Can I say how much I hate.. ?

[tonylondon]

(The up/down arrows for the font size is a major bugbear of mine- Word uses that wretched drop down menu too. What a masterpiece of design! You want to increase your font one point at a time, just to 'tweak' it? Well you can't! You have to type it in! No simple one click fix! You have to click once to open the drop down menu, then move the mouse accurately onto the size you want, then click on it.

If you want to nudge the size up you can click on the box then use your arrow keys...

[MarkMyWords]

It would certainly seem that the two basic 'camps' on the 'perfect' U.I. are those who want less clutter, even if that means more mouse-clicks per operation, and those who want more options visible (ie: every font size or align and distribute option, for one click operations).

Having both available, to be set in user preferences, seems at first to be the answer, but then wouldn't loading all the options clutter the code with resultant slow-down?

It would seem some kind of 'modular' approach is the only way to satisfy all. That's easier said than done of course LOL! Maybe as the Linux version developes there will be add-ons for various options?


Of course 90% of these requests for U.I. additions/changes could be covered with an Actions palette. If implimented properly (similar to Photoshops or even better) this would allow user recordable actions, and present them as buttons, for almost every concievable operation.

[pauland]

what appears to me to be an acceptable discussion of facts may appear to others as me being pushy or know-it-all.

Sadly that does sum up a large part of your posts, which tend to be lectures rather than concise points. I've been accused of exactly the same.

I don't know what era you live in, but programmers these days generally do as they told and may have a UI dictated to them..

[DukeofThomas]

If you want to nudge the size up you can click on the box then use your arrow keys...

Are the ... meant to imply that this was obvious?
If it was obvious I would have done it...

[DukeofThomas]

I use many different programs during any given day. I find the difference in the various interfaces refreshing. I'm not stuck seeing the same alignment icons between the development environment, drawing application, icon editor, word processor, database, and spreadsheet programs.

It makes me know I'm not an automaton churning out code, graphics, documentation and data.

At least I think I'm not an automaton

It does exercise the few brain cells I have left

That's all very well and good for you as an individual, but how do bad user interfaces affect the millions of people who have to use them every day? How many millions of hours per year are completely wasted, all because of the Programmers' Dictatorship? That affects you! It affects all of us.
I take no pleasure in using bad interfaces. Different interfaces is another matter. It's quite possible for one program to use a different way of doing things from another, especially in the list you gave.

[pauland]

About the 'nudge' : Yes, I get caught out like this too..

[Soquili]

Different interfaces is another matter. It's quite possible for one program to use a different way of doing things from another, especially in the list you gave.

All the programs in the list have drawing features, it seems every type of program wants to be a drawing application


If you ask ten people what is the perfect interface you will receive ten different answers. Increase the number by 10, 100, 1000, etc.

We all seem to agree that interfaces are not perfect and things should be changed. The problem appears to get a concensus of what changes should be made.

Saying that the programmers are to blame doesn't solve the problem and if they are reading this may delay some resolution to the problem (only kidding).

Programmers work for their employer and work within the design parameters set forth for the project they are assigned. Changes to an established interface are often discussed almost endlessly in meetings. Often the changes may require changes to other modules within the overall program.

To say that a change should be minor and can be implemented easily isn't something that anyone can say without a thorough examination of the source code.

So, our discussion here may help us spend some free time and provide some feedback to the Xara Group Ltd. development staff. It is very obvious that no changes can be made overnight.



With the pending important announcement about a Xara product, we can only wait and hope for now.

[DukeofThomas]

Well, I have to disagree Bill. I don't think you will get 1,000 different answers from 1,000 different people about, for example, the alignment box in Xtreme.
I don't think there ARE 1,000 different ways of doing it!
You're making the problem out to be much bigger than it is! I only wanted a few really simple things changed: images that look like arrows changed into buttons (bigger buttons at that). This isn't rocket science. It's easy as pie. It's contained within Windows itself, just use the Windows standard interface buttons. The same goes for the buttons in the gallery dialogues: who decided to use a very small font like that, that looks nothing like the rest of Windows? What purpose does it serve? Surely it was MORE difficult to implement a non-standard font than to use the standard Windows ones? Who is using a 200 x 100 pixel display?

To say that a change should be minor and can be implemented easily isn't something that anyone can say without a thorough examination of the source code.

I can say it. How difficult do you think it is for the programmers of Xara to generate, for example, a dialogue box with some buttons in it? About as easy as pie! The user interface has parameters within the program, so all that is required is to change those parameters: i.e. if the code for an arrow makes it 4 pixels by 4 pixels, simply edit the code to make it 8 x 8 pixels. How difficult can that be? It's not as if this is difficult stuff.

The problems are down to design, not programming skills or the lack thereof.
I think you're fudging the issue with the idea that there can be more than three or four ways of presenting a given interface element. It's not as complicated as that.

[DukeofThomas]

If you want to nudge the size up you can click on the box then use your arrow keys...

Does this only work in Xtreme?
In X1, when I select the text and click on the font size drop down menu, I can't make it go from 10pt to 11pt to 12pt, etc.
Can you explain a bit more?

[remi]

Does this only work in Xtreme?
In X1, when I select the text and click on the font size drop down menu, I can't make it go from 10pt to 11pt to 12pt, etc.
Can you explain a bit more?

As I said before in another thread, you are using an old piece of software (from 2004).