions out there.
Small, intimate projects could work out fine, but what happens in larger non-profit projects? And for an artist, releasing a license that allows for derivative works might not be favorable. What does it exactly mean to GPL artwork, for example?
Creating more dialog between designers and programmers is, however, a good start.
starvingartist, you’re right – there are issues around artwork in open source software that need to be worked out. The Mozilla projects have run into this a bit. That said, while the licensing needs a while to get figured out, I’m not sure it is really that complicated. If a designer isn’t comfortable with giving up (some) control over the results of their work, then they probably shouldn’t get involved in open source work.
Steven, I’ve been reading through your blogs and find them generally wonderful. Thank you
I could not agree with you more regarding the lack of visual proficiency (as opposed to technical) in open source in general. Too often I’ve seen Windows users who are fed up and like the idea of Linux | Unix on paper but are warded off by the initial impression. It proves the old adage about looks are everything and another I guess about first impressions being hard to change or something like that.
I think Red Had frankly doesn’t much care as they seem to be concentrated on Red Had Enterprise and the corporate server sector. Suse looks like it wants to get the visual thing together from time to tome but the overall effect is disjointed and obviously sporadically attended to.
You should try to get other thoughts for its impossible to try every distribution — I can only speak to Red Had (Fedora, RHE) and Suse. Are there any applications that look as good at a well done Mac or Windows app? I can’t think of any..
You’re damn right – starting with Mozilla Firefox 0.9. Whoever decided to release it with a theme straight out of the early days of Netscape should be shot. I can’t believe Firefox went from a slick looking browser, easily slicker than IE to a browser that looks like Mosiac or an early version of Netscape in a single point release. Incredible.
I’m chiming in a bit late here, but I keep seeing this article posted, and decided to finally comment on it.
I think the issue has more to do with general marketing skills than just art. There are plenty of good artists out there contributing to OSS. I just saw KDE again for the first time in a while, and I saw this weird long fingered witch hand for the “hand” in Firefox. (or maybe its a KDE hand) Visually the hand was intricately drawn. It was shiny. The arrow looked really nice. There doesn’t seem to be a dearth of good artists, per say. What is lacking is more along the lines of general marketing and art direction.
Take Safari for example. It came on the scene with a nice shiny icon (notice the trend). Safari is a good name. It’s along the lines of ‘Explorer’ and ‘Navigator,’ names of web browsers that people are familiar with.
Now we have names like “Firefox” and “Mozilla” What is that? Its a marketing nightmare is what it is. For a lot of people “Firefox” is some kind of old western clint-eastwood adventure series or movie or something. I understand why it changed from Firebird (IMO not that much better) but the fact that they changed it to “Firefox” just illustrates the fact that there is a gaping hole in Open Source world where there should be a bustling little marketing department.
I think that the Linux desktop troubles go much deeper than theming. Theming opportunities can attract artist and designers but both KDE and Gnome lack an “IDE” for this sort of thing – for example, there are applications like Windowblinds and styleBuilder for Windows. These apps help visual people create. This is a key issue and it’s a big reason that Linux still doesn’t appeal to many artists – Linux developers do not understand the visual mind. Oh, they understand eyecandy but that’s not a mental thought process. Many designers can’t simply open emacs or vim or whatever and hack together a nifty Metacity or GTK style – they need to be able to SEE what they are working on. Compounding the problem is an almost complete lack of documentation on how to do any of that stuff. And it gets worse! I’ve noticed a complete lack of respect, if not outright contempt for artists from the Linux crowd. Many Linux geeks despise people that use the GUI as a “crutch”. Why would an artist want to go where they aren’t wanted?
Linux doesn’t just need a visual shell, it needs people with design backgrounds looking at the total user experience. Teams of developers have difficultly finding and hiring the people who have the capability to handle strategic visual and user experience design, because to the majority (not all) developers “design” either means code or it means visual…
1. Refocus your efforts on the user, not the code: User Experience Design
2. Hire good designers (with design degrees from top design schools) even if they know zero about open source, you can educate them on-the-job…they know design and that is what is important here.