Hey everyone,
the Visual Design group started out doing mostly what it says on the tin: Visual design. Back then, there was a clear distinction between the Visual Design group and the Usability group. However, with our collaboration on both visual and interaction/usability aspects of user interfaces, that distinction has been blurred to the point of pretty much not existing anymore by now.
Now many of us who call this wonderful group our home within KDE may still fully identify with the name Visual Design Group, but I - and I know of others as well - would not call myself a "Visual Designer". I've called myself many things in my career: Usability expert, usability consultant, human-computer interaction researcher, project manager user experience, interaction designer. But I don't do visual design unless I absolutely have to, because I know others are way better at that than me.

Therefore I'd like to propose to give our extended group a new name. I'd like to know if others here would agree that Visual Design Group doesn't fit our scope anymore and if you do, what new name you'd prefer.
Two names which I think would encompass both visual and interaction design would be User Interface Group or User Experience Group. These are just suggestions to get the discussion started, though.
So, what do you guys think?

I like the name "User Experience Group".

Just a thought - the current name (Visual Design Group) makes it obvious that it's related to graphics, and may therefore attract new artists. However, if I (as an artist) see "User Interface Group" or "User Experience Group", I may assume that the people in the group are supposed to be "user interface" experts and "user experience" experts, and feel like I can't contribute anything.

With this in mind, would it make sense to have sub-groups under a larger umbrella rather than merging everything together?

Hans wrote:I like the name "User Experience Group".

Just a thought - the current name (Visual Design Group) makes it obvious that it's related to graphics, and may therefore attract new artists. However, if I (as an artist) see "User Interface Group" or "User Experience Group", I may assume that the people in the group are supposed to be "user interface" experts and "user experience" experts, and feel like I can't contribute anything.

With this in mind, would it make sense to have sub-groups under a larger umbrella rather than merging everything together?

Sure, that would be possible, too! The advantage would be that we could still target people who see themselves as "artists only" or "usability experts only" specifically for the sub-groups. The disadvantage might be a diminished feeling of belonging together.

In the pre-VDG era, KDE Usability and KDE Artists were two quite distinct groups, which communicated with each other much less than they should have. Currently, the two sub-groups seem to be integrated much better in the VDG, and I would like to see that reflected in the name.
If we don't find a name which both kinds of people can identify with, however, having two sub-groups under the same umbrella would definitely still be better than having two completely separated groups.

I propose "Kick A$$ Group". Anyway, if you don't like my idea, then I support "User Experience Group".

UX is the common term to describe both visual design and usability aspects. So "User Experience Groups (UEG)" would be suitable. On the other hand, VDG has become almost a trademark. Do we really want to change it?

Heiko Tietze wrote:On the other hand, VDG has become almost a trademark. Do we really want to change it?

Another idea might be to either find a new backronym for VDG or just use VDG the way we use KDE - as a word rather than an acronym for anything.
I don't dislike VDG, I just think that since visual design is not the vast majority of what we do anymore, the name Visual Design Group feels odd.

I´d prefer "User Experience Group" as an umbrella and -like Hans proposed- some sub-groups. Possible sub-groups would be IMO: Visual Design, Information architecture, Usability Design, (Human-Computer) Interaction and Accessibility (if that´s OK for the actual groups).
Those shouldn´t be strictly separated, like Usability and Artists, but have distinct sub-Forums and the overall Forum (like this of the VDG) as a meeting place. Therefore ideas and possible development directions could be discussed in a broad way between the sub-groups and elaborated in smaller circles, without interferring the process of gathering new ideas. In so far as theory

User Experience Enhancement Group
KDEsign and Userbility Group

IMO - I think it should just stay as one group.

At the moment there's quite a few threads in the VDG about System settings. If a suggestion is made on one thread and it's relevant to another thread (or it contains elements that solve a problem that's cropped up in the other thread), that idea could get missed. The more 'in one place' everything is, the more it's like a big melting pot where good ideas don't get overlooked.

If we had an umbrella group (maybe called the 'User experience group') then had sub-groups within it we'd have the same kind of situation and some people would have to be responsible for making sure that good ideas got communicated from one sub-group to another which is a bit of a waste of someone's time and would be a problem as there are more threads to keep an eye on or more sub-groups.

Also I'm not a visual designer or a UX expert (I'm not an 'anything' really - i'm a little arty & want to contribute if i can) but i like the fact that i'm learning LOADS about stuff that i wouldn't consider 'my area' (for example usability from Heiko on SySe threads). I think everyone would benefit from that sharing & learning, just because you think of yourself as a visual designer you'll still benefit from the input of the devs who do the coding and the other way round. If everyone is confined to their own sub-group then that is much less likely, things will be a lot more fragmented and development would be less efficient.

Again i think we should all stay in one big melting pot of a group, whatever that group's called!

I'm not sure I'm a fan of this idea. I think the name VDG has worked good so far. I understand that your concern in not wanting to call yourself something you're not (I guess this applies to most people here), but I'm not a fan of renaming it "UX-something" or splitting it up into different subfora. I at least know that I can't get me at an "user interaction" sub forum as often as I frequent this forum .
But then, I'm not doing much work here, so my opinion should be less of a concern.