On Sun, 6 Nov 2005, MenTaLguY wrote:
Date: Sun, 06 Nov 2005 22:50:25 -0500 From: MenTaLguY <mental@...32...> Reply-To: inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net To: inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [Inkscape-user] Move gradient with
On Sun, 2005-11-06 at 15:34 -0400, bulia byak wrote:
failing to read the tooltip
Evidently a significant proportion of users do not hover over the widget long enough to see/read the tooltip.
It is best to assume users will pick up Inkscape and go with it and not necessarily read *anything* (or ever join the lists or provide us feedback any kind of feedback). I'm always pleasantly surprised if users read the tooltips or any kind of documentation at all. I only reluctantly read the manual for my video recorder as a last resort to track down an obscure feature and I wouldn't expect software users to be any more enthusiastic about reading techincal documentation than they would for any other tool.
It isn't specific to Inkscape, I've seen plenty of users just hit OK because they want warnings or error messages to just go away which is why it is so important for things to always be undoable.
It is important to never blame the user. Software is supposed to make it easier for them to create art, not be a puzzle game proving how clever they are at navigating computer interfaces.
On Sun, 6 Nov 2005, Jon A. Cruz wrote:
On Nov 6, 2005, at 7:50 PM, MenTaLguY wrote:
I'm not sure what the solution is, but it's a problem because the consequences of toggling the control are not otherwise immediately apparent.
Well, what I've seen in a lot of programs depends on if we can determine this is a cause for confusion. If we can detect the state at runtime, popping up a warning dialog with a "don't show me this again" checkbox is one good solution.
That kind of warning with a checkbox to disable it would be a violation of the Gnome Human Interface Guidelines. If a dialog is too annoying to leave on permanently then it is annoying enough you should want to find some other way to do it if at all possible. It worries me how you consider this a good solution as opposed to what I consider in very rare cases to be a necessary evil.
I'm not sure what the solution is, but it's a problem because the consequences of toggling the control are not otherwise immediately apparent.
I'm not sure either (and I dont want to be berated for making a half baked suggestion) but I hope someone can spare some time to see what other software does and perhaps find a solution which looks at the bigger picture rather than tweaking the controls which already exist.
Sincerely
Alan Horkan
Inkscape http://inkscape.org Abiword http://www.abisource.com Dia http://gnome.org/projects/dia/ Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org
Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/