Monkeytennis

Tacking “Reddit” onto search queries almost became a prerequisite. Never imagined I’d have to replace that with “-Reddit”.

It’s made researching a media centre setup very difficult this week…

How do you draw the line on those problems?

I find it hard to know when something is irrationally bothering me vs an actual problem.

Emoji seems clear cut, but interpersonal issues fall into a huge grey area. My tendency is to cut people out, which isn’t going so well.

That’s interesting, I think that’s why I started using them occasionally, especially at work. I can definitely come across as very serious, and remote work only made that worse. A little emoji goes a long way 🤣

I’m a UX product designer and a major issue I’ve encountered within FOSS is extremely opinionated developers, who regularly sacrifice usability for features and configurability, which is instantly off-putting to a general audience.

I’m painting a very broad picture there, and I’m not criticising - I’m a staunch advocate for Linux and FOSS in general, the technical execution and intent is usually brilliant.

Apple is extremely opinionated in their design by limiting options and complexity, that’s one way they achieve a solid foundation, by offering few options (both in terms of software and hardware). They don’t make their users think too hard.

There’s plenty of low hanging fruit that could be addressed (use of plain language, clear actions, other tried and tested design principles) but that’s not enough, and it often relies on strong UI dev skills, which the team doesn’t necessarily have.

I’ve seen some appetite for making FOSS projects easier for a general audience, but things fall flat when it comes to making hard decisions (stripping out or hiding complexity, making decisions to promote simplicity, spending considerable effort on UI instead of features).

I’d love to be more involved in it, and maybe I’m being unfair, but it can be demoralising work for a designer.

Same here, I’m trying to wean myself off the firehouse of relevant content, in favour of a more community feel. Truth is, quality over quantity is exactly what I need.