For the UI team...
I've been watching svn really close the last few days and I know that
there are a lot of changes coming, (and I really don't know whats
planned) but I'd thought I would throw out my thoughts so far...
* The "NIW" or main application window...
o I found myself thinking "Great, now I have another window to
find space for on my desktop... "
+ You can't close it or GIMP closes...
+ It really doesn't make a difference that I can resize
it small... It still has to be on my desktop...
o I will personally probably never use the niw drop zone...
mainly because the toolbox is still a drop zone...
o Working with it the last couple days, I've noticed when I
open nautilus or thunar I really have to move windows in
order to get to the NIW dropzone... in contrast the toolbox
dropzone is usually at the side of a desktop layout - less
movement, it's easier and quicker...
+ Even If I resize the NIW to half the screen and
nautilus to the other half, I still have to resize the
image once its open... which is a pain..
o What would really be nice and make the dropzone a lot more
usable... if there is was a file browser built into it...
split the niw vertically, put a file browser on one side,
and dropzone and whatever else on the other side...
+ With this approach, you could at all times have the
NIW maximized to the largest size possible...
o Moving the toolbox menu is a good improvement, and I think
there is talk to reorganize the menu items which would be
good...
o Another close button when an image is open would be good too...
o I'm not sure if the plan is to have tabbed images into this
window... If not I bet there will be a million requests for
it...
o Maybe add a double click feature to the dropzone to
automatically create a new default image (without the prompts)
* The new "Wilber" dropzone area above the toolbox...
o The entire toolbox widget is a dropzone in itself, why take
up extra space ?
o When a user grabs an image to drag onto this toolbox area,
they will naturally just head for the center of the
toolbox... Chances are they probably wont specifically
target that tiny area at the top...
o Some Ideas...
+ Allow the user to remove it if they want
+ Allow the user to specify some other item in that space
# Maybe a small color selector
# RGB color input
# Hex color input
# Double click to create a new default image
* The main opinion I would like to throw out is to "give the end
user as much control as possible"... Your right when you say that
designers keep designing new cars, but the thing is people always
want to customize the cars they buy...
* For every component and widget in the interface ask yourself "How
would a user like to customize this"
* Some examples:
+ Come up with docking window framework that allows
# Any docking window to be docked to another in
any arrangement
# Multiple levels of nested docks
# Ability to assign shortcuts to each window
+ Menus
# Allow the user to create their own menus
# Allow the user to dock a menu anywhere they
would like...
+ Toolbar
# Allow the user to create their own toolbars
# Allow them to dock toolbars anywhere
* Once a good customizable framework has been set up then do some
studies, graphs, reports, wikis, and meetings to figure out the
best standard default layout. And if the user wants to change it,
he/she would have the capability...
* People like to customize, and everybody has their own workflow
style...
//Cinema 4D by Maxon - www.maxon.net - has an incredible interface
framework... If you've never messed with it, download the demo and just
mess with customizing the interface for a while... They have really
taken the time to give the users ultimate control of their layout and
workflow, yet at the same time provide a solid standard setup...
Finally, and most important - Thanks for all of your volunteer time...
There have been some excellent improvements over the last few months
with GIMP itself and the attitude in the community...
Your work really is appreciated by many people...
jbaker
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