Here are the results from the User UX testing yesterday. All testers/users were new to inkscape or had only used it briefly before.
UX Problems Found:
* 3 Users thought they could select a group by clicking on the whilespace between objects * View > Grid was found to be confusing, Perhaps change to "Show Grid" or "Grid Guides" or some such. * All users found Rows and Columns dialog hard or impossible to find. Once found, it was easy to use. All expected to find it under Align and Distribute dialog. * 1 user thought Export Bitmap would make a PDF and didn't expect PDF in "Save As" * 1 user had screen size issues where many elements were off the sides of the screen. * New users found it hard to locate rotate handles, slow clicking not expected. Some would use the transform dialog instead. * All users could not find document size settings. Expecting Edit > Crop to Selection or similar function.
Bugs found:
* 3D boxes don't align at all.
Thanks to everyone who took part and helped test Inkscape. I think for v1.0 of inkscape we should focus on clearing up a lot of these user interface issues we have.
More testing would be good too.
Best Regards, Martin Owens
On Sat, 22 Mar 2014 10:57:18 -0400 Martin Owens <doctormo@...400...> wrote:
Here are the results from the User UX testing yesterday. All testers/users were new to inkscape or had only used it briefly before.
[snip]
Bugs found:
- 3D boxes don't align at all.
Dear Martin,
If this is what I think it is, it could be down to an incompatibility with Boost and newer compilers. Ask the users about their boost version, compiler version and compiler optimisation options if you don't know already.
I found that gcc 4.6.3+ with -O3 on 32-bit with boost > 1.45.0 gave me a similar bug *some time back* but I didn't mention it because my platform is how do you say, non-standard. I haven't looked at the situation since. I gave up with boost > 1.45.0 because it also failed to render text on a path properly. (Put some text on a curved path and use the node editor to wiggle the path. Text is noticeably clipped in a stair-case fashion.)
If it isn't, or if someone has already fixed this, sorry for the noise.
Yours,
Is.
2014-03-22 15:57 GMT+01:00 Martin Owens <doctormo@...400...>:
Here are the results from the User UX testing yesterday. All testers/users were new to inkscape or had only used it briefly before.
UX Problems Found:
- 3 Users thought they could select a group by clicking on the
whilespace between objects
I'm not sure we can do anything about this, since this would get really cumbersome with groups that contain a few widely separated objects. (By the way, Alt+click to select under doesn't seem to work for me - do others also encounter this?)
- View > Grid was found to be confusing, Perhaps change to "Show Grid"
or "Grid Guides" or some such.
This looks like it could be fixed with a simple string change. PS while checking this, I noticed that "Snap" is under "View", which doesn't seem right.
- All users found Rows and Columns dialog hard or impossible to find.
Once found, it was easy to use. All expected to find it under Align and Distribute dialog.
Probably these two dialogs can be merged, e.g. the rows and columns stuff could be an expander in the align & distribute dialog.
- 1 user thought Export Bitmap would make a PDF and didn't expect PDF
in "Save As"
I suggest no changes in this case. PDF is definitely not a bitmap.
- 1 user had screen size issues where many elements were off the sides
of the screen.
Does this refer to UI elements or drawing elements?
- New users found it hard to locate rotate handles, slow clicking not
expected. Some would use the transform dialog instead.
I think this action should stay, since it is convenient and a core feature since almost forever, but there could be an additional way to switch between the modes which is more discoverable (e.g. right click? toolbar button?). The message in the status box does say that clicking will toggle between scale and rotate handles, but maybe it's not visible enough.
- All users could not find document size settings. Expecting Edit >
Crop to Selection or similar function.
Adding this to the menu sounds like a good idea. Also, the document properties dialog should allow you to adjust the page size using draggable handles.
Regards, Krzysztof
On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 5:16 PM, Krzysztof Kosiński <tweenk.pl@...972.....>wrote:
I'm not sure we can do anything about this, since this would get really cumbersome with groups that contain a few widely separated objects. (By the way, Alt+click to select under doesn't seem to work for me - do others also encounter this?)
Are you running linux? If so it's likely your WM stealing the Alt to move a window. If you're on Ubuntu for example, open up ccsm, find the icon for Move Window, go in there and you can change the shortcut to use the Super key instead. I have historically had issues with Ubuntu resetting this to the stupid default whenever it feels like it. It's the damn "Windows" key, of course that should be what you move windows with. ;)
- 1 user thought Export Bitmap would make a PDF and didn't expect PDF
in "Save As"
I suggest no changes in this case. PDF is definitely not a bitmap.
Agreed. This also ties into the age old Save vs Export debate insanity... If someone wants to code up a mega Export dialog that handles all the "foreign" formats, then that would be the better solution.
- 1 user had screen size issues where many elements were off the sides
of the screen.
Does this refer to UI elements or drawing elements?
