A new editorial was released last week by a KDE user spending a week with Gnome on Fedora 22, in which he focuses on shortcomings of the KDE/Plasma desktop experience. Among other changes, he calls for greater oversight of KDE projects by the Visual Design Group.

Having tried Gnome on Fedora 22 myself I find the article very perceptive and I generally agree with its conclusions. Like Mr. Griffith, I did not find the polish and cohesion of the Gnome desktop worth leaving KDE/Plasma and altering my workflow.

Note that the tone of the article veers off into ranting at some points, although this is stated in a disclaimer. I completely understand the need to vent when you are frustrated, even if it is not the most effective mode of public communication. I recommend ignoring these parts when reading the essay.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a ... -editorial

There definitely seems to be a general perception that Gnome is more usable but limiting than KDE. I imagine that with the changes being made by the VDG (Simple by Default, Powerful When Needed) that KDE should be covering a lot of the polish and usability issues that seem to put KDE behind Gnome in people's minds. I wonder what if anything needs to be done to "catch up" to Gnome (and other OS's desktops if there's any other usability improvements that can be borrowed from there) at this point, or if KDE has "caught up" in terms of usability and the perception is being propagated due to historic differences.
Any items that come out would certainly be good work items for the VDG

It's certainly an interesting article that I think is certainly worth reading. My own personal hope is that, in the truest open source sense, more folks feel comfortable taking it on themselves to learn about UI design by attempting to apply the HIG, looking at and learning from other good designs and asking for help here to learn more about design.

You might notice I use the word learn a lot. That means projects throughout KDE should be willing to add UI design as a skill to the project's skill base much like coding, internationalization/translation, release management and promotion. That may come in the form of developers learning more about UI design themselves (there are several developers that I think are very good at UI design), or recruiting new team members willing to willing to learn, ask questions and be responsible to the project for design. A "resident designer", as Thomas has suggested, that is part of the project team.

I think VDG should keep providing resources in the form of the HIG, mockup toolkit, coaching, resident designer recruiting targets, reviews and problem solving in these forums. Spreading the knowledge and broadening the skill base is, I think our best bet.

If there is anything we can all do to encourage this, my suggestion is to not wait, or ask permission, or discuss. Just do it. Actions speak louder than words. If you'd like to volunteer to help a project with UI design, just do it. Start participating in review requests for that project. Find UI-related bugs on the bug tracker and try to find solutions. Ask for help here on how to solve UI challenges or how to interpret the HIG. Propose your own solutions. Don't give up when your first proposals aren't accepted. Keep trying and be willing to learn.

Thank you for the insightful response. Yours is an excellent philosophy.