Marketing Inkscape - Survey Preview
Hello all, I have been in communication with Martin and Maren about assisting with some marketing on the project. I am a designer and marketer by profession. You can read the conversation http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?topic=497.0 that got this all started if you're interested, but in short, I feel passionately about helping Inkscape succeed.
I am emailing to get your feedback on a survey I would like to begin collecting responses for. As I see it, growing users and growing contributors are two sides of the same coin for any successful FOSS project. This particular survey is focusing on the user side of that coin. My intent is to help develop criteria for, and consensus around, who our primary markets for Inkscape should be. A free and open application is of course for anyone to use for any reason. However, because our resources in marketing this application are finite, we really need to clarify and prioritize to have any hope for success.
So here is the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/ReZkSjOMokkaoSln2
*Don't spend your time responding (yet)*. I would like to make sure I'm covering the right user segments here, so do email me with your thoughts. I'm glad to meet you all and thanks for the help!
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt https://dijt.co/
Am 29.04.2017 um 21:52 schrieb Ryan Gorley:
Hello all, I have been in communication with Martin and Maren about assisting with some marketing on the project. I am a designer and marketer by profession. You can read the conversation http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?topic=497.0 that got this all started if you're interested, but in short, I feel passionately about helping Inkscape succeed.
I am emailing to get your feedback on a survey I would like to begin collecting responses for. As I see it, growing users and growing contributors are two sides of the same coin for any successful FOSS project. This particular survey is focusing on the user side of that coin. My intent is to help develop criteria for, and consensus around, who our primary markets for Inkscape should be. A free and open application is of course for anyone to use for any reason. However, because our resources in marketing this application are finite, we really need to clarify and prioritize to have any hope for success.
So here is the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/ReZkSjOMokkaoSln2
/Don't spend your time responding (yet)/. I would like to make sure I'm covering the right user segments here, so do email me with your thoughts. I'm glad to meet you all and thanks for the help!
- Maybe makers (and perhaps amateurs/hobbyists?) could be added?
Maren
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt https://dijt.co/
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel
Here's a feedback.
How would you identify yourself? *
I would vote Product Designer if the option is there. Same to the Pg 2 first question.
I also would add a section on what Inkscape should have. That would enable to gauge what should be the priority new feature for Inkscape.
On 4/29/2017 8:20 PM, Maren Hachmann wrote:
Am 29.04.2017 um 21:52 schrieb Ryan Gorley:
Hello all, I have been in communication with Martin and Maren about assisting with some marketing on the project. I am a designer and marketer by profession. You can read the conversation http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?topic=497.0http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?topic=497.0 that got this all started if you're interested, but in short, I feel passionately about helping Inkscape succeed.
I am emailing to get your feedback on a survey I would like to begin collecting responses for. As I see it, growing users and growing contributors are two sides of the same coin for any successful FOSS project. This particular survey is focusing on the user side of that coin. My intent is to help develop criteria for, and consensus around, who our primary markets for Inkscape should be. A free and open application is of course for anyone to use for any reason. However, because our resources in marketing this application are finite, we really need to clarify and prioritize to have any hope for success.
So here is the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/ReZkSjOMokkaoSln2
/Don't spend your time responding (yet)/. I would like to make sure I'm covering the right user segments here, so do email me with your thoughts. I'm glad to meet you all and thanks for the help!
- Maybe makers (and perhaps amateurs/hobbyists?) could be added?
Maren
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt https://dijt.co/https://dijt.co/
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Filled it out. I think it's good. I really hope the answer for most people would be "Graphic Designers" for who we would like to use Inkscape more. It's a field that combines many of the other disciplines listed, and the tools required are useful across the board.
Inkscape is the Adobe Illustrator of the FLOSS world. I hope that doesn't change! -C
On Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 2:02 AM, Miguel Lopez <reptillia39@...3425...> wrote:
Here's a feedback.
How would you identify yourself? *
I would vote Product Designer if the option is there. Same to the Pg 2 first question.
I also would add a section on what Inkscape should have. That would enable to gauge what should be the priority new feature for Inkscape.
On 4/29/2017 8:20 PM, Maren Hachmann wrote:
Am 29.04.2017 um 21:52 schrieb Ryan Gorley:
Hello all, I have been in communication with Martin and Maren about assisting with some marketing on the project. I am a designer and marketer by profession. You can read the conversation http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?topic=497.0 that got this all started if you're interested, but in short, I feel passionately about helping Inkscape succeed.
