[wp-design] Re: Shuttle Way Forward

[Joen Asmussen]

Just a short note to let you know that I'm really happy you wrote this. 
It puts all my important fears / issues to rest.

I hope to respond indepth at a later time. If not, then I'm glad we 
sorted this out.

Joen

Matt Mullenweg wrote:
> Joen Asmussen wrote:
>> If these mockups do not become part of the official Wordpress release 
>> at some point (no matter when, 2.5, 3), then what the hell has this 
>> year-and-a-half of work been good for? This is FREE work by people 
>> who do it for the love of it! Is it being scrapped, or picked at like 
>> some cold christmas dinner?
>
> I'm sorry if I miscommunicated: I wasn't saying it won't be 
> incorporated, but rather that it'll take time, just as getting to this 
> point has taken time. Historically I've been the one coding admin 
> improvements for WP, and I know it'll take me a bit to get to 
> everything, that's all. If I had to guess, I'd say 2-4 months for 
> things to really start looking like the mockups.
>
> If the changes were purely aesthetic, it'd still be a big task, but 
> there are fundamental changes like the new sidebars and changes to the 
> ways some of the tables are displayed. The changes will touch almost 
> every file in the admin, inevitably introduce bugs, and really 
> constitute a release and testing cycle all by themselves.
>
> The mockups are really just a starting point for work that's going to 
> take months. Shuttle isn't done, it's just getting started. ;)
>
> And even when it's "done" there'll still be things that need fixing:
>
> http://photomatt.backpackit.com/page/394123
>
> (BTW, Michael's notes above are ultra-useful and would be great broken 
> up to individual issues on Trac, if any of you guys want to contribute 
> similar things in the future.)
>
> If you guys prefer, I could hold off any changes until everything is 
> completely finished, but honestly breaking it up into a bunch of small 
> tasks is infinitely more likely to get done.
>
> For future attempts like this, I've learned the following things from 
> Shuttle:
>
> * Work should not be done in private
> * Design by committee doesn't work, better to break up tasks and let 
> individual people focus on one section
> * Focus on lots of incremental changes, rather than giant redesigns 
> (you end up in the same place, and probably sooner)
> * Document the process and decisions along the way
> * Code concurrently with the designs (and iterate)
> * Don't hype it, expectations get out of control
> * Avoid scope creep of features into designs
> * Set a deadline and stick to it
>
> I'd be curious to hear other folks thoughts on how a design-oriented 
> project in Open Source could be done better as well, or things you 
> learned from Shuttle. Be harsh if necessary!
>


-- 

Joen Asmussen

CPH DENMARK

AIM: workjoen
MSN: asmussen at gmail.com
Google Talk: asmussen at gmail.com

private: www.noscope.com <http://www.noscope.com> | work: 
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