On 1/29/07, Alan Horkan <horkana@...3...> wrote:
On Mon, 29 Jan 2007, bulia byak wrote:
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2007 19:29:50 -0500 From: bulia byak <buliabyak@...155...> Reply-To: Inkscape User Community inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net To: Inkscape User Community inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [Inkscape-user] [Inkscape-devel] Baffling UI
On 1/29/07, jmak <jozmak@...155...> wrote:
Remove the layer dialog from the bottom toolbar (which is redundant anyway)
It may be redundant for you,
Would a beginner be particularly likely to use Layers at all?
Isn't there a risk that beginners will see the layer dropdown in the status bar and wonder why it doesn't do more? There no affordance, nothing leading user from the dropdown to the full dialog, it may well trap a few unwary users.
Dont take my word for it, ask someone working in HCI they are very cautious about this kind of redundancy.
but many find it convenient to be able to
you say many but it is hard for you to say who exactly those many people are as it is for jmak to conclusively prove he is right
do simple layer operations without opening the layers dialog.
If you can accept layers are a feature likely to be used by more advanced users wouldn't they very quickly want more than the dropdown provides and just use the keyboard shortcut to quickly pop open the dialog and use it instead?
The dropdown is an artifact of before the Layers dialog existed, if you keep too many of these inkscape will look even more busy and look increasingly like an airplane cockpit. You said yourself the status bar is short of space so you should seriously consider retiring the layer dropdown sooner rather than later.
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Thank you for further elaborating on the issue. Excellent points.
Jmak