Re: [libreoffice-design] [UX] - Big Picture [was: LibreOffice Toolbar Usability Interface ...]

Hi Bernhard, Jared, *

I want to add some thoughts from a expert users and also users support 
perspective:

Am 17.05.2011 15:38, schrieb Bernhard Dippold:
> Hi Jared, all,
>
> one of the mails still marked as to-be-replied-to, but never found the
> time - sorry!
>
> Jared Meidal schrieb:
> > Because I like the “big picture” I would like to make some comments
> > to help me, and perhaps others, formulate the trajectory and
> > philosophy for the UX future of LibreOffice. [...]
...
> During the last months we had a few discussions with developers on
> customization and options.
...

> Even from UX point of view it might not be as easy as you describe:
> An average user will not change the UI - either he likes it and can work
> with it or he can't (and stops using the product). That's why the
> standard configuration is more important in my eyes than any possible
> customization.
>
> You're right that there are different user groups with different needs
> that might be addressed with a specialized UI.
>
> ...
>
> My take is:
>
> What we need is an easy way to create extensions for UI customization.
>
> This way the standard theme can be overridden by an extension with a
> different theme or with an additional customization tool. Toolbar
> content, size and positioning, docking and context sensitivity (probably
> the most problematic part) can be defined there.
>
> But we should keep in mind:
>
> One of the main advantages of LibreOffice is it's platform independency.
> On each of the operating systems People can work with LibreOffice in the
> same way - mainly because the position of their toolbars, menu entries
> and buttons are similar among Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
>
> We definitely should keep this behavior for the standard theme.
>
> Defining this theme will be one of the most important tasks for us
> during the years to come, and we will have to hear on our user base very
> closely...

First of all: Platform independency is one of the most important 
features of LibO, so it's important for further development. And may be, 
it's an starting point to define the standard theme: From my point of 
view it has to be as simple as possible - like an editor for a wiki or 
another web tool.

This basis toolbar then could be customize by additional tools for 
different users needs. Might by groups of icons or other.
But from my point of view a clear and consistent handling is essential!
At present functions could accessed by mouseclick, by toolbars (icons), 
by menu (with mouseclicks or with shortcuts), ... But not all functions 
could be accessed in all ways. Here I missed consistency very often. The 
biggest problem are (more or less) new functions, which are only 
accessible in one way (e.g. some table formattings in writer only by 
mouse menu). I don't see a need for accessing all functions by all ways. 
But for further concepts - from my point of view - I prefer at least one 
way, really every function could be accessed. So that, if I (or another 
user) search for an 'advanced' function, it's clear how to search for 
it. Because I think, nobody is able to remember all functions of one 
module or all modules, so it would be a good way to make the search easy ;-)

just my 2 cents

kind regards
        Irmhild





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