Should Xara's interface change?

[zaphodeist]

After Xhris mentioned interfaces here [post#42] I was wondering what people think about the Xara interface.

Personally I like it (even though some call it old-fashioned ... so what?!) and although there are obvious advantages in palettes etc, I find them intrusive and confusing ... it's easy to cover the screen with them in Corel Painter if you're not careful , but because of the amount of options they're needed in the latter program. Xara, however, has a neat row of icons and a nifty toolbar relating to the tool at the top of the page. That was one of the things I liked when I first tried Xara. It just makes sense and fits Xara's slick operations

Some people would like palettes though because of the way they can work with them. Fine, what about a palettes option then??

What do you think?

[Soquili]

I like Xara's interface. For me changing the interface would detract from it's functionality.

I dislike docking menus/galleries. That is the first registry tweak I make with all new versions

[ss-kalm]

No, Xara's interface is perfect as it is! Nothing unnecessary, everything needed is right at hand without becoming obtrusive. It just works. Keep it as it is!
Other programs have pop-up menus or rollup menu's for everything. They are just in the way. PSPX for instance is just too cluttered - I dislike it's interface intensely. There's no room to actually work. Now to be honest, I may be able to disable most of it, It's just that I dislike it enough that I haven't bothered to find out how to "fix" it.

[Soquili]

In Xhris' post he mention Visual Basic 2008 Express. With minor changes/updates it is the same interface as Visual Basic 3 from 15 years ago.

I like Visual Studio's interface for writing code but not for drawing.
All Visual Studio development tools (including VB) use the same interface.

[PatentGuy]

I find it very annoying when changes are made to a program interface. I have made an investment in learning and becoming proficient with one way of working. I do not want to lose that investment just because the vendor wants to make changes.

If the change is such that there is no question that the work flow efficiency or whatever is increased, I can live with a change. But, I rarely see such changes. Many vendors change the user interface to justify selling a new version. M$ is a prime example of such a vendor.

[steve.ledger]

I'm perfectly happy with the interface and actually prefer docking galleries.
(Though I've mentioned many times about the clipart and fills galleries being much too wide. No-one is listening however )

I'm against changing it for the simply reason that if a change were implimented, Xara Xtreme may end up looking like a Magix application UI which are very 'bargain basement' in appearance.

[angelize]

No no no! I like the Xara interface just the way it is. I also like the fact that it is easy to move the buttons around and customize it. I would rather see Xara put their time and effort into improving the program itself.

[BONES]

I dislike docking menus/galleries. That is the first registry tweak I make with all new versions

What? So they won't ever dock? It doesn't worry me one way or the other as I only show them when I need them and dismiss them as soon as I'm finished with them. At least with docking I know where they will show up.

I find it very annoying when changes are made to a program interface. I have made an investment in learning and becoming proficient with one way of working. I do not want to lose that investment just because the vendor wants to make changes.

Yeah, that's is precisely why I stopped upgrading Photoshop after v5.5. They kept changing shortcuts to make it easier for newbies but it was such a total PITA that I just stopped using v6 and went back to 5.5 at work. Ultimately it made me check out the competition and decide that Corel Photopaint was actually better.

I'm perfectly happy with the interface and actually prefer docking galleries.
(Though I've mentioned many times about the clipart and fills galleries being much too wide. No-one is listening however )

You know you can resize them yourself, don't you? It won't remember the size between sessions but at least you only have to do it once per session, no matter how many times you show/hide it and if you keep them permanently docked they always stay the same size [unless you only have one docked, in which case it seems to go back to its original size].

I think Xara has one of the easiest to use UIs around. It is logical and follows a similar paradigm to many other applications, which makes it easier for newbies. What would the alternatives be? The appalling Adobe GUI? I don't think so. The only graphics GUI I can think of that I like as much is the discreet style, with a large, tabbed control pane at the bottom of the screen, but I don't find it any better than Xara's and it makes it harder to learn because it is less familiar to many people.

[steve.ledger]

You know you can resize them yourself, don't you? It won't remember the size between sessions but at least you only have to do it once per session

Yeh Bones I do know all that..
But that's simply not acceptable (to me).
They have needed fixing for a long time.
I assume it's in the too-hard-basket for now.

[remi]

Xara Xtreme's interface is easy, but it lacks some comfort and clearness in some areas. Look at the tons of posts with questions like "How can I set the background colour?" or "Why is there no CMYK mode?".

You'll find no assistents in Xara Xtreme, in order to help with complex tasks. Xara Xtreme isn't scriptable. The icons are old fashioned and the whole GUI looks like Windows 3.1 instead of Windows Vista, Mac OS X or the new KDE4.1.

Other vendors invests more time and money, in order to renovate their outfit.

Remi

btw: Where are the Buttons to create a new page?