[HN Gopher] Open Source Design
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       Open Source Design
        
       Author : pabs3
       Score  : 108 points
       Date   : 2022-03-16 08:48 UTC (14 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (opensourcedesign.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (opensourcedesign.net)
        
       | krm01 wrote:
       | Also check out https://openby.design. Where complete designs are
       | crafted and made open source. Can be used for both open source
       | software projects as well as closed/commercial applications.
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | Anything new on here from a year ago? Some discussion then:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25208927
        
         | simulo wrote:
         | Not much as far as I am concerned, though the then-mentioned
         | figma-like penpot.app/ keeps improving continously!
        
       | marc_io wrote:
       | Just a little nitpick: I got curious why they choose a brush to
       | represent the project. The icon is very related to art and
       | illustration, but very poor in representing the scope of the
       | project. Maybe something more... designed?
        
         | latexr wrote:
         | > why they choose a brush to represent the project.
         | 
         | A brush can be a tool for design; graphic design was analog
         | before it was digital. The brush is at a particular
         | orientation, reminiscent of a person looking forward. The human
         | aspect is part of their focus, so the logo fits the dual
         | meaning.
        
         | simulo wrote:
         | I am active on opensource design since several years. Back when
         | we created the logo we had many discussions what would
         | represent design well. Problem is that design often means
         | something rather abstract and it easily leads to boxes and/or
         | arrows to signify "process" or "concepts" etc. If I remember
         | correctly I would have preferred a pencil but, admittingly, it
         | has a less recognizable shape in the flat-shapes-design of
         | today's icons.
        
         | wingerlang wrote:
         | I think it works nicely with this logo https://opensource.org/
        
       | lekevicius wrote:
       | My experience with trying to help open-source projects with
       | design has been quite bad. Projects that most need design help
       | are usually not sponsored by a company, a true contributor
       | project. Design is opinionated, and for many projects it can be
       | hard to find consensus. Much easier to find consensus around
       | adding features.
       | 
       | Two very different examples: Blender and Audacity (pre-
       | acquisition). Blender was able to pull off something spectacular
       | with 2.8, a full rethink of UI, controls, even app structure. But
       | Blender is basically a company, with full-time employees, it's
       | just that their output is open-source. Audacity, as far as I
       | know, didn't have full-time employees. And as it grew in
       | features, it never had any significant UI cleanup. Menus just
       | grew, icons were tacked on. It might change now that they have
       | been acquired.
        
         | danbolt wrote:
         | I sometimes wonder if UI/UX passes on open-source tools would
         | be better with very explicit "experimental forks" that keep
         | with upstream when they can. Over time, the successful fork
         | starts to get more traffic from regular users and re-merges. It
         | might save time compared to long debates without much agenda.
        
           | indigochill wrote:
           | I'm fairly firmly of this opinion (though I only have a
           | little experience working on large open-source projects).
           | Sure, there can be productivity loss in developing in
           | parallel vs developing a consensus, but nothing highlights
           | the strengths and weaknesses of a design like actually
           | implementing and using it.
        
             | simulo wrote:
             | The challenge for end-user focussed design is that it is
             | very resource intensive to develop parallel UIs (and for
             | many devs they are the least fun thing to implement),
             | whereas it is not that much of a problem to add an
             | additional parameter to a command line program.
        
         | throw_m239339 wrote:
         | Blender also used to be closed source. Blender foundation had
         | to crowdfund the source code to make it open. I was already
         | using Blender in 1998 when it went freemium and it was already
         | quite evolved, I didn't feel like the UI was bad compared to
         | 3DS Max or Lightwave.
        
       | loquisgon wrote:
       | Design can mean many things. I am a backend developer and we also
       | design, but our designs are for abstract structures with certain
       | qualities required for humans, machines, and ilities. I thought
       | that this might be related to backend design. I looked into the
       | website looking for a definition of what hey mean by "design". I
       | did not spend a lot of time but I could not find it. I guess they
       | are talking about UX design. Then suddenly I am not so
       | interested. Not because I feel that UX design is not interesting;
       | it is extremely important. But I think we also need to talk about
       | backend design so much more.
        
         | Osiris wrote:
         | > Design can mean many things.
         | 
         | I'm an architect and to me design definitely means a very
         | different thing than just how the UI looks, think system
         | design.
         | 
         | But in this case they are "a group of designers" specifically
         | talking about UI design.
        
         | marcosdumay wrote:
         | It's about UI and UX design. When people mix both, they usually
         | mean "UI only, but we have to talk about UX", but this one
         | seems honestly aimed at both.
        
       | milad_nazari wrote:
       | What do you guys think of the Carbon Design System[1]?
       | 
       | It's an open source design system created and maintained by IBM,
       | with official implementations in React, vanilla JS and web
       | components and community implementations for Angular, Vue and
       | Svelte.
       | 
       | Are there people using it in production, or for serious side
       | projects?
       | 
       | [1] https://carbondesignsystem.com/
        
         | ishitatsuyuki wrote:
         | Carbon is absolutely amazing. They are using a very flat style
         | in pursuit of a modern corporate brand, just like a lot of
         | other tech companies today, but the design also incorporates a
         | lot of traditional and familiar elements. It's a rare instance
         | of flat UI that does not feel mobile oriented and half assed on
         | desktop.
         | 
         | Carbon components are also the most accessible component set I
         | have seen, and they go through great lengths doing automated
         | and manual accessibility testing.
         | 
         | The library though, is a bit lackluster. It's tailored for
         | IBM's internal need, and is still a bit far from a complete
         | framework. So you need to be prepared to write some CSS as well
         | as designing your own components when you need one.
        
         | kodah wrote:
         | I used it in Svelte for a desktop app I wrote. It was okay.
         | Like a lot of design frameworks I found it to be pretty rigid.
         | However, take what I say with a grain of salt. I really like
         | CSS frameworks like Tailwind that I can combine with something
         | like Svelte.
        
         | RussianCow wrote:
         | This is the first I'm hearing of it, but my initial impression
         | is pretty poor given that there is no loading indicator when
         | you click any link on the website, so if a page takes a while
         | to load, there is absolutely no indication that anything is
         | happening. I know it's petty, but that doesn't set a good tone
         | for the rest of the design system.
        
           | OJFord wrote:
           | Whether or not the docs site uses them itself, there are two:
           | 
           | https://carbondesignsystem.com/components/loading/usage/
           | 
           | https://carbondesignsystem.com/components/inline-
           | loading/usa...
        
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       (page generated 2022-03-16 23:01 UTC)