Open Stack

Hi,

Thank you for coming up this topics. It is a big step to going forward
for OpenStack UX process.
(It's been a while to post to ML, I'm kinda hesitating.., haha)

>>> Wiki
+1

Mailing list - [UX]
+1, for the general discussion, it would be the one on the best way to
communicate to the community people.

>>> Discussion forum - (terminate)
Although Askbot doesn't work well, but as Jacki said, I think ml
wouldn't work well for all of UX discussion.
Like gerrit is used for code review, It is better to have another
discussion tool for the detail UI/UX design discussion.
At least Google+ worked well compared to Askbot. I thought StoryBoard
will be the tool, won't it?

>>> IRC meetings
Big +1 for this. It's gonna help to keep everyone on the same page.
Also it is important to put up the UX activity.


>>> Launchpad (StoryBoard in the future) and Wishlist (currently Launchpad)
+1

>>> Storage place (GitHUb) and Templates library
I think these two things can be same, what the deference? Also I like
this idea to use Github, it is easy to track
the activity, and recently many design guys are used to use it.

Thanks again for bring up this topic!

Regards,
Toshi



On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 9:30 AM, Jacki Bauer <jacki.bauer at rackspace.com> wrote:
> Thanks for starting this conversation. It's really important and there's a ton of work to be done!
>
>
> On Apr 23, 2014, at 9:46 AM, Liz Blanchard <lsurette at redhat.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Apr 23, 2014, at 8:13 AM, Jaromir Coufal <jcoufal at redhat.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear OpenStack UX community and everybody else who is interested in OpenStack's user experience,
>>>
>>
>> Thanks very much for taking the time to write this up, Jarda. I think this would be an awesome list of topics to cover in the User Experience cross-project sessions scheduled for the Summit on Tuesday afternoon. What do others think? I'll also add some thoughts below to start to drive the conversation further on this list.
>>
>>> When there is more contributors appearing in time, I would like us to establish a formal process of how the UX work should be organized. Therefore I am suggesting a few tools below for us to be more effective, transparent and to provide a single way to all contributors so that it is easy for everybody to start, to contribute and to get oriented in our world.
>>>
>>>
>>> Wiki
>>> ----
>>> = introduction to OpenStack User Experience
>>> = how to contribute guide
>>> = documentation of processes
>>> = redirecting people to the right places of their interest (IRC, Launchpad, etc)
>>
>> +1. It would be awesome to include some basics about using the mailing list for communication along with IRC and how to balance the two.
>
> +1
>
>>
>>>
>>> Mailing list - [UX]
>>> -------------------
>>> = discussions about various issues
>>> = openstack-dev mailing list, using [UX] tag in the subject
>>> "+" brings more attention to the UX issues
>>> "+" not separated from other OpenStack's projects
>>> "+" threading is already there (e-mail clients)
>>> "+" no need for setting up and maintaining additional server to run our own forum
>>> "-" requires to store attachments somewhere else (some other server)
>>>   ... similar case with current askbot anyway
>>> "-" requires contributors to register to the openstack-dev mailing list
>>>   ... each contributor should do that anyway
>>
>> A big +1 to this. Currently there is a mailing list called openstack-personas that has been meant just for the persona effort, but I've been trying to get folks who have been involved in that effort to be sure to subscribe to this list and start generating any conversations that are pure UX here on the dev list instead of that personas mailing list. The personas mailing list was really just meant to kick off all of the work that would be done and then we'd bring high level details to this list anyways. Having more or less all UX conversations in one place makes way more sense to me.
>
> There are a lot of discussions on the persona list that I don't think belong on dev - things like the logistics of planning user research, methodologies and so on. There will also be discussions that require feedback from designers, but would really confuse devs (designs in early stages). One negative impact of using the dev list is that the content we want devs to respond to - research results, designs in later stages,etc - might be ignored or missed because of the other 'noise'. Could we use the dev list for anything we want wider community feedback on, and use another tool (ux mailing list, invision, something else) for the rest of the conversations?
>
>>
>>>
>>> Discussion forum - (terminate)
>>> ------------------------------
>>> "+" more interactive
>>> "+" easier for newcomers
>>> "-" separating UX outside the OpenStack world
>>> "-" we haven't found any other suitable tool for discussions yet (current AskBot is not doing very well)
>>> -> in order not to fragment discussions into multiple places, I am suggesting termination of current AskBot and keeping discussions in mailing list
>>
>> Another idea would be to use the general OpenStack Askbot, but I agree it is yet another place to go to review things and the current way of using Askbot has been difficult to keep up with and follow active discussions. +1 to finding a way to use the mailing list efficiently for design reviews.
>>
>> I've found that having a way to leave comments right inline on a design has been very helpful. Jacki and I have been using a tool called "Invision" to share our designs back and forth to get each others feedback and it has been great. I think there is also a tool called Review Board that is open source. Could be worth checking that out as a discussion tool? No matter what, we should work this into the Mailing List too so that folks know when feedback has been given.
>
>
> Agree the discussion forum isn't working but not sure what to do about it. I don't think the mailing list is a solution because designers need the ability to read through the history of an issue or project, and to link many related topics together into something easily digested. And some of our work starts and stops over many months, so the mailing list would be really hard to use for this purpose. People joining the UX community would have a real challenge in getting the information they need on a project. And from what I can tell, the archives aren't even searchable.
>
> Maybe we should identify the things that we want to be able to do, and then select the tool based on that criteria?
> So for example, our criteria might look something like this:
>
