<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 11:10 AM, Jane Wells <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jane@automattic.com" target="_blank">jane@automattic.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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.<br>
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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.<br>
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I'm in the process of setting up a site for this group to use a la <a href="http://wpdevel.wordpress.com" target="_blank">wpdevel.wordpress.com</a>, 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 <a href="http://wordpress.org" target="_blank">wordpress.org</a> 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.<br>
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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.<br>
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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.<br>
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Who's next?<br>
Jane<br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br>Hello all,<br><br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>Eager to meet the rest or you.<br>-Kenny<br><br>