On Monday some of the Ubuntu UK Podcast team got together once more to record an episode. Sadly Laura and Ciemon couldn’t be there, but were represented by a fluffy Tux and Firefox. We asked Ivanka Majic (Canonical Design Team Lead) to come on the show and discuss all matters ‘Design’ with us and she very kindly took time out of her evening to talk to us at length about what she does at Canonical and the changes we are seeing.
We had a set of questions we wanted to ask her, about the new buttons, the proposed design changes in Ubuntu 10.04 more generally what she did for Canonical. We also put out the call to our listeners via Identica and Twitter to get more questions, and we had plenty. With a full set of questions and a very open guest we ended up with a rather longer interview than we usually feature. We are concious that many of our listeners don’t like very lengthy podcasts, so we try to keep the duration at least under an hour. With this one we made an exception and went over 80 minutes, but I think it was wise to do that.
Ivanka talked at length about her background, the team she has at Canonical and the work they are doing. I don’t think any of us on the show realised how significant a workload the Canonical design team have, and how limited the resources are. Whilst many disagree with the approach, the colours, position or other design details, there are of course reasons for these decisions, and Ivanka did her best to detail the process by which those decisions came about. Ivanka was very open and honest in the interview with us, speaking frankly about where there could be improvements in the way the team operates.
For anyone interested in Ubuntu and more especially the thought processes behind some of the work you’re seeing emerging from the design team, I’d recommend having a listen to what Ivanka has to say. You can hear the full interview in “Behind The Screen” – Season 3 Episode 3 of the Ubuntu Podcast made by members of the UK LoCo team.
– MP3 (81MB download)
– OGG (40MB download)
Thanks again to Ivanka for taking the time to talk to us.
2 Comments
Buttons interview starts at 39:15
So the only reason that is given for moving the buttons to the left is that it “gives more space to play with on the right”. I dont want to be naggy, but for me this is not a satisfactory reason. This can’t be the only reason, and if it is, what is the plan for the right side – IMO it has to be fucking awesome to justify breaking muscle memory, cluttering up the left side, and putting so many small buttons next to each other.
About beeing compared to OSX: Its not a huge problem and I agree that it can also be a good thing. But purple was the soup du jour when the last OSX 1.5 came out, it isnt anymore. So if we are trying to copy OSX, lets not be two years behind them.