How KDE VDG Is Trying To Make Open-Source Software Beautiful

While System Settings recently went under a renovation in the transition to Plasma 2, there are more plans on the horizon for this application that is critical to the KDE Desktop. After a poll was posed to the KDE Community on how best to group the items listed under System Settings there began talk of changing not just the grouping of items but also how System Settings UI is presented to the user.

While many of the changes do not change the over all functional basis of System Settings they are focused on making application appear more refined and increase the logical view towards the user.

The final major project that has been floated by the VDG is a redesigned Music application. It is no secret in the KDE community that the transition from Amarok 1.4 to 2.0, and the accompanying UI changes, were not that well received. While many music players, such as Clementine, iTunes, Rythmbox, or Musique all have roughly-similar user interfaces, Amarok chooses to go another way.

While Amarok's GUI is fully customizable-- every panel presented can be moved and resized-- the default look is considered by many to be un-intuitive. Enter the VDG. While there are no formal plans for the presented screenshots to be the UI for a possible "Amarok 3.0", the ideas of and the existance of the VDG will likely at least influence any future plans.

Users wishing to help out with the VDG are advised to go to the Visual Design Group section of the KDE Forums, additionally, while it has not been updated in awhile, the VDG also maintains a blog available on BlogSpot.

Whether you are a design artist, user experience or user interface expert, or simply an end user, the VDG can always use your help in one way or another to make KDE better for everyone.