Can I say how much I hate.. ?

**WolfMoonHP** · 13 November 2006, 08:50 PM

Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

Top ~ Good design ~ Everythings available

Bottom ~ Everythings hidden ~ Bad design

Oh yea?

Egg...Your example is WAY too funny. Maybe I'm strange, but I really prefer my work surface to be relatively uncluttered. Sometimes it takes an extreme example to really point out the inherent fallacy of an argument.

I actually like the Xara interface and the fact that the galleries stay hidden. And I close each one immediately after use.
---
Will

**Egg Bramhill** · 13 November 2006, 09:19 PM

Yes Will,

That was my attempt at sarcasm.

I detest clutter - I loathe docking bars (at least docking bars that dock of their own free will) - I don't want palletes and galleies all over the screen - I want to draw - I want the biggest possible page area to draw in.

You got it Raymond!

**pauland** · 13 November 2006, 10:22 PM

Maybe you just need a bigger (or a second) monitor, Egg.

**Egg Bramhill** · 13 November 2006, 10:26 PM

Paul,

Because I use Flash so much I upgraded from my one 21" to a dual monitor display. It's the only way to work comfortably in Flash.

**pauland** · 13 November 2006, 10:29 PM

Egg, I guess I wasn't too sympathetic at the start about the clutter - I'm definitely not now! Lucky you.

Your display width is a mere 25" wider than mine..

**Big Frank** · 14 November 2006, 07:44 AM

I have just upgraded from twin 15s to twin 19s. When you have used twin monitors for a while (I have for about 5 years) it is impossible to go back to a single setup. I have a 17" wide-screen laptop set at 1280 x 768 and it's still too small to use comfortably for any length of time because of the screen real estate I am used to. Twin 21s sounds like heaven!!!

**DukeofThomas** · 14 November 2006, 08:19 AM

Originally Posted by Joe Skeesick

hehehhehehe...... whew , that's a good one.

oh wait, you were serious....

Don't try to speak for other people. User interface IS really easy to do well - why do you say otherwise?
We are talking about SOFTware here, so it's very easy to change the implementation of the interface. Unfortunately, that requires the ability to think, and to empathise. Something a lot of programmers are incapable of. Oh, and the ability to admit you're wrong, and to try a new method.

**DukeofThomas** · 14 November 2006, 08:24 AM

Originally Posted by Soquili

DukeofThomas everyone is free to express their opinion of the tools within Xara Xtreme.

Is there anything about Xara Xtreme or any of their products that you do like?

Yes, but why is this like a religion with some of you? Can't you stand any criticism of 'your' program? It's a bit pathetic. How do you suggest it is improved, if nobody is allowed to criticise it?

I like X1's bevels, and that's about it. Nothing else about it, that I use, is any better than PhotoImpact. I don't like the design of the user interface, I don't like the obsessive use of drop down menus, which means thousands of unnecessary mouse clicks, and frustration, because you are unnecessarily having to pinpoint tiny parts of the screen to select things. The up/down and left/right arrows that are on the screen are absolutely minute, and terrible design. The lack of up/down arrows for zoom and border thickness are bad design. The alignment box is badly designed. All of these things are EASY to fix, but because it's almost a religion for some people, they won't be changed. In other words, the person who designed them lacked empathy for other people, and also can't stand being 'wrong', so can't admit their design isn't the best for the task at hand.

Like I said, user interface design is EASY, you only have to get it right ONCE, and that's it. Change it, try different things, show it to as many people as possible, listen to what they say, and improve it, until the maximum number of people find it the easiest and quickest to use.

**Intbel** · 14 November 2006, 08:34 AM

D of T : Which programme do you think has an intuitive, user-friendly interface while giving complete control and 100% accurate editability?

**DukeofThomas** · 14 November 2006, 08:41 AM

Originally Posted by Intbel

D of T : Which programme do you think has an intuitive, user-friendly interface while giving complete control and 100% accurate editability?

So your argument is that because no other programme is perfect, we shouldn't criticise X1 or Xtreme?
It doesn't wash.
PhotoImpact has a better user interface (for me), but it isn't perfect. X1 and Xtreme have BIG problems in their user interface, and BAD design problems in their user interface. Why don't they make the up/down left/right arrows even smaller? How about one pixel by one pixel? So it's REALLY difficult to click on them? Why don't they put a game of Tetris inside the alignment box, so that every time you click on a drop down menu, you first have to play one round of Tetris before you can click on the option you want? Do you see what I'm getting at? There is a REASON they don't do this, but they HAVE partially done something like both of these things: they have made the up/down left/right arrows REALLY small (I've never seen any program use arrows so small, in a long time), which makes them MORE difficult to click on. That's a fact. They made the alignment box REALLY slow and cumbersome to use, for no reason at all. They aren't interested in changing these things (i.e. fixing them and improving the user experience). What a surprise! Those who design things badly also refuse to change them. If they had the mental ability to change things in the FIRST place, they wouldn't have designed them badly in the first place.