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?
On Sat, 11 Nov 2006, bulia byak wrote:
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 15:53:13 -0500 From: bulia byak <buliabyak@...155...> 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/
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bulia byak