Well what do you know?
At the moment Kamila and I are very busy with our (interaction
architecture) expert evaluation of the current GIMP, and this
morning we happen to stop by the screenshot plugin.
We actually took into account all comments made in this thread
up to that moment.
Here are our findings:
Absolute number one:
Yes, taking screenshots is a task for the OS/desktop environment.
That guarantees that it is available in every app. Also looking
at the product vision I do not see screenshots as something
essential that GIMP must do.
But the the GIMP team consist of nice guys and girls, so
they leave the screenshot feature in. Also OK with us,
the interaction architects.
One delay or two?
After looking at the old UI, and the UI in 2.3.13,
taking into consideration
- the complexities of taking a snap of a window with a menu
flapped open or a button being pushed;
- traversing trough virtual desktops;
- how window managers treat menus;
- relative obscurity of the use cases;
- the stress on ease of remembering (used every once in a while)
of this feature;
- the fact that it is a piece of cake to cut out a rectangle
out of a image in GIMP, or two added rectangles (window +
menu sticking out).
we are positively sure that the solution shown in 2.3.13
is the better solution. One delay, with one meaning.
We would like to see however two improvements:
1) A big, fat visual countdown of the delay. I can see a
big (200 point font) semitransparent numbers overlaying
the screen counting down 4-3-2-1. No more guessing how
long do we still have to get that other window in front.
2) A better explanation of the delay. Move the delay value spin-box
up a line, behind the word Delay, and take some room below it
for a two-line sentence that confirms what will happen next.
Use 3 different texts, one for each of the shot modes
(window / screen / region), because what you can do with the
cursor after the delay is different for each mode.
BTW: we did not take into account the use of GIMP by grandmas,
only used-in-anger by hard-boiled 'pros' according to the
product vision.
I think that puts an end to any doubts,
--ps
principal user interaction architect
man + machine interface works
http://mmiworks.net/blog : on interaction architecture
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