Re: [libreoffice-design] Design Tenets Proposal

Hi, 

On Jun 19, 2011, at 0:35 , planas wrote:

> I agree about the users will need to customize the UI for their
> particular needs. This is one area where MS made a mistake with the
> Ribbon. It is not that easy to customize by the user. On problem I have
> noticed with many users is they will not experiment with many of the
> features of any software package once they get past a limited period of
> learning. They will solve problems often with an awkward work around
> never realizing there is much easier way to accomplish the task
> available. In fact most users I have seen never modified their tool bars

This is a very good point. I think that users try to learn how to use the program (including 
toolbars) as designed, and do not take a lot of time to try to "re-invent" the wheel. One major 
selling point of any software is out-of-the-box ease-of-use. The more configurable a software is, 
the more confusing. One good point was brought about (I think later in this thread) that users have 
use cases. It would be really nice to research these use-cases and then design the interface around 
the specific use case. Most IDE tools for developers have a similar approach. If we can find out 
how users are using the product - what they are doing and how - then it would be thinkable to have 
a set of basic use-cases when starting the different applications. In writer, for example, are they 
designing a brochure, writing a letter, or doing a business related tasks with graphs, tables, DB 
connections, etc....

> in the older MS Office suites. The problem is how make users aware that
> these features are available and if they need to use them regularly they
> can customize the UI to include them.

PAID COMMERCIAL for Screen-casting Team (Recruiting)  :) :
This is something I am attempting to form a project around, starting with getting a team together 
to conceptualize a CI Wrapper for training videos. So, anyone interesting in helping create a theme 
wrapper for videos to be posted at a date in the near future, help designing storyboards for said 
videos, creating raw footage, doing voiceovers, or composing intro/outro-music for said videos, 
please let me know!

///shawn


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