opacity and blur: 0.15 or 15%?
Here's a usability question that I'd like to get some feedback on. Myself, I'm undecided.
How to display and input values of opacity and blur?
1. As percent, 0 to 100, or 0.0 to 100.0.
Pro: easier to pronounce; more common in "real life"; spinbutton can be shorter by one character (dot).
Contra: requires a "%" label after the spinbutton; if the label is not there (as e.g. in the statusbar there's little room for it), it may be more difficult to guess, when you see e.g. "15", that the maximum is 100; requires a change from the Inkscape status quo.
2. As numbers from 0.0 to 1.0 (with two or three significant digits).
Pro: no need for a % label; easier to guess what the maximum is (though still not entirely obvious, unless you have a slider too); no need to change the status quo.
Contra: slightly more "geeky", more cumbersome to type and pronounce, requires slightly wider spinbutton.
Opinions?
bulia byak wrote:
Here's a usability question that I'd like to get some feedback on. Myself, I'm undecided.
How to display and input values of opacity and blur?
- As percent, 0 to 100, or 0.0 to 100.0.
Pro: easier to pronounce; more common in "real life"; spinbutton can be shorter by one character (dot).
Contra: requires a "%" label after the spinbutton; if the label is not there (as e.g. in the statusbar there's little room for it), it may be more difficult to guess, when you see e.g. "15", that the maximum is 100; requires a change from the Inkscape status quo.
- As numbers from 0.0 to 1.0 (with two or three significant digits).
Pro: no need for a % label; easier to guess what the maximum is (though still not entirely obvious, unless you have a slider too); no need to change the status quo.
Contra: slightly more "geeky", more cumbersome to type and pronounce, requires slightly wider spinbutton.
Opinions?
I would personally vote for the second, which gives more consistent look in inkscape (eg. calligraphy options are in the 0.0 to 1.0 range).
Is it technically possible to allow the user type, let's say '75' and automatically transform this to '0.75'? That would make the typing as easy as the percentage option. This feature would also be helpful in all other 0-to-1 input controls.
- Spyros Blanas
On Sat, 11 Nov 2006, bulia byak wrote:
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 15:53:13 -0500 From: bulia byak <buliabyak@...400...> Reply-To: Inkscape User Community inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net To: Inkscape Development Mailing List inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net, Inkscape User Community inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [Inkscape-user] opacity and blur: 0.15 or 15%?
Here's a usability question that I'd like to get some feedback on. Myself, I'm undecided.
How to display and input values of opacity and blur?
- As percent, 0 to 100, or 0.0 to 100.0.
I'd be strongly in favour of percentages from 0 to 100 without the extra precision shown. Ideally users would be still be able to type in 66.6 (or even more precise) if that is what they wanted without necessarily needing the spinbox to show that extra level of precision all the time. I realise implementation details may make this difficult. Showing the extra precision may be a necessary evil but if it is required it could be docuemented in the code and chagned later (the problem with usability compromises is how hard they are to review and change later).
Contra: requires a "%" label after the spinbutton; if the label is not there (as e.g. in the statusbar there's little room for it), it may be more difficult to guess, when you see e.g. "15", that the maximum is 100; requires a change from the Inkscape status quo.
It might help to explain that it is Zoom % in the tooltip, currently the tooltip just explains that it is "Zoom" but if you want there to be room in the status bar you can make it a priority and put it there.
I'm not a fan of abbreviations and the amount of information currently crammed into the Inkscape status bar feels like too much. The clutter over the status bar is part of the aesthetics of Xara which I find quite unappealing and with good palettes/panels it is also redundant. Perhaps now with the Layers dialog complete the Layers drop down is redundant?
- As numbers from 0.0 to 1.0 (with two or three significant digits).
Pro: no need for a % label; easier to guess what the maximum is (though still not entirely obvious, unless you have a slider too); no need to change the status quo.
Please please no. In the case of Zoom you might try to argue the status quo that the menus are in terms of ratios but I'd like to see that change too, and for new features I would like to see consitent use of percentages throughout inkscape. I personally find ratios much harder to understand and think I am even underestimating the difficulty of this for users compared to percentages. Either way using one or the other consistently or maybe even building into the global system of units will make it easier for users, but mix and match of both approaches only makes things more difficult.
Sincerely
Alan Horkan
Inkscape http://inkscape.org Abiword http://www.abisource.com Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org
Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
Alan Horkan wrote:
Either way using one or the other consistently or maybe even building into the global system of units will make it easier for users, but mix and match of both approaches only makes things more difficult.
I disagree with that. I think Inkscape should try to maintain consistency with SVG rather than self-consistency. I do think percentages are friendlier for most users, but I would prefer an identity mapping between SVG and Inkscape where this can be achieved with minimal impact to users. Otherwise, for example, you end up with your y-axis the wrong way up.
So my policy would be
- Percentages where SVG mandates percentages - Decimals where SVG mandates decimals - Percentages if SVG allows an choice (and I'm not sure that it does)
My favourite option would be to use sliders or other widgets to avoid the issue as far as possible.
Dan
On 11/14/06, Daniel Pope <mauve@...1559...> wrote:
So my policy would be
- Percentages where SVG mandates percentages
- Decimals where SVG mandates decimals
- Percentages if SVG allows an choice (and I'm not sure that it does)
I think SVG (actually, CSS) allows both ways everywhere it allows one of them. And in any case, I don't think SVG should much affect usability discussions - we're not speaking of compliance here, only about the best way to show it to the user.
My favourite option would be to use sliders or other widgets to avoid the issue as far as possible.
Sliders are nice, but only as addition to the spinbuttons, not replacements. Sliders are simply not precise enough. For example, a change in opacity between 0.2% and 0.5% is very visible and can make all the difference in an image, but with a slider only you can't make an adjustment that fine.
Thanks to everyone who responded! My tally is 4 votes for percentages, 2 votes for 0..1. So I changed the statusbar opacity spinbutton to 0..100 and added "%" to its tooltip. In Fill and Stroke, the range of both opacity and blur is 0.0..100.0, and the labels also mention % for clarity.
bulia byak wrote:
Here's a usability question that I'd like to get some feedback on. Myself, I'm undecided.
How to display and input values of opacity and blur?
- As percent, 0 to 100, or 0.0 to 100.0.
I Think 0 to 100 is the good way.
It's usable, intuitive, and friendly with user's mental schemes. In addition, 0%-100% is used commonly by others graphics applications.
0.0 to 1.0 is not intuitive and, of course, is not friendly with users.
Pro: easier to pronounce; more common in "real life"; spinbutton can be shorter by one character (dot).
Contra: requires a "%" label after the spinbutton; if the label is not there (as e.g. in the statusbar there's little room for it), it may be more difficult to guess, when you see e.g. "15", that the maximum is 100; requires a change from the Inkscape status quo.
- As numbers from 0.0 to 1.0 (with two or three significant digits).
Pro: no need for a % label; easier to guess what the maximum is (though still not entirely obvious, unless you have a slider too); no need to change the status quo.
Contra: slightly more "geeky", more cumbersome to type and pronounce, requires slightly wider spinbutton.
Opinions?
participants (5)
-
Alan Horkan -
bulia byak -
Daniel Pope -
jEsuSdA 8) -
Spyros Blanas