Ux Design Philosophy

Mixxx User Experience Design Philosophy

This is a proposal to provide guiding principals for the design of Mixxx.

1. The answer is not more options. If you feel compelled to add a preference that's exposed to the user, it's very possible you've made a wrong turn somewhere. (Copied from Signal.)
2. Live performance is the focus.
   1. Features that are meant to be used while mixing must be easily accessible with a minimum of steps (clicks, button presses, or other interactions) required to use them. Features whose use is not time sensitive do not need to be as easily accessible.
   2. Minimize mutable state, because the more moving parts a user has to keep track of, the more likely it is they will do something accidentally.
   3. Strive for designs that are both easy to discover for new users and easy to use. In case there is a conflict between discoverability and ease of use for experienced users, being intuitive and easy to use while performing is more important.
3. "Works for me" is not good enough. It must work for everyone. People use Mixxx with a wide variety of hardware with a wide variety of music for a wide variety of purposes. Your changes should not interfere with how other people use Mixxx. Minimize assumptions about how people use Mixxx.
4. Everyone can be a power user. Everyone should be able to use and understand all features of Mixxx. If they cannot, the design and/or documentation should be improved.
5. Test your assumptions. The people who make a design cannot anticipate all the issues other people will have with it. Do usability tests both with experienced DJs and novice users.
6. Use convention as a guide. DJ software and hardware has long standing conventions about how things work. Only break expectations if there is a good reason to. Don't be afraid to innovate and do it better than the conventional way though.