[wp-ui] First steps

[Kenneth Younger]

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 11:10 AM, Jane Wells <jane at automattic.com> wrote:

> Hi everyone. Almost 300 people have signed up for this list, which was way
> more than I expected. I'm not sure how many of you are people who actually
> want to get involved and contribute to the UI/UX work that goes into making
> WordPress, vs. how many are developers or users who just want to keep up
> with what's going on or offer feedback on other people's design work, so I
> think the first thing this list should do is help everyone get to know who's
> here. Lurkers need not do this, but if you're planning to contribute to the
> UI work ahead, please email this list and tell us a little bit about you:
> Your work background/current job, specific design/usability/accessibility
> skills/talents that we should know about/make use of, what you hope to
> contribute to WP UI, your location/time zone, and maybe the one UI thing you
> would like to address in WP if given the chance. My main goal here is to
> find out how many people of all the subscribers are actually people who can
> wireframe, make comps, run usability testing, etc, vs. simply wanting to
> weigh in with opinions on the work of others (which can happen on Trac
> tickets). This list is meant to be a working group.
>
> After people have had a day or two to introduce themselves, we'll have a
> better idea of how many people are actually planning to participate in this
> list for now, and can plan accordingly. I've got a list as long as my arm of
> potential design projects we can divvy up into groups, so knowing people's
> backgrounds and interests will help determine which projects we hit first.
> We can also then decide on a day/time for a weekly UI chat in IRC.
>
> I'm in the process of setting up a site for this group to use a la
> wpdevel.wordpress.com, and will start adding people as authors once we
> have created teams and begun working on projects and there are things to
> report. I'll need to know your wordpress.org login name to add you to the
> site. Usability people are welcome and encouraged to speak up also, not just
> designers. Getting the plan up and running for distributed testing is on the
> goals list, too.
>
> I guess I'll start. I'm Jane, and am the main UX person for WordPress. I
> led the admin redesign of 2.7, and work closely with the core team on UI
> changes. We never have time to get to everything, so there's still a ton
> left to do. I work for Automattic, which donates a big chunk of my time to
> the open source project. Before this job, I'd worked at agencies, companies
> and research groups in almost every front-end web job there is over the last
> 10 years. Though mostly UX stuff, I've also done project management, content
> development, HTML, visual design, testing, etc. Right now I'm a bottleneck
> for UI changes in WordPress, and anyone who works in this industry knows
> that it takes a lot longer to create a wireframe deck than it does to sketch
> an idea, so I'm hoping to grow this group into a healthy contributor
> community so that I can step back into more of a advisory/curatorial role
> rather than slowing things down while I draft wireframes or conduct
> individual testing sessions. I'm on the east coast, and would love it if the
> weekly chat could be during the day sometime before 3pm, but if the majority
> needs to have an evening meeting instead, I can work with that. I
> traditionally do wireframes in Omnigraffle, but would like to find a good
> open source tool (the ones I've tried haven't been great) that we can all
> use for this if possible. I generally go for Photoshop for comps, and have
> not found GIMP to be an adequate substitute, though I'd love to move visual
> design to open source tools as well. Suggestions are welcome.
>
> I'll be happy to answer questions, point to resources etc for those who
> want to get involved. However, this is not the right place (yet, anyway) to
> come if you are just getting started and want to learn the design/UX trade
> as a new career move or something. I'd like to start off with more
> experienced UI/UX people just to get some processes nailed down. I hope that
> in the future the WP UI group will be an awesome place to come to learn new
> skills.
>
> Who's next?
> Jane
>
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Hello all,

My name is Kenny Younger. I am a database and web developer based out of Des
Moines, IA (Central Time Zone). I have worked in the web development arena
for about 8 years, with a short stint off for about 2-3 years where I
focused my efforts in enterprise database development. A year ago I left
that firm and started my own company, and since then have re-realized my
passion for web development. Played a bit of catch-up in the technologies
over the past year, where I found and fell in love with WordPress and its
terrific community. I have used it in pretty much all my client's websites.
I will be attending WordCamp Chicago this year, and intend on running one
out here in Iowa in the near future.

I have decent server-side and client-side development skills, but find
myself enjoying the UI/UX side more. So I figured why not cut my teeth as a
WordPress contributor with this endeavor and help the community that I feel
I already owe so much to. I do feel one of my strong suits that grows from
all my report design experience is a keen eye for formatting large sets of
data for ease of use, so perhaps that might help with the divvying up that
Jane intends to do. I know my way around the basics of Photoshop and like
Balsamiq for wireframing. I also like to think that I write decent copy when
so inspired.

So this is me officially throwing my hat into the ring, and I intend to help
when and where I can. However, I'll never over-commit myself, and understand
that a lot of the time "no" is the best answer.

Eager to meet the rest or you.
-Kenny
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