If referring to UI, those things were in the pop-out/expansion menus that appear when the toolbars are too short. It's not ideal, but it still makes all of those things available. If drawing elements they can zoom out.
- New users found it hard to locate rotate handles, slow clicking not
expected. Some would use the transform dialog instead.
I think this action should stay, since it is convenient and a core feature since almost forever, but there could be an additional way to switch between the modes which is more discoverable (e.g. right click? toolbar button?). The message in the status box does say that clicking will toggle between scale and rotate handles, but maybe it's not visible enough.
Another option is to go the route other apps have gone. One is like how Krita does it where if you hover the line between control handles it shows a skew cursor, and just out past the corner handles the cursor changes to show rotation... if I'm not mistaken, this is how AI does (or at least did it with rotation). There's also the SVG-edit or Autodesk products method which just adds one more handle for rotation. See here https://autocad360.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1154467 or to try yourself check svg-edit, create an object and then go to the Selector tool to see how it works. http://svg-edit.googlecode.com/svn/branches/2.6/editor/svg-editor.html
- All users could not find document size settings. Expecting Edit >
Crop to Selection or similar function.
Adding this to the menu sounds like a good idea. Also, the document properties dialog should allow you to adjust the page size using draggable handles.
Perhaps a dedicated tool to relocate the page like AI has (which could also handle creating/editing viewboxes one day as well).
Cheers, Josh
- New users found it hard to locate rotate handles, slow clicking not
expected. Some would use the transform dialog instead.
I think this action should stay, since it is convenient and a core feature since almost forever, but there could be an additional way to switch between the modes which is more discoverable (e.g. right click? toolbar button?). The message in the status box does say that clicking will toggle between scale and rotate handles, but maybe it's not visible enough.
Another option is to go the route other apps have gone. One is like how Krita does it where if you hover the line between control handles it shows a skew cursor, and just out past the corner handles the cursor changes to show rotation... if I'm not mistaken, this is how AI does (or at least did it with rotation). There's also the SVG-edit or Autodesk products method which just adds one more handle for rotation. See here https://autocad360.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1154467 or to try yourself check svg-edit, create an object and then go to the Selector tool to see how it works. http://svg-edit.googlecode.com/svn/branches/2.6/editor/svg-editor.html
I think this extra handle for rotation is the right way to go. I've long been frustrated (as a more-or-less experienced Inkscape user) by the slow click action -- the delay is bothersome, and the chance of accidentally double-clicking makes it doubly so.
Also (if you have your settings set to preserve transforms), it can be a useful indicator that an element already has a rotation transform applied (because, as per svg-editor above, the handle appears vertical relative to the rotated object, not relative to the canvas).
I personally use shear very infrequently, so I'm less bothered by the shear handles. Would be nice, IMHO, to eliminate the slow click altogether, though.
- Bryan
On Sun, 2014-03-23 at 01:16 +0100, Krzysztof Kosiński wrote:
- View > Grid was found to be confusing, Perhaps change to "Show
Grid"
or "Grid Guides" or some such.
This looks like it could be fixed with a simple string change. PS while checking this, I noticed that "Snap" is under "View", which doesn't seem right.
I've fixed these issues with the menu, but the Guides menu item is well out of whack with the boolean option it controls.
1) Open a new document 2) Look at View menu, Guides is unchecked 3) Drag a new guide onto the page 4) Look at View menu, Guides is unchecked 5) Click on Guides menu item
== guides disappear but guides menu now checked. Checkbox is now the opposite of effect.
1) Open a new document 2) Click on Guides so it's 'checked' 3) Create a new guide 4) Click on Guides menu item to uncheck it.
== guides disapear and the guides menu is unchecked. Check is now the right way around.
Clicking on the rulers to hide/show guides is unhinged from the view menu check too.
I looked at the events, the snap menu item had the same problems before I removed it. No link between the setting being set and the checkbox on the menu item.
The verbs system needs fixing to support checkboxes. There's no reason a verb shouldn't have hooks into our document or application preferences.
Martin,
On 2014-03-26 18:35 +0100, Martin Owens wrote:
On Sun, 2014-03-23 at 01:16 +0100, Krzysztof Kosiński wrote:
- View > Grid was found to be confusing, Perhaps change to "Show
Grid"
or "Grid Guides" or some such.
This looks like it could be fixed with a simple string change. PS while checking this, I noticed that "Snap" is under "View", which doesn't seem right.
I've fixed these issues with the menu, but the Guides menu item is well out of whack with the boolean option it controls.
- Open a new document
- Look at View menu, Guides is unchecked
- Drag a new guide onto the page
- Look at View menu, Guides is unchecked
- Click on Guides menu item
== guides disappear but guides menu now checked. Checkbox is now the opposite of effect.
- Open a new document
- Click on Guides so it's 'checked'
- Create a new guide
- Click on Guides menu item to uncheck it.
== guides disapear and the guides menu is unchecked. Check is now the right way around.