I am emailing to get your feedback on a survey I would like to begin collecting responses for. As I see it, growing users and growing contributors are two sides of the same coin for any successful FOSS project. This particular survey is focusing on the user side of that coin. My intent is to help develop criteria for, and consensus around, who our primary markets for Inkscape should be. A free and open application is of course for anyone to use for any reason. However, because our resources in marketing this application are finite, we really need to clarify and prioritize to have any hope for success.
So here is the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/ReZkSjOMokkaoSln2
/Don't spend your time responding (yet)/. I would like to make sure I'm covering the right user segments here, so do email me with your thoughts. I'm glad to meet you all and thanks for the help!
- Maybe makers (and perhaps amateurs/hobbyists?) could be added?
Maren
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt https://dijt.co/
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel
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@Maren I've added makers. I've left off hobbyists for now, just because one could be a hobbyist illustrator, hobbyist maker, etc. So it wouldn't help me zero in on a segment so much. That's part of the reason I added the "do you use Inkscape in your profession" question, to maybe identify the share of hobbyist vs. professional users. That's my logic, I'm open to discussion.
@Miguel I added Product/Industrial Designer. In the U.S. right now a lot of UX designers are calling themselves product designers, when I would have traditionally reserved that term for Industrial Designers. It's becoming someone ambiguous, so hopefully the term I use will be more clearly what you suggested adding.
@C R It will be interesting to see if Graphic Designers are a consensus choice. Part of me wishes it was some other segment, at least as the primary target, because I think graphic designers may prove to be one of the more difficult groups to persuade. They are going to have the broadest requirements, ranging from print to web output, and are likely to be the most entrenched in Adobe's ecosystem. A great number will lack the technical background to appreciate what can be done with SVGs on the web, and as such will be less likely to tolerate some of the unique workflows and limitations resulting from the spec. They are also more likely to be using MacOS, which appears to offer the least native experience of the three platforms. None of these are insurmountable hurdles, but I do think there are other segments that would adopt Inkscape more readily as the product exists today. (Please pardon my thinking-out-loud about this)
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt https://dijt.co/
On Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 11:45 AM, C R <cajhne@...400...> wrote:
Filled it out. I think it's good. I really hope the answer for most people would be "Graphic Designers" for who we would like to use Inkscape more. It's a field that combines many of the other disciplines listed, and the tools required are useful across the board.
Inkscape is the Adobe Illustrator of the FLOSS world. I hope that doesn't change! -C
On Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 2:02 AM, Miguel Lopez <reptillia39@...3425...> wrote:
Here's a feedback.
How would you identify yourself? *
I would vote Product Designer if the option is there. Same to the Pg 2
first
question.
I also would add a section on what Inkscape should have. That would
enable
to gauge what should be the priority new feature for Inkscape.
On 4/29/2017 8:20 PM, Maren Hachmann wrote:
Am 29.04.2017 um 21:52 schrieb Ryan Gorley:
Hello all, I have been in communication with Martin and Maren about assisting with some marketing on the project. I am a designer and marketer by profession. You can read the conversation http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?topic=497.0 that got this all started if you're interested, but in short, I feel passionately about helping Inkscape succeed.
I am emailing to get your feedback on a survey I would like to begin collecting responses for. As I see it, growing users and growing contributors are two sides of the same coin for any successful FOSS project. This particular survey is focusing on the user side of that coin. My intent is to help develop criteria for, and consensus around, who our primary markets for Inkscape should be. A free and open application is of course for anyone to use for any reason. However, because our resources in marketing this application are finite, we really need to clarify and prioritize to have any hope for success.
So here is the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/ReZkSjOMokkaoSln2
/Don't spend your time responding (yet)/. I would like to make sure I'm covering the right user segments here, so do email me with your thoughts. I'm glad to meet you all and thanks for the help!
- Maybe makers (and perhaps amateurs/hobbyists?) could be added?
Maren
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt https://dijt.co/
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel
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The thing is I have to point out that product designers have to deal with similar things to graphic designers, but product designers always focus more on rendering objects than anything else whereas graphic designers focus are not that restricted to products. A lot of product designers who utilizes Inkscape and wishes that it would be viable for product rendering would benefit from something like editable mask/clip like in the video I shown, Krita Assist tools, advanced gradient mesh tools (loft, extrude, stroke, mesh fill like in surface fill found in cad program such as solidworks and rhino), pattern warping and CAD tools whereas graphic designers definitely has to focus a lot more on colors, themes, and so on.
