On Wed, 17 May 2006, bulia byak wrote:
Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 10:54:53 -0400 From: bulia byak <buliabyak@...400...> To: Alan Horkan <horkana@...44...> Cc: "inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net" inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] Re: [Inkscape-user] NEW: node sculpting
On 5/17/06, Alan Horkan <horkana@...44...> wrote:
Let's not go down the Adobe Illustrator path which has a separate "tool" for each single kind of action.
It isn't perfect but think about it a bit more and you might realise they must have had some reason for doing it that way.
Alan, you have recently linked from our wiki an excellent critique of Illustrator which summarizes most of my own sentiment:
I found that while looking for something else and it is more than just a rant, it is well reasoned rant. Keep in mind he is a dedicated Corel user but I think his points about Adobe failing to keep their own products consistent were very strong.
And I could add much, much more. In my view, AI is an example of an atrocious usability design in most of its aspects. Unfortunately, the
Maybe but it is the dominant application and I think it is well worth looking at so as to increase the chances of copying the bits users do actually like, and seizing opportunities to get people to switch. (I'm probably being overly optimistic here but it seems worth considering.)
majority of users care very little about usability and are happy to use what they were taught to use.
If only more users did actually get taught! Most wade right in as best they can, and a rare few actually read the manual if they cannot figure things out through guesswork.
It seems like most users struggle to use computers but never learn to type. I'm regularly surprised by the level of basic literacy I encounter with many users not knowing what a colon is, let alone knowing how to type.
To dimiss it so quickly is stupid. For one thing serperate tool approach only requires one hand, holding down a modifier can be very inconvenient.
A professional who works with only one hand is seriously disadvanatged,
Alexandre was just commenting on another list how it dangerous to _require_ users to use both hands. Is is not more like real drawing to only require the use of one hand?
It is an advantage to be able to optionally use modifiers but requiring them is not good for everyone (accessibility, discoverability).
pressing just one modifier key, if it's documented well. I'm not inventing Emacs-like 10-key combos here.
"It could be worse!" :(
Multiple keybindings can be great for advanced users and of course documentation helps. However it is good for some users to be able to use these tools without the requiring manual dexterity needed to use multiple keybindings. (It is accessability in the general sense but there are other ways of looking at it. Laptops are more popular than ever and I'm sure some users will struggle to use try to use Inkscape with only an awkward little trackpad for input.)
I dont want to overload inkscape with too many different ways of doing the same thing but I do think it is important to be able to control things with only a simple pointer/pen device, but also conversely control things heavily from the keyboard for users who do not have strong motor control or who are more into the techincal drawing.
The hope would be to have a nice overlap where users like you (bulia) can use both the pointer and keyboard in tandem and achieve a high level of proficiency, accuracy, and efficiency.