Hi, On Tue, 2011-05-17 at 15:38 +0200, Bernhard Dippold wrote: > Hi Jared, all, > > one of the mails still marked as to-be-replied-to, but never found the > time - sorry! > > Jared Meidal schrieb: > > Because I like the “big picture” I would like to make some comments > > to help me, and perhaps others, formulate the trajectory and > > philosophy for the UX future of LibreOffice. [...] > > > > As an open source application, The Document Foundation has the great > > opportunity before them to show the wise maturity borne in the FLOSS > > community of how to present accessibility to the user--customized > > control. [...] To offer innovation within the GUI (emphasis on USER) > > would be a benefit not simply because everyone else is doing it, but > > because it fits exactly in-line with the philosophy of free software, > > if done right. > > > > [...] LibreOffice will be successful not because of innovation > > (dictation) but because of freedom (customization) and user-focused > > design (as a reminder, users are very diverse). > > > > My practical suggestion, is to take the best of tabs, ribbons and > > docks. Take the finest customization techniques built into > > LibreOffice and already available in the FLOSS-sphere and pack them > > into an upgrade of this suite that will offer users what they want, > > what they need, and what works for them--all at the same time. > > > > What this would look like is ever-present, full customization of > > tool properties: grouping, position, appearance and visibility. My > > term for this is “toolgroups.” This reaches beyond the function of > > static tools grouped within a ribbon tab. Rather, this is a > > user-customized group of tools tagged to appear always, or workspace > > dependent. The group can be placed in a sidebar, floating dock or in > > an inactive tabset (invisible or simply unusable). [...] > > I tried to shorten your mail without losing it's main content - I hope I > kept the most important information. > > During the last months we had a few discussions with developers on > customization and options. > > While it is reasonable from a user point of view to be given a broad > area of modifiable options, this might mean a enormous programming > effort for developers, a larger code base, slower execution and more bugs. > > Even from UX point of view it might not be as easy as you describe: > An average user will not change the UI - either he likes it and can work > with it or he can't (and stops using the product). That's why the > standard configuration is more important in my eyes than any possible > customization. > > You're right that there are different user groups with different needs > that might be addressed with a specialized UI. > > But I think providing pre-formatted themes are a better way to go. > > And even here the workload for the developers is quite high... > > My take is: > > What we need is an easy way to create extensions for UI customization. > > This way the standard theme can be overridden by an extension with a > different theme or with an additional customization tool. Toolbar > content, size and positioning, docking and context sensitivity (probably > the most problematic part) can be defined there. > > But we should keep in mind: > > One of the main advantages of LibreOffice is it's platform independency. > On each of the operating systems People can work with LibreOffice in the > same way - mainly because the position of their toolbars, menu entries > and buttons are similar among Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. > > We definitely should keep this behavior for the standard theme. > > Defining this theme will be one of the most important tasks for us > during the years to come, and we will have to hear on our user base very > closely... > > Allowing this configuration will probably cause some developer effort > and I don't know if there is already one willing to spend his/her spare > time to this task. > > But your statement is true: > > A more user-oriented UI can be used as marketing tool and promotional > item - and it fits very well with the idea of Freedom and Liberty. > > Toolbars are already quite configurable - even if most people don't use > this feature. > > > Best regards > > Bernhard > > -- > Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to design+h...@libreoffice.org > Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette > List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/www/design/ > All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
From what I have seen of most MS Office users is that tool bars are never customized. Most user, I would say almost all I have met, are not even aware the tool bars can be customized. I believe there are customizations available for the ribbon. I agree Bernhard that out of the box is most important for the typical user. -- Jay Lozier jsloz...@gmail.com -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to design+h...@libreoffice.org Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/www/design/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
