> I think the key question is about usability from > the first minute the application is loaded. [...] > As much I think > that you need to research the topic to do anything vaguely > complex in your recording, the target for usability should > be to limit the required research to a minimum. [...] > This operation is intuitive in Cooledit, Audacity > and even video editing tools such as Premiere. To me, this > is a real flaw in usability. [...] > I think Linux applications > just need some usability love to make this happen. [...] > I do agree that the needs for a new user and pro user are > different, but the only real difference is that the pro > user goes into a far deeper level of detail. As such, I > don't see how usability necessarily has to be different. [...] > It seems to me that applications such as Ardour simply need > some usability discussion, testing and implementation. [...] > Even > cursory glances at Ardour reveal a range of usability flaws > - even simple issues such as dialog design, right up to > structural issues. [...] Because you have used the term ?usability? a lot, I'd like to add that i also think that addressing usability could help a lot, especially in the Linux audio world. It cannot solve all issues, but a lot. Unfortunately, usability needs time and resources. And I understand well that a programmer of free software is more interested in doing research and write new features than care about usability issues. I have held a talk about usability issues on Linux audio on this years LAC: http://sysexxer.sourceforge.net/files/lac2005-Linux-audio-usability.pdf I often got very positive feedback when filing usability feature requests for various projects, but sometimes I even got told ?The user should read the documentation? ;-) . I agree with you that usability could reduce the amount of documentation needed a lot. Best regards ce
