User Experience Rule 1: Don't use ICE. User Experience Rule 2: If the "user experience" doesn't provide what you need, use ICE.
:) On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Alan Fregtman <alan.fregt...@gmail.com>wrote: > To me ICE is an analog to a sort of *space-age programmable calculator*. > > Just like with a scientific calculator, if you know a bit of math, you go > a long way! If you haven't grasped math too well yet, it's cool, it'll just > take a little longer to understand and you won't be making the most out of > your calculator for now. > > Of course it's oversimplifying it a little, but over the years from the > types of ICE questions I've observed, a large chunk of them distills to "*what > math do I need to do X?*" more so than the usability or intuitiveness of > its interface, both of which I think are quite good. Context manipulation > is probably the hardest concept to grasp after the math, but you do *get > it* eventually. > > > You know what was pretty hard though? Being in the beta for XSI7 when > Moondu-- errm ICE didn't have almost any documentation and trying to make > sense of the workflows and its potential. If you thought ICE was confusing > on first sight, try picturing yourself without documentation or video > tutorials existing and only a handful of developers to pick the brains of. > :p > > > > On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 10:58 AM, Peter Agg <peter....@googlemail.com>wrote: > >> Yeah, I think there's a big difference between ICE being difficult to >> understand and difficult to use. I've seen people with a good maths >> background start doing shots after a half hour introduction and I've seen >> people with no maths knowledge struggle to use it after years of experience. >> >> I do think it's objectively better than either Maya's or Houdini's >> equivalents. >> >> >> On 20 November 2013 15:37, Guillaume Laforge < >> guillaume.laforge...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> I agree with Sergio. >>> >>> Lets not oversimplify the user experience. Of course ICE is not a simple >>> user interface as it is not just some menu/buttons/PPG to clicks on. >>> But it is very well designed for what it does and it does is quiet well >>> ! I'm still impressed by such technology knowing that XSI was not design >>> for ICE at its beginning. >>> >>> Cheers >>> >>> Guillaume Laforge >>> >>> PS: As soon as I'm hearing the word "user experience", I'm scared and >>> run far away from any Apple store :). >>> >>> >>> On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Sergio Mucino < >>> sergio.muc...@modusfx.com> wrote: >>> >>>> I guess I'll have to be a part of the minority here. I had never >>>> worked with XSI before 2 months ago (although curiously, I got started in >>>> 3D with Softimage ~ 18 years ago). I jumped into ICE a few days, and it >>>> literally took me less than an hour to wrap my head around it. Granted, I'm >>>> not using it for super advanced stuff yet, and my experience with XSI is >>>> limited to the rigging department, but I found ICE to be one of the most >>>> user-friendly node-based environments I've used (along with Modo's >>>> schematic workspaces). I was delighted with how easy was to understand what >>>> the nodes do. Their names are clear, and their ports have names that >>>> actually depict what they do (in contrast to Maya's nodes, which require >>>> plain experience to understand what they do... and good luck if you're >>>> trying a few nodes by yourself at first!). Maya's nodes could really use a >>>> kick in the butt (a hard one) in the usability department, and Softimage >>>> should be the model to follow here. >>>> As for the rest of the Maya UI goes, I really don't understand what is >>>> the problem people have with it. I find it easy to go around once you know >>>> where things are (which will happen with ANY application you move into >>>> anyway), and I can work at a pretty good pace with it. I guess it's just a >>>> matter of familiarity... SI was difficult for me the first week. After >>>> that, I was able to start being productive. >>>> Anyway, I don't want to make this unnecessarily longer than needed. I >>>> just wanted to share my experience with SI in the usability department (and >>>> being an ex-software designer, I tend to unconsciously keep an eye on these >>>> kind of things). >>>> Okay... my only pseudo-nag is the overall plastic-y look of the SI UI >>>> (and it's brighter-than-I'd-like, non-customizable gray color scheme). It >>>> looks like my blender at home. That's all! *ducks* ;-) >>>> >>>> >>>> On 20/11/2013 7:58 AM, Luc-Eric Rousseau wrote: >>>> >>>> Given the rate of development judging by past releases I'd say it's off by >>>> at least another >>>> three years, and even only if you guys manage to cram Bifrost into it in a >>>> usable way like ICE >>>> was crammed into Softimage, and do some major rework of the GUI. >>>> >>>> ICE in a conversation about usability? It's the most complex thing you >>>> need to spend time learning in Softimage, and I think most users have >>>> not wrapped their heads around it (? would need some statistics). I'll >>>> never be at ease with it myself, you need to need it and invest in it. >>>> >>>> This isn't the right thread for it, but it's always good in any case >>>> to send feedback about what you think makes Softimage more usable. It >>>> often boiled down to familiarity as opposed to actual ease of use >>>> (which should be measurable on a new user). You will always find >>>> your way around and be more productive in the software that you're the >>>> most invested in, it becomes second nature to you. You've got the hot >>>> keys burned into your muscle, you've got your habits (sometimes >>>> workarounds), etc. It depends when you learn it, too. There is an >>>> Anthony Rossano book out there about XSI that teaches new users in the >>>> first chapter how to make XSI awesome by turning all the preferences >>>> back to Softimage|3D emulation modes. F** those sticky keys and >>>> manipulators, right? There is a certain age (the 30s?) when we stop >>>> learning new things if we don't push ourselves in the butt.. >>>> >>>> On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 3:22 AM, Stefan Kubicek <s...@tidbit-images.com> >>>> <s...@tidbit-images.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> Luc, that sounds like Maya will finally have it's user interface replaced >>>> with a usable interface. >>>> It's still a pity, I'd much rather see you working on Softimage than on >>>> anything else :-/ >>>> >>>> Five years ago I was arguing with a former colleague that if you'd start to >>>> develop Maya in >>>> the right directions it would still take at least five years to get it up >>>> to >>>> the reliability >>>> and userfriendliness we have in Softimage, and only if Softs development >>>> was >>>> stagnant during >>>> that period. In hindsight this estimate was overly optimistic. >>>> Given the rate of development judging by past releases I'd say it's off by >>>> at least another >>>> three years, and even only if you guys manage to cram Bifrost into it in a >>>> usable way like ICE >>>> was crammed into Softimage, and do some major rework of the GUI. >>>> >>>> In an attempt to think way out of the box I suggest we find a way to sneak >>>> someone Softimage-affine into the >>>> top ranks at AD$K to make decisions that are right for us instead of >>>> shareholders only. >>>> Any one around here with pointed elbows and a background in political >>>> engineering willing to conspire ? ;-) >>>> >>>> >>> >> >
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