From the update:
One area we want to focus on after 3.0 is improving our UI/UX design process. We have set up a separate UX repository to report and discuss issues related to design. We are looking to build a team of designers to discuss and create design improvements to GIMP that also respect existing user’s workflows. Denis Rangelov has taken a strong interest in this area and has already done great work in identifying, categorizing, and moving design issues from the code repository to the dedicated design section. Some design improvements have already been implemented for 3.0, and we look forward to working with community designers to give people a better experience!
It’ll take some time, but it seems like improvments may be coming.
That’s pretty neat. I do hope they do some solid UI/UX research on it, and figure out their own way of smoothing things out without simply “making it like Photoshop” like the grouchy masses are clamoring for. :p
Blender had some odd ideas at first, but I really appreciate their unique approach that, IMHO, makes an Autodesk product feel heavy and kludgy by comparison.
It’s already been done
I was already aware of this fork. I haven’t tried it, but does it really fix most of the UX issues of GIMP?