If anything, they would be equally as hard to persuade, but right now, Krita and gradient mesh automated color selection within Inkscape is a fine fallback even though some of us product designers would love Inkscape to really improve so we wouldn't be stuck with rasters forever. By extensions, more development on Inkscape would eliminate the needs for raster to a extent, and some of my ideas does exactly that were if they were to happen. Why am I saying that? When I lost my Adobe subscription, and I didn't had Photoshop no longer, I had to use Inkscape and I found that vectors in some ways are superior to raster, and I was using Inkscape for so long as I hate Paint Dot Net and GIMP with a burning passion. A lot of things that you can do on raster are possible within vector, and raster programs actually utilizes vector processing which is then rendered into raster which kind of says a lot, but as of now, even Illustrator struggles with rendering blurred brush which are very similar to Photoshop/Krita brush results, and average computer resources as of now are not powerful enough to process thousands and thousands of vector blurs unless they're heavily rasterized, but at that point you would use Photoshop or GIMP or Krita. I use a 3000 bucks computer to know this. This is getting offtopic.
The ecosystem can probably be solved with more filters, multipage support, Krita file format support with layers and so on, and better color support, and even scribus import/export feature. And yes, I'm aware we're years away from that, but I'm just gonna leave this here for developers to take notes. Even Adobe isn't exactly perfect with their programs, and there is limits within their programs (lack of multiple transparency masks whereas Krita has that), and Adobe Photoshop has less layer filters than Krita. I also don't remember liquify transform masking within Photoshop.
Oh, and one last thing, I have to point that the .dxf file format support kind of grab product designers/architecture designers' attention, and the .dxf file format support alone and the fact that Inkscape is vector are both why so many people want CAD support within Inkscape. When I found that .dxf file format export, I was like, ooh this seems extremely useful, and I'm very grateful for it, and as a result, I noticed that it helped me stick with Inkscape some more. Not only that, Autodesk is officially supporting .svg and it'll replace .AI8 import.
On 4/30/2017 10:29 PM, Ryan Gorley wrote: @Maren I've added makers. I've left off hobbyists for now, just because one could be a hobbyist illustrator, hobbyist maker, etc. So it wouldn't help me zero in on a segment so much. That's part of the reason I added the "do you use Inkscape in your profession" question, to maybe identify the share of hobbyist vs. professional users. That's my logic, I'm open to discussion.
@Miguel I added Product/Industrial Designer. In the U.S. right now a lot of UX designers are calling themselves product designers, when I would have traditionally reserved that term for Industrial Designers. It's becoming someone ambiguous, so hopefully the term I use will be more clearly what you suggested adding.
@C R It will be interesting to see if Graphic Designers are a consensus choice. Part of me wishes it was some other segment, at least as the primary target, because I think graphic designers may prove to be one of the more difficult groups to persuade. They are going to have the broadest requirements, ranging from print to web output, and are likely to be the most entrenched in Adobe's ecosystem. A great number will lack the technical background to appreciate what can be done with SVGs on the web, and as such will be less likely to tolerate some of the unique workflows and limitations resulting from the spec. They are also more likely to be using MacOS, which appears to offer the least native experience of the three platforms. None of these are insurmountable hurdles, but I do think there are other segments that would adopt Inkscape more readily as the product exists today. (Please pardon my thinking-out-loud about this)
Ryan Gorley @ Dijthttps://dijt.co/
On Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 11:45 AM, C R <cajhne@...400...mailto:cajhne@...400...> wrote: Filled it out. I think it's good. I really hope the answer for most people would be "Graphic Designers" for who we would like to use Inkscape more. It's a field that combines many of the other disciplines listed, and the tools required are useful across the board.
Inkscape is the Adobe Illustrator of the FLOSS world. I hope that doesn't change! -C
On Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 2:02 AM, Miguel Lopez <reptillia39@...3425...mailto:reptillia39@...3425...> wrote:
Here's a feedback.
How would you identify yourself? *
I would vote Product Designer if the option is there. Same to the Pg 2 first question.
I also would add a section on what Inkscape should have. That would enable to gauge what should be the priority new feature for Inkscape.
On 4/29/2017 8:20 PM, Maren Hachmann wrote:
Am 29.04.2017 um 21:52 schrieb Ryan Gorley:
Hello all, I have been in communication with Martin and Maren about assisting with some marketing on the project. I am a designer and marketer by profession. You can read the conversation http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?topic=497.0 that got this all started if you're interested, but in short, I feel passionately about helping Inkscape succeed.
