Re: [libreoffice-design] Thoughts about UI

Hi and thanks for your answer, I will comment a lot ;)

Am 03.07.2012 17:56, schrieb Mirek M.:
> On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 5:34 PM, Mirek M. <mazelm@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi Florian,
> >
> > On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 6:45 PM, Florian Reisinger <reisi007@gmail.com>wrote:
> >
> > > Hi!
> > >
> > > I really don't know whether there had been any discussion in the past,
> > > but I want to share 2 blogpost of mine to you. I really hope you like that
> > > ideas ;)
> > >
> > > 1. 
> > > http://flosmind.wordpress.com/**2012/06/20/libreoffice-ui-**prosