Lets redesign VLC to be more modern

[mancerrss]

Hi. I'm just a freelance UX designer here.

And I know that's a very bold suggestion but let me say first that I really really love VLC. I think it's one of the triumphs in open source software. For all the messy and annoying incompatibility and inconsistency of our multimedia, people all around the world worked together to close that gap and make all of that just work. VLC just works

But like any open source software out there, it's been out of touch in UX design or there's been no focus on design bc of hard work to maintain it, bc mainly those that are contributing to this are mostly just engineers and devs only.

I know VLC could do more to be more modern. Recent VLC 3.0 new design (with new icon on Mac) and support for 360° videos proved that. What if VLC is more user friendly for everyone to use, more consistent to each other's apps throughout any platforms, and more modern, forward looking and working, like built in casting & remote.

For all the stellar development and engineering of VLC to just work on any media file throughout all these years, what if finally we now focus on usabilty & design?

We'll work on redesigning both the Mobile and legacy desktop apps to be more consistent, each other, all without losing one feature or settings and still keeping it customizable. Making it more user friendly, delightful and sensible for anyone to use and configure. VLC is powerful but it's also complex on it's deeper sides, what if we work on to make that more approachable and understandable too. As well we're gonna work on bringing VLC ready to scale for it's future, with modern and forward looking features capabilities like built in casting and remote features right in the app, or bring VLC finally to VR (this will need tremendous design talent as VR is very personal). As well as VLC's branding and website and our very ugly looking forums, to be more modern for this days, and represent our forward looking future.

All of this is gonna be ruled with our open sourced design components & guidelines. Instead of building an entirely new design system with our own design aesthetics, since VLC is every platform agnostic and seems everywhere, why not let's just build on top of design languages of the platforms we support, or atleast on open sourced ones too. This will help us scale better on new features, implementations and anything we might plan in the future. Finally VLC will have a common design language that'll be easier to maintain

Of course this will be an open source project too

I've noticed VLC's development has been stalled so many times these days, and I can't think of any new way to kickstart again the energy of this development than a new focus on development

What do you guys think? I can't do this alone. Help me make this happen. Spread the word, and help me plan this

PS : It would be nice if you if you can help me a cup of coffee paypal.me/mancerrss
PSS: Also how do I register and join in VLC's IRC?

[VirtualHenry]

Is there any progress on this? Would love to help out on all platforms and help establish a design system for VLC.