I am emailing to get your feedback on a survey I would like to begin collecting responses for. As I see it, growing users and growing contributors are two sides of the same coin for any successful FOSS project. This particular survey is focusing on the user side of that coin. My intent is to help develop criteria for, and consensus around, who our primary markets for Inkscape should be. A free and open application is of course for anyone to use for any reason. However, because our resources in marketing this application are finite, we really need to clarify and prioritize to have any hope for success.
So here is the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/ReZkSjOMokkaoSln2
/Don't spend your time responding (yet)/. I would like to make sure I'm covering the right user segments here, so do email me with your thoughts. I'm glad to meet you all and thanks for the help!
- Maybe makers (and perhaps amateurs/hobbyists?) could be added?
Maren
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt https://dijt.co/
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.netmailto:Inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel
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@C R It will be interesting to see if Graphic Designers are a consensus choice. Part of me wishes it was some other segment, at least as the primary target, because I think graphic designers may prove to be one of the more difficult groups to persuade.
I'm a graphic designer and product designer, and while I use Inkscape for parts of both, I can definitely tell you the path of least resistance is going to be graphic designers. There's actually a fairly short list of things that would make Inkscape ideal for graphic design. The broadness and flexibility of what Inkscape already does is a perfect fit, and the things added to the program - being able to print things properly for example, produce multi-page pdfs and other documents would benefit all the other disciplines mentioned.
They are going to have the broadest requirements, ranging from print to web output, and are likely to be the most entrenched in Adobe's ecosystem.
There's nothing terribly specialist about Graphic Design from a software features perspective. Product design, on the other hand will pull it into territory that is better left for 3D modeling and CAD programs. There are already specialist FLOSS programs for this, also vector based (Blender, FreeCAD, etc.). From this perspective, graphic design is the only choice with enough general overlapping functionality to make it useful for the broadest range of applications related to what Inkscape does best - 2D vector graphics.
The reason designers are entrenched in the Adobe "ecosystem" is that's what is taught in university, and when they look for alternatives, there aren't any programs that fit the bill entirely for vector graphics. They are looking to replace Illustrator, the functionality of which isn't covered by any other FLOSS project. In fact, Inkscape is key to making pro graphic design possible on Linux. Adobe isn't even an option on Linux. So a decision to move away from graphic design would be a quite terrible loss for all manner FLOSS artists.
A great number will lack the technical background to appreciate what can be done with SVGs on the web, and as such will be less likely to tolerate some of the unique workflows and limitations resulting from the spec.
That's true, if tools (in Inkscape) are built to utilise the svg spec to produce pain-free vector animations (for example), or style sheets that integrate easily with web content, all those things will be beneficial to designers of all types. Producing software that takes the complexity out of it is good for both techies, and non techies alike.
They are also more likely to be using MacOS, which appears to offer the least native experience of the three platforms.
Mac support is something to work on, but the fact remains, there really are not any other good options for vector illustration on Linux. I think a FLOSS focused vector program should fill the gap in tools for FLOSS operating systems as a primary goal, regardless of what other more popular OSes are out there. We gain no ground by being afraid to go up against Adobe's Creative Suite.
None of these are insurmountable hurdles, but I do think there are other segments that would adopt Inkscape more readily as the product exists today. (Please pardon my thinking-out-loud about this)
I submit that the path of least resistance is not necessarily the path to success. Making Inkscape for a niche group of readily accepting users will keep Inkscape a niche program used by a small segment of the population, and it will leave a large segment of designers who want to use free software waiting for something else to replace Inkscape as their vector editor. Right now, nothing else comes close.
-C
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt
On Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 11:45 AM, C R <cajhne@...400...> wrote:
Filled it out. I think it's good. I really hope the answer for most people would be "Graphic Designers" for who we would like to use Inkscape more. It's a field that combines many of the other disciplines listed, and the tools required are useful across the board.
Inkscape is the Adobe Illustrator of the FLOSS world. I hope that doesn't change! -C
On Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 2:02 AM, Miguel Lopez <reptillia39@...3425...> wrote:
Here's a feedback.
How would you identify yourself? *
I would vote Product Designer if the option is there. Same to the Pg 2 first question.
I also would add a section on what Inkscape should have. That would enable to gauge what should be the priority new feature for Inkscape.
