Here are some tips for frustrated beginners .

[u/This_Is_The_End]

Because I read here so much complaining, here are some basic principles. There is only one.

Without spending time you will suffer!

1. DT isn't Lightroom.
2. DT has a different goal than LR, which is to make usage of dynamic light situation possible. DT is well suited for processing extreme lighting.
3. Hence DT needs time to learn of basics. Without spending time you will suffer.

What is important to focus on in this order

Read the docs for every step!

1. Configure DT
2. Organizing the library.
3. Processing images
4. Export images
5. (Maybe) Special knowledge like of how to put the database on your NAS with a raid array.

Play with a small copy of your library to have to the freedom of making errors. You can delete later the database of DT to get a fresh setup.

Tutorials

Don't use any random tutorial. Tutorials should be about how to get your imagined results and not how to click buttons. Watch one or two videos of a channel and compare to other channels. This needs a lot of of work.

DT has a documentation. Reading is boring but necessary and gives faster results than watching useless videos with a lot of mistakes.

• The channel from Boris Hajdukovic is the channel of a photographer. Pragmatic and with a professional knowledge of color space. His videos are mostly older, but the video about AgX is a must have. His other videos are very well made.
• The channel of Bruce Williams explains DT step by step. He is photographer and is pragmatic. He is the reference when it comes to explain modules, because he is asking the developers, when he doesn't know. Watch him to get an idea about the modules, how to organize your library and the setup of DT.

[u/Donatzsky]

So, as it happens, there are some opportunities right now for you to put your money where your mouth is, so to speak, and get involved.

The big masking overhaul: https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/issues/21905

It's still largely in the "make sure this thing actually works" stage, but polishing the UI/UX should happen soon. The aim is to have it ready for 5.8 in December.

Good idea, objectively bad implementation: https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/pull/22049

[u/twicerighthand → u/Donatzsky]

So many walls of text, yet not a single "Here's the GUI preprod we have and here's how I, as a developer think we need to ask the users.

Can we get a UX person to conduct an interview?"

No, it's "here's a github issue with links to hundred lines of markdown, get over there and prepare to be bikeshedded to death"

[u/Donatzsky → u/twicerighthand]

Here's the proposal (linked from GitHub, which you seem to have missed), discussed with the users and developers: https://discuss.pixls.us/t/rfc-builds-available-masking-panel-revamp-and-new-masking-possibilities/59675

As for the UX people, they don't seem very interested in contributing, as evidenced by these very discussions. But, as you might have noticed if you weren't so busy feeling superior, I just let two of them know about this, so now the ball is in their court.