On Thu, 2003-09-04 at 14:44, Sven Neumann wrote: > Hi, > > Willie Sippel <willie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > > > Check my new mockup, I've changed this. It's available at > > http://www.zeitgeistmedia.net/gimp/gimpstreamline2.png . > > You're right on this one, I would suggest to split the toolbox, upper > > segment containing logical groups, e.g. paint tools, and on click, the > > lower segment contains the corresponding tools, like brush, pen, > > airbrush, ink and text. This would reduce mouse movement, as you > > suggested, while still making it easier to find the tool you need. > > I like this idea. Perhaps if the GUI could better indicate the > relationship between the selected tool-group and the list of tools > below, people would actually have a chance to understand this concept > without the need to explain it to them. > That's right, but I don't know how this would be possible with GTK - I tried to use only features I already know from GTK applications (granted, the 'slidebox' is not a GTK widget). My current design is pretty self-explanatory I think, and already more intuitive than the Adobe 'click - hold - wait - look - move - release' way, but I would also like to make this even easier to use. Using tabs for the groups should be better to indicate the difference, I think? Anyway, my mockup tries to handle the groups in the same way as the 'FG/ BG Color' dialog does now. Whatever solution, it should be consistent. > What I dislike about your mockup is the fact that you overload widgets > with functionality using the three mouse-buttons. This hides important > functionality and is thus unacceptable for a user interface that is > supposed to be as intuitive as possible. > I see. Well, you are right about this, but these are supposed to be advanced functions, and they are pretty much redundant. If you click any widget with the left mouse button, they behave more or less like they do today - the button assignment for the toolbox's color preview could even be reversed, so that it brings up the change color dialog. But currently, MMB and RMB are not assigned, so those functions would be only additions to speed up the workflow for more professional users. If you re-add the 'Reverse Gradient' checkbox to the tool settings, the behaviour would remain almost completely as it is now - but believe me, all but the casual users will use this added functionality as soon as they are used to it. Maybe there could be some description like this for the tooltips (color preview, for example): LMB - Choose Color MMB - Switch FG/ BG Color RMB - Color Picker One other example: The description left of the 'Mode' dropdown is not necessary, as the casual user doesn't know what the 'Mode' is all about anyway until they actually TRY it, and the professional user sees a dropdown, the selected option is 'Normal', so they KNOW that this is the 'Mode' selector - as any professional paint and retouche app has this dropdown. These are supposed to be additions and improvement, not really changing the current behaviour at all. I use a tablet for all my work, and a pen with two additional buttons - but I know that there are pens from Wacom with no buttons, and I'm therefore aware of this problem and tried to keep the current functionality - as a backup, and for newbies. > > Sven -- Willie Sippel <willie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> [ z ] !