On 4/29/2017 8:20 PM, Maren Hachmann wrote:
Am 29.04.2017 um 21:52 schrieb Ryan Gorley:
Hello all, I have been in communication with Martin and Maren about assisting with some marketing on the project. I am a designer and marketer by profession. You can read the conversation http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?topic=497.0 that got this all started if you're interested, but in short, I feel passionately about helping Inkscape succeed.
I am emailing to get your feedback on a survey I would like to begin collecting responses for. As I see it, growing users and growing contributors are two sides of the same coin for any successful FOSS project. This particular survey is focusing on the user side of that coin. My intent is to help develop criteria for, and consensus around, who our primary markets for Inkscape should be. A free and open application is of course for anyone to use for any reason. However, because our resources in marketing this application are finite, we really need to clarify and prioritize to have any hope for success.
So here is the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/ReZkSjOMokkaoSln2
/Don't spend your time responding (yet)/. I would like to make sure I'm covering the right user segments here, so do email me with your thoughts. I'm glad to meet you all and thanks for the help!
- Maybe makers (and perhaps amateurs/hobbyists?) could be added?
Maren
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt https://dijt.co/
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel
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There's actually a fairly short list of things that would make Inkscape ideal for graphic design.
If graphic designers are our primary audience, then we need to look very seriously at closing that gap, and *beyond* at how we can make Inkscape better than alternatives in terms of usability, features, and performance.
Product design, on the other hand will
pull it into territory that is better left for 3D modeling and CAD programs. There are already specialist FLOSS programs for this, also vector based (Blender, FreeCAD, etc.). From this perspective, graphic
design is the only choice with enough general overlapping
functionality to make it useful for the broadest range of applications related to what Inkscape does best - 2D vector graphics.
Makes sense to me. I'm not sure how many people are using the tool this way.
The reason designers are entrenched in the Adobe "ecosystem" is that's what is taught in university, and when they look for alternatives, there aren't any programs that fit the bill entirely for vector graphics. They are looking to replace Illustrator, the functionality of which isn't covered by any other FLOSS project. In fact, Inkscape is key to making pro graphic design possible on Linux. Adobe isn't even an option on Linux. So a decision to move away from graphic design would be a quite terrible loss for all manner FLOSS artists.
I agree. And just to clarify, I'm not advocating abandoning anyone, I am just hoping to identify a market who could be persuaded to use Inkscape on its own merits now (or in the near future), and not strictly because it is the only vector drawing tool available on Linux or that it's free of charge.
That's true, if tools (in Inkscape) are built to utilise the svg spec
to produce pain-free vector animations (for example), or style sheets
that integrate easily with web content, all those things will be beneficial to designers of all types. Producing software that takes the complexity out of it is good for both techies, and non techies alike.
Yes, yes, yes!
Mac support is something to work on, but the fact remains, there really are not any other good options for vector illustration on Linux. I think a FLOSS focused vector program should fill the gap in tools for FLOSS operating systems as a primary goal, regardless of what other more popular OSes are out there.
It's a worthy goal, and I would sure appreciate it because I use desktop Linux. :) From a marketing standpoint, however, I'm not sure we're going to find new interest and greater adoption from the few of us on Linux, since we really don't have any choice anyway. Let's not abandon Linux users, but we must also acknowledge that statistically speaking almost everyone else is different than us in this regard. Once they're using Inkscape, maybe there will not be as much keeping those graphic designers back from using Linux also.
We gain no ground by being afraid to go up against Adobe's Creative Suite.
Believe me, I'd love to take them on. We can't ignore their dominance in the graphic design market however. The only way to beat a giant like Adobe is to use their strength against them. They have an entrenched user-base, who will keep them back from trying new and innovative things, especially in regards to workflows and interface design, because people don't generally like to change the way they do things. This makes them slow. They are also trying to be a tool for as many people as possible. This makes their software complex. And lastly they have broad adoption in the market and have more to lose than to gain by trying new things. This makes them risk averse. To beat them we cannot be these same things.
I submit that the path of least resistance is not necessarily the path to success. Making Inkscape for a niche group of readily accepting users will keep Inkscape a niche program used by a small segment of the population, and it will leave a large segment of designers who want to use free software waiting for something else to replace Inkscape as their vector editor. Right now, nothing else comes close.
I totally agree. And thank your for engaging in this conversation. It helps a lot!
