Bitcoin Core GUI call #3

[Bosch-0]

Date: 2020-09-17
Time: 8:00am CEST for 1 hour

Agenda

Add links in the comments for what you would like to discuss.

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• https://everytimezone.com/s/1f3dad9b

Join the call

• https://meet.jit.si/bitcoindesign

Call Summary

Attendees: @GBKS, @johnsBeharry, @hebasto

• Discussed updated on-boarding designs - Bosch will implement the feedback and shared updated designs on the GUI repo.
• Discussed creating icon policy documentation for implementing icons into the GUI. Bosch will create this soon and post a PR on the GUI repo.
• Discussed creating a new icon library that we could open source for other Bitcoin wallets. We figured this should be open to the wider Bitcoin Design community to contribute to / help create.
• Hebasto gave an update on developing a QML based gui, many core contributors have ACKed the concept so far. How exactly to do it is still being discusses. Hebasto is recommending having a both a widgets and QML based GUI.

[Bosch-0]

Understanding the history of Core GUI changes (@johnsBeharry): BitcoinDesign/Guide#16 (if any new content)

bitcoin-core/gui#45 (comment) (did not get to discussed in call 2)

Also missed the below topics in call 2

On-boarding Wizard V1: bitcoin-core/gui#81

Would also like to discuss V2 and V3 concepts I have in mind.

Not a major priority but re-working the icon set is something I'd like to discuss briefly - personally I think using material icons would suffice, it covers pretty much all bases and aligns with the minimalist style of the GUI. I was going to post a issue for this on the GUI repo but would prefer all your input first.

[Bosch-0]

Thoughts on native styling by @GBKS - https://www.dropbox.com/s/vo084b2ny422g3g/Native%20styling%20thoughts%20200908.mov?dl=0

[hebasto]

Proposed topic: Icon policy

• PNG vs SVG
• level: application vs system (e.g., https://specifications.freedesktop.org/icon-theme-spec/icon-theme-spec-latest.html)
• platform dependency

The historical context:

• Icon Refresh bitcoin/bitcoin#2330
  @laanwj:

Obviously it doesn't follow the mac interface guidelines. The icon is used on all platforms, we don't have a team of artists at our beck to do design for every platform's specific fashion-of-the-day (MS fanboys want this, Mac fanboys want that, Ubuntu fanboys want thus).

• replacing all non-vector icons in /share/pixmaps with SVG icons bitcoin/bitcoin#2878

• [RFC] qt: Icon scaling issue on some Linux desktop environments bitcoin/bitcoin#14992

• build, qt: Add SVG support, and replace bitcoin PNG image with SVG one bitcoin/bitcoin#19780
  @luke-jr:

Isn't rendering a vector image hidden by qtsvg for us?

Yes, the concern is importing something complex like qtsvg into the overall codebase/runtime process... Any vulnerability compromises the entire program.

When/if this policy will be documented we could present it on Bitcoin Core devs IRC meeting to get it adopted by the project.

UPDATE: bitcoin/bitcoin#19932

[luke-jr]

PNG vs SVG is a software implementation issue, not a design issue.

Obviously it is ideal if the raw sources are SVG. The only question is when to render (release, build, or runtime)

[GBKS]

Thanks for the context.

I also agree that PNG/SVG is an implementation thing. With modern design tools like Sketch and Figma it is trivial to export icons in a lot of different formats and sizes, so we're not bound there in any way.

As far as SVG effects go, most icons these days are flat shapes, so do we need effects?

Obviously it doesn't follow the mac interface guidelines. The icon is used on all platforms, we don't have a team of artists at our beck to do design for every platform's specific fashion-of-the-day (MS fanboys want this, Mac fanboys want that, Ubuntu fanboys want thus).

This is a weirdly dismissive comment, it's from 2013, and the issue was re-opened the same day, so I'll not take it as not that important. Just want to say that I think we're all smart enough not to get caught up in "fanboy" and "fashion-of-the-day" type of thinking. I also don't think it's a lot of work to refresh the icons.

I'd suggest creating a public Figma file with just the icons we need and all the right export settings. Then anyone can duplicate that file to suggest improvements or export formats they need. In Figma, publishing a duplicated file becomes a remix and shows up under the original file. That way we can build up some type of history/versioning. Obviously not the same as a git workflow, but that's the best compromise solution I know for design tools. And if we always export SVGs, then nothing important gets lost if something happens to the Figma file.

[Bosch-0]

Next call scheduled for 1st of October - #25