The art, design, and digital packaging of the OS ubuntu, is not bold enough. All the art is vague and unassuming, humble, and almost undeserving in attention. Take for example, the OS bootup graphics. They are plain, nice and neatly put, and if it were more brightly colored and creatively assemble it might even be cute and emotionally appealing. But there it sits, monotonous and blank. Windows commercial design team learned along time ago that flowerly brightly colored graphics and art is eye catching and appealing to peoples comfort and sense of security when they are dealing with whether or not they want to invest in something. We need to adopt the same logic.
Take for example, color theory and the relation colors have on human emotion, like red invoking anger, and blue adventure and the joy of the bright summer sky- this is the very trick advertising companies from tobacco to mcdonalds used to hypnotize people through commercial art into sacrificing their money and time for their product. There was a 'cool' appeal to it in the commercials and movies and other media, regardless of whether or not it might be advantageous to your health.
It is going to be imparative for Mark Shuttleworth, or whoever is Ubuntu's design director, to put together a more dangerous and creative team to creatively capture the public attention of the computer world. The one it so badly wants to influence with free technology and open source ethics. The project is going to have to expand itself as much as it wants to expand the enterprise ubuntu. We may take advantage of this through viral marketing or even street teams with stickers and flash mob commercials. Whatever we do, we need to do it soon.
If you took the standard 12.04 wallpaper, slapped it on a box that contained an installation cd for that aforementioned version, and put it next to a Windows OS box on the shelf of an american bestbuy, what would a customer be attracted too? The answer to this question is also the answer to the question of how ubuntu relates to its potential user base.
Artistic designs and pleasing images or colors appeal to peoples interests. Eye catching products are more likely to get attention from consumers, and if your product meets or exceeds its advertised promised (like being an awesome, free, highly sustainable OS; based off a kernel that secretly rules the world), and the consumer "gets their moneys worth", you get to be dominant choice in the public demographic of consumption. In other words, we win.
Popularity denotes whose winning the game of OS usage and development, and we need to advertise ourselves on a combative level, and project confidence in our ourselves through viral commercialism. Even if we are an open source community, and don't technically have 'buyers' (unless you buy merch and media from the website or various apps through the software store), the designs we wrap this OS in for the public to see on our websites is what people are going to think when they think of 'ubuntu'. Vague Purple voids of clouds and light that dont try to grab your attention are not going to jump to the forefront of users minds when they'd much rather be looking out through their screens (or 'windows') into the bright spring hill world of windows xp or 7.
Simple things like the startup up graphics, even the music, may mean everything when it comes to peoples first impression, the one that counts the most, when they are interested in buying PC's.
For example: How can unbuntu be 'linux for human beings' as it claims when its front page has no direct shots of humans. Windows does, and while the appeal being made may be so minimal its subliminal and seemingly negligible to those who aren't attune to psychology of advertising- real salesmen, or people who are good at getting other people to invest a part of their lives in something they previously had no interest it, know little details like whether or not people are smiling, their relation to objects and color choice/hue/saturation, make all the difference in attracting and keeping consumers. ubuntu's design is trying to be sleek and clean, maybe even ethereal. And it looks good- but it needs to be amazing.
See how that bold got your attention? Stands out like a sore thumb? Emphasizes the word and its meaning? I hope you get the point of that.
So if we want to assert ourselves on the computer user base, we need equally asserting art. The advertising game is brutal business of battling companies and corporate entities, and is in essence just primate psychology placated from the wars of chimp tribes in African fields to gestures of advertising in the media, so we must assess our dominance in our battle with mac and windows. Otherwise our project is going to eventually die out simply because we don't want our product to look too appealing to the mainstream and be categorized with our long standing source code enemy, Windows.
Adv Reply
Originally Posted by murderd2death
Bookmarks