Well, I had to answer the questions, to get to pages 2 and 3. But I didn't submit, in the end.
Because of the question about who I think should be using Inkscape (more in the future), I think you need to restrict this survey to the kind of developers who work with the code. Even though I pay attention to development issues, it doesn't matter to me who should be using Inkscape more. I'd love to see Inkscape be more popular, and see more people using it, but it doesn't matter to me who they are.
All best, brynn
-----Original Message----- From: Ryan Gorley Sent: Saturday, April 29, 2017 1:52 PM To: inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [Inkscape-devel] Marketing Inkscape - Survey Preview
Hello all, I have been in communication with Martin and Maren about assisting with some marketing on the project. I am a designer and marketer by profession. You can read the conversation that got this all started if you're interested, but in short, I feel passionately about helping Inkscape succeed.
I am emailing to get your feedback on a survey I would like to begin collecting responses for. As I see it, growing users and growing contributors are two sides of the same coin for any successful FOSS project. This particular survey is focusing on the user side of that coin. My intent is to help develop criteria for, and consensus around, who our primary markets for Inkscape should be. A free and open application is of course for anyone to use for any reason. However, because our resources in marketing this application are finite, we really need to clarify and prioritize to have any hope for success.
So here is the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/ReZkSjOMokkaoSln2
Don't spend your time responding (yet). I would like to make sure I'm covering the right user segments here, so do email me with your thoughts. I'm glad to meet you all and thanks for the help!
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________ Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel
Brynn, the results of this survey are by no means meant to bind the development team to some path. This is a volunteer effort after all. Current and future developers will invest their time in what they believe in. That being said most open source project leaders and developers I've interacted with genuinely want to create something people will use and appreciate. Your perspective about who you think will most use and appreciated Inkscape is different from theirs, or mine, or anyone else. So please share it. :)
On Apr 30, 2017 10:33 PM, "brynn" <brynn@...3133...> wrote:
Well, I had to answer the questions, to get to pages 2 and 3. But I didn't submit, in the end.
Because of the question about who I think should be using Inkscape (more in the future), I think you need to restrict this survey to the kind of developers who work with the code. Even though I pay attention to development issues, it doesn't matter to me who should be using Inkscape more. I'd love to see Inkscape be more popular, and see more people using it, but it doesn't matter to me who they are.
All best, brynn
-----Original Message----- From: Ryan Gorley Sent: Saturday, April 29, 2017 1:52 PM To: inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [Inkscape-devel] Marketing Inkscape - Survey Preview
Hello all, I have been in communication with Martin and Maren about assisting with some marketing on the project. I am a designer and marketer by profession. You can read the conversation that got this all started if you're interested, but in short, I feel passionately about helping Inkscape succeed.
I am emailing to get your feedback on a survey I would like to begin collecting responses for. As I see it, growing users and growing contributors are two sides of the same coin for any successful FOSS project. This particular survey is focusing on the user side of that coin. My intent is to help develop criteria for, and consensus around, who our primary markets for Inkscape should be. A free and open application is of course for anyone to use for any reason. However, because our resources in marketing this application are finite, we really need to clarify and prioritize to have any hope for success.
So here is the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/ReZkSjOMokkaoSln2
Don't spend your time responding (yet). I would like to make sure I'm covering the right user segments here, so do email me with your thoughts. I'm glad to meet you all and thanks for the help!
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel
On Sat, Apr 29, 2017 at 01:52:32PM -0600, Ryan Gorley wrote:
Hello all, I have been in communication with Martin and Maren about assisting with some marketing on the project. I am a designer and marketer by profession. You can read the conversation http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?topic=497.0 that got this all started if you're interested, but in short, I feel passionately about helping Inkscape succeed.
I am emailing to get your feedback on a survey I would like to begin collecting responses for. As I see it, growing users and growing contributors are two sides of the same coin for any successful FOSS project. This particular survey is focusing on the user side of that coin. My intent is to help develop criteria for, and consensus around, who our primary markets for Inkscape should be. A free and open application is of course for anyone to use for any reason. However, because our resources in marketing this application are finite, we really need to clarify and prioritize to have any hope for success.
So here is the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/ReZkSjOMokkaoSln2
*Don't spend your time responding (yet)*. I would like to make sure I'm covering the right user segments here, so do email me with your thoughts. I'm glad to meet you all and thanks for the help!
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt https://dijt.co/
Hi Ryan, and congrats on getting your survey out, I hope it gains you lots of useful feedback.