Clicking on the rulers to hide/show guides is unhinged from the view menu check too.
I looked at the events, the snap menu item had the same problems before I removed it. No link between the setting being set and the checkbox on the menu item.
The verbs system needs fixing to support checkboxes. There's no reason a verb shouldn't have hooks into our document or application preferences.
AFAIU this issue is limited to desktops with global menubars (Ubuntu Unity, OS X with native menubar integration via gtk-mac-integration):
Bug #1136344 "Grid is (not) checked in menu if I use keyboard shortcuts for enable/disable" https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1136344
On Sun, 2014-03-23 at 01:16 +0100, Krzysztof Kosiński wrote:
- All users found Rows and Columns dialog hard or impossible to
find.
Once found, it was easy to use. All expected to find it under Align
and
Distribute dialog.
Probably these two dialogs can be merged, e.g. the rows and columns stuff could be an expander in the align & distribute dialog.
I've put together a design which I would like to propose to tidy up the dialog:
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Align_Distribute_and_Arrange
One of the requirements is that we have a size widget which includes units. It's weird we don't have this widget yet, but without it it the design gets quite cumbersome.
Thoughts?
Best Regards, Martin Owens
On 26.03.2014 21:48, Martin Owens wrote:
On Sun, 2014-03-23 at 01:16 +0100, Krzysztof Kosiński wrote:
- All users found Rows and Columns dialog hard or impossible to
find.
Once found, it was easy to use. All expected to find it under Align
and
Distribute dialog.
Probably these two dialogs can be merged, e.g. the rows and columns stuff could be an expander in the align & distribute dialog.
I've put together a design which I would like to propose to tidy up the dialog:
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Align_Distribute_and_Arrange
One of the requirements is that we have a size widget which includes units. It's weird we don't have this widget yet, but without it it the design gets quite cumbersome.
Thoughts?
I personally like to have the Align buttons and the Distribute buttons visible at the same time, otherwise I would often need to switch tabs, I guess.
Best, vf
On 2014-03-26 21:48 +0100, Martin Owens wrote:
On Sun, 2014-03-23 at 01:16 +0100, Krzysztof Kosiński wrote:
- All users found Rows and Columns dialog hard or impossible to
find.
Once found, it was easy to use. All expected to find it under Align
and
Distribute dialog.
Probably these two dialogs can be merged, e.g. the rows and columns stuff could be an expander in the align & distribute dialog.
I've put together a design which I would like to propose to tidy up the dialog:
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Align_Distribute_and_Arrange
Sponteous thoughts: - the reuse of well-known icons in a different context with different meaning is confusing (at least to me). - just curious: why create a mega-dialog with multiple tabs if the same stacking can already be achieved by features of the dock itself? - missing (it was contributed in a branch in 2012): Polar arrangement Branch: https://code.launchpad.net/~declara91/inkscape/polar-arrangement Documentation: http://issuu.com/ddeclara/docs/inkscape_radial_arrangement Screenshots: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pow3b4x0hpgkjrz/uLCC6d4Dfm
In that branch, polar arrangment was added as second tab to the renamed 'Rows and Columns' dialog (-> Arrange: rectangular & polar), whereas 'Arrange & Distribute' remained in a separate dialog.
One of the requirements is that we have a size widget which includes units. It's weird we don't have this widget yet, but without it it the design gets quite cumbersome.
Thoughts?
Best Regards, Martin Owens
On Wed, 2014-03-26 at 23:14 +0100, su_v wrote:
- the reuse of well-known icons in a different context with different
meaning is confusing (at least to me).
We can turn them red, draw some new ones, what ever icon is good for 'align' vert and horz.
- just curious: why create a mega-dialog with multiple tabs if the
same stacking can already be achieved by features of the dock itself?
The align and distribute is where people are going to distribute to a grid. And when one thinks about it, having a rows and columns menu item and dialog is really confusing. Not just the name, but the duplicate categorization of functionality.
If we want to avoid mega-dialogs. Should we split out the fill/stroke dialog? I'd like to keep a consistency with the design where possible.
Martin,
On Wed, 2014-03-26 at 23:14 +0100, su_v wrote:
- missing (it was contributed in a branch in 2012): Polar arrangement
Branch: https://code.launchpad.net/~declara91/inkscape/polar-arrangement Documentation: http://issuu.com/ddeclara/docs/inkscape_radial_arrangement Screenshots: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pow3b4x0hpgkjrz/uLCC6d4Dfm
I've managed to merge the radial/polar arrangement code.
Since it's more than 6 months old I decided to take charge of the abandoned codebase. Please do let me know if you see any issues with the merge.
Best Regards, Martin Owens
participants (7)
-
Bryan Hoyt | Brush Technology -
Isobel Knowles -
Josh Andler -
Krzysztof Kosiński -
Martin Owens -
su_v -
vaifrax