> - the goal is to have a place for designers to discuss ux related issues across openstack projects, collaborate on design patterns, process and templates, receive and give feedback on designs in all stages, and conduct/plan user research
> - it needs to be able to track the status of a conversation (complete, feedback requested, so on)
> - it needs good thread management, so that sub conversations can be tracked (example is on an overview page, there might be a conversation about how people want to consume info on storage)
> - it needs to be able to easily connect a conversation to a related blueprint
> - it needs to be able to notify interested people when a conversation has been updated
> - it needs to be well organized and searchable
> - it needs to be able to post documents and links to design assets
> - nice to have would be the ability to comment on specific aspects of a design
> - nice to have would be the ability to track versions
>>
>>>
>>> IRC meetings
>>> ------------
>>> = regular meetings, each 2-3 weeks, short meeting, mostly dealing with organizational stuff and bringing attention on hot topics
>>> "+" brings people together
>>> "+" helps with UX organization
>>> "-" requires people to make a time for it
>>>   ... should be short though, so it shouldn't be big deal
>>
>> Again, a huge +1 from me. I think this is the biggest thing that we are missing as a UX community. It will definitely help with organization and communication on who is actively working on what. Agreed they should be short and shouldn't be a big time commitment to those who are active in UX in the community.
>
> Yep, great idea! We need to make sure the transcripts are saved - for some reason I don't think the current openstack-ux channel saves transcripts along with the rest of openstack channels.
>
>>
>>>
>>> Launchpad (StoryBoard in the future)
>>> ------------------------------------
>>> = organization of UX work, overview of who is working on what, prioritizing stories, etc.
>>> "+" helps organizing work
>>> "+" helps documenting UX efforts
>>> "-" requires maintenance
>>>   ... the same way as for any other program
>>
>> We need to figure out how our Launchpad blueprints relate to development blueprints. Maybe within StoryBoard there will be a way to link these in the future? I've worked on projects in the past using an Agile tool that allowed "predecessors" so the dev team knew that a design story was still being worked on and they would be notified when the design was ready for the implementation story to be taken on. Would it be possible to give a short demo of where StoryBoard is currently during the UX sessions at Summit? I know you've been pretty involved here.
>
> +1 I'd love to see what is happening with Storyboard
>
> If we are going to use Launchpad in the meantime, they we probably need some guidelines for people on how to use it, and some standard statuses that people can pick to communicate where the work is.
>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Wishlist (currently Launchpad)
>>> ------------------------------
>>> = list of areas where other projects need a help from UX and UX person can take tasks
>>> "+" easy way of other teams how to interact with UX team when they look for a help
>>> "+" easy way for UXers to see areas where is a need for help
>>
>> +1. There could also be a section on the wiki describing the process of contacting the UX team around work that is needed for components and adding items to the launchpad list.
>
> +1 this is a great idea!
>
>>
>>>
>>> Storage place (GitHUb)
>>> ----------------------
>>> = server where we can store temporary materials as well as final solutions
>>> -> github for permanent solutions (guidelines, final designs, ...)?
>>
>> I like this idea. I think we just need to try it out like we did with AskBot and see how it goes. How will GitHub handle the large files that designs produce? Will pure designers be able to fit Git into their workflow naturally? Where does UX fit into the larger OpenStack GitHub space if at all? These aren't questions we need to answer now, just things I think we will discover by using it.
>
> I don't have a very clear idea of how the community uses these, or how developers prefer to consume spec, documentation, mockups, etc. We probably need to do three things:
> 1 - talk to developers to understand how they would like us to communicate designs to them
> 2 - identify our (UX people) needs and goals for a storage solution
> 3 - use this info as criteria to find something that will work for everyone.
>
>
>>
>>>
>>> Templates library
>>> -----------------
>>> = library containing pre-prepared templates for UI designs (ready to use already designed elements, etc)
>>> "+" helps designers to produce designs easier by applying copy&paste methodology in the templates
>>> ... Should contain wireframes as well as visual designed elements
>>> ... Should be available for multiple applications (InDesign, Inkscape, etc)
>>
>> +1. Maybe this could be a section on the wiki with just links to download the templates? It would be great to have a master sheet for the elements as we've done with our InDesign docs. Also, there shouldn't be that many so I think links of the wiki might be feasible. Thoughts?
>
> I think the wiki would work, or maybe it ends up being in one of these other tools we're considering.
>>
>>>
>>> ??? (user community for feedback gathering)
>>> -------------------------------------------
>>> = tool for grouping people who are willing to give feedback on current UX in OpenStack
>>>
>>
>> Yes, this is really big. I've been thinking about how to keep track of the folks who have been giving feedback for the initial Horizon Usability Test we did and the persona research we've been doing. We need to keep identities protected to a certain degree, so I'm not sure the best way to go about this yet.
>>
>> I also wonder if we need a tool for Usability Testing and some guidelines around providing feedback based on testing.
>
> +1
>
>>
>>>
>>> I am looking forward to hearing back from you with your feedback and opinions. If it seems to you like a good overview of how things can work, I will be happy to break it down into smaller pieces and make it happen so that we can start using all these tools as soon as possible.
>>>
>> Thanks again!!
>> Liz
>>
>>>
>>> Thank you all
>>> -- Jarda
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> OpenStack-dev mailing list
>>> OpenStack-dev at lists.openstack.org
>>> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-dev
>>
>>
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>
>
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-- 
Toshiyuki Hayashi
NTT Innovation Institute, Inc.
Tel:650-579-0800 ex4292
mail:hayashi at ntti3.com