I wanted to chime in a bit food for thought on how to use the data effectively to benefit Inkscape. In particular, you commented:
That being said most open source project leaders and developers I've interacted with genuinely want to create something people will use and appreciate.
I like your phrasing here, and notably that you did not say, "...something that as many people as possible will use..."
For an open source project like Inkscape that makes its product available for free, a larger audience doesn't translate into increased income (well, not directly anyway).
Inkscape's value proposition involves time contribution to the project much moreso than dollars. So a marketing strategy that drives value to us -- in the form of larger audiences that can contribute to pushing development forward -- will have a bigger impact than increasing our penetration into audiences that would be less likely to participate.
Indeed, as we've recognized in the past that when entering a new use category it can create a surge of demand for improvements needed to close gaps in the featureset for that category. This can lead to a virtuous cycle of development, but only if we already have project participants interested and prepared to work hard on closing those gaps. If we lack participants able to work on those features, the new audiences' expectations will be dashed and people will (reasonably) conclude that Inkscape should not perceived as a serious tool for that area.
Given this line of thinking, I might suggest that the audience to market to should not be the broad userbase of a given market segment, but to the subset of audience in that area who are likely to be doing development-related activities (which can be not just pure software coding but also stuff like tutorial writing, toolsmithing, community hosting, testing/bug reporting, etc.)
Bryce
Thanks for providing some additional perspective for me, Bryce.
Thus far the overwhelming consensus selection is graphic designers and illustrators/artists. That's not surprising, but your comments have me wondering what subsets of these groups are capable enough to give back through development-related activities and which these subsets are large enough to move the project in a meaningful way. It also has me wondering how we could better facilitate giving back from non-developers, who will constitute the large majority of these groups.
If anyone has any thoughts in these two regards, please chime in.
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt https://dijt.co/
On Wed, Jun 7, 2017 at 5:21 PM, Bryce Harrington <bryce@...961...> wrote:
On Sat, Apr 29, 2017 at 01:52:32PM -0600, Ryan Gorley wrote:
Hello all, I have been in communication with Martin and Maren about assisting with some marketing on the project. I am a designer and marketer by
profession.
You can read the conversation http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?topic=497.0 that got this all started if you're interested, but in short, I feel passionately about helping Inkscape succeed.
I am emailing to get your feedback on a survey I would like to begin collecting responses for. As I see it, growing users and growing contributors are two sides of the same coin for any successful FOSS project. This particular survey is focusing on the user side of that
coin.
My intent is to help develop criteria for, and consensus around, who our primary markets for Inkscape should be. A free and open application is of course for anyone to use for any reason. However, because our resources
in
marketing this application are finite, we really need to clarify and prioritize to have any hope for success.
So here is the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/ReZkSjOMokkaoSln2
*Don't spend your time responding (yet)*. I would like to make sure I'm covering the right user segments here, so do email me with your thoughts. I'm glad to meet you all and thanks for the help!
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt https://dijt.co/
Hi Ryan, and congrats on getting your survey out, I hope it gains you lots of useful feedback.
I wanted to chime in a bit food for thought on how to use the data effectively to benefit Inkscape. In particular, you commented:
That being said most open source project leaders and developers I've interacted with genuinely want to create something people will use and appreciate.
I like your phrasing here, and notably that you did not say, "...something that as many people as possible will use..."
For an open source project like Inkscape that makes its product available for free, a larger audience doesn't translate into increased income (well, not directly anyway).
Inkscape's value proposition involves time contribution to the project much moreso than dollars. So a marketing strategy that drives value to us -- in the form of larger audiences that can contribute to pushing development forward -- will have a bigger impact than increasing our penetration into audiences that would be less likely to participate.
Indeed, as we've recognized in the past that when entering a new use category it can create a surge of demand for improvements needed to close gaps in the featureset for that category. This can lead to a virtuous cycle of development, but only if we already have project participants interested and prepared to work hard on closing those gaps. If we lack participants able to work on those features, the new audiences' expectations will be dashed and people will (reasonably) conclude that Inkscape should not perceived as a serious tool for that area.
Given this line of thinking, I might suggest that the audience to market to should not be the broad userbase of a given market segment, but to the subset of audience in that area who are likely to be doing development-related activities (which can be not just pure software coding but also stuff like tutorial writing, toolsmithing, community hosting, testing/bug reporting, etc.)
Bryce
On Wed, Jun 07, 2017 at 11:55:49PM -0600, Ryan Gorley wrote:
Thanks for providing some additional perspective for me, Bryce.
Thus far the overwhelming consensus selection is graphic designers and illustrators/artists. That's not surprising, but your comments have me wondering what subsets of these groups are capable enough to give back through development-related activities and which these subsets are large enough to move the project in a meaningful way. It also has me wondering how we could better facilitate giving back from non-developers, who will constitute the large majority of these groups.
Excellent questions, and well worth pursuing, particularly if we could get some solid data.
One observation I'd add is that development of software requires a wide variety of skillsets, beyond just coding. Moviemaking requires more than just actors, and similarly software development involves much more than coding. Think about an average software development company's staff - actual coders may well comprise a minority.
So too is true for open source projects, at least those of significant size like Inkscape. There is a lot to do to make the software: Translating, bug triaging, event planning, fundraising, technical writing, usability analyzing, graphics asset designing, and on and on. All these skills are involved in development of software, and so I would consider anyone who contributes to Inkscape in one or more of these roles to be a "software developer".
Certainly Inkscape is desperate for people in all these roles. There is a manual writing effort going on presently, which just this week pointed out how desperate they are for writers. This month's board meeting identified a bunch of events, fundraisers, and activities that we should do but can't due to lack of belly buttons to organize the dang things. I tried organizing a marketing team a few months back but had to cancel due to lack of people. We are perennially short staffed for bug triaging, and there's no such thing as too much testing. Not to say more programmers wouldn't hurt either, but we need people in tons of different roles to create the product. :-)
Bryce
If anyone has any thoughts in these two regards, please chime in.
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt https://dijt.co/
On Wed, Jun 7, 2017 at 5:21 PM, Bryce Harrington <bryce@...961...> wrote:
On Sat, Apr 29, 2017 at 01:52:32PM -0600, Ryan Gorley wrote:
Hello all, I have been in communication with Martin and Maren about assisting with some marketing on the project. I am a designer and marketer by
profession.
You can read the conversation http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?topic=497.0 that got this all started if you're interested, but in short, I feel passionately about helping Inkscape succeed.
I am emailing to get your feedback on a survey I would like to begin collecting responses for. As I see it, growing users and growing contributors are two sides of the same coin for any successful FOSS project. This particular survey is focusing on the user side of that
coin.
My intent is to help develop criteria for, and consensus around, who our primary markets for Inkscape should be. A free and open application is of course for anyone to use for any reason. However, because our resources
in
marketing this application are finite, we really need to clarify and prioritize to have any hope for success.
So here is the survey: https://goo.gl/forms/ReZkSjOMokkaoSln2
*Don't spend your time responding (yet)*. I would like to make sure I'm covering the right user segments here, so do email me with your thoughts. I'm glad to meet you all and thanks for the help!
Ryan Gorley @ Dijt https://dijt.co/
Hi Ryan, and congrats on getting your survey out, I hope it gains you lots of useful feedback.
I wanted to chime in a bit food for thought on how to use the data effectively to benefit Inkscape. In particular, you commented:
That being said most open source project leaders and developers I've interacted with genuinely want to create something people will use and appreciate.
I like your phrasing here, and notably that you did not say, "...something that as many people as possible will use..."
For an open source project like Inkscape that makes its product available for free, a larger audience doesn't translate into increased income (well, not directly anyway).
Inkscape's value proposition involves time contribution to the project much moreso than dollars. So a marketing strategy that drives value to us -- in the form of larger audiences that can contribute to pushing development forward -- will have a bigger impact than increasing our penetration into audiences that would be less likely to participate.
Indeed, as we've recognized in the past that when entering a new use category it can create a surge of demand for improvements needed to close gaps in the featureset for that category. This can lead to a virtuous cycle of development, but only if we already have project participants interested and prepared to work hard on closing those gaps. If we lack participants able to work on those features, the new audiences' expectations will be dashed and people will (reasonably) conclude that Inkscape should not perceived as a serious tool for that area.
Given this line of thinking, I might suggest that the audience to market to should not be the broad userbase of a given market segment, but to the subset of audience in that area who are likely to be doing development-related activities (which can be not just pure software coding but also stuff like tutorial writing, toolsmithing, community hosting, testing/bug reporting, etc.)
Bryce
participants (6)
-
Bryce Harrington -
brynn -
C R -
Maren Hachmann -
Miguel Lopez -
Ryan Gorley