Archive for June, 2010

We have a list of dozens of Ubuntu programs that use the notification area. What we need now is a description of how each of them use it.

Anyone who has seen the new visual identity for Ubuntu and Canonical probably noticed the marketing material includes several stunning images created of differently sized dots; inside the Ubuntu Lucid CD sleeve, on banners and such. What most probably …

Issue 134 (August, 2010) of Linux Format magazine contains an interview by Jono Bacon in which I discuss Unity and other related topics. Below are the questions Jono asked me and my responses.

How did you get started in Open Source?

I had to build a UNIX shell and UNIX-like kernel for a university course on operating [...]

This article illustrates briefly the main functionalities of the Launcher for Ubuntu Netbook Edition (aka Unity) and how we got there. Don’t miss the video!

Are you a musician? Do you make beautiful illustrative wallpapers? Do you take amazing photographs? Do you make clever and inspiring videos or animations?
You may be interested in the Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase.
Do you make open-source tools for creating any of the above?
I hope you will be interested in the Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase.
Do you [...]

It’s back and it’s bigger than ever! It’s that time of the year again, time to start hunting down those nasty trivial Papercut bugs. Huh? Papercuts? To refresh your memory, a Paper cut is “a bug that will improve user experience if fixed, is small enough for users to become habituated to it, and is trivial [...]

We recently conducted usability testing to see how users respond to Ubuntu on their first encounter. Overall, first impressions are good.  Typical remarks include: “It is bold and different.” “Ubuntu is fresh and accessible ….” “This is good. People are getting tired of Windows.” What we were looking for during these sessions, however, were things [...]

I’m all about workflow, so the first thing I wanted to do when trying quickly was to make sure I could hit a keyboard shortcut to build and run from within my editor.

It was a bit fiddly, but here’s something that works:

In Gedit go to Tools=>Mana…

After working on paper cuts for a year, I realized how disorganized many open source projects affecting Ubuntu are when it comes to improving user experience. I would often go to upstream projects with a list of paper cuts to discuss and have a very difficult time finding someone to discuss them with. Either the [...]

An illustration supporting a talk by Dan Pink about the hidden truths behind what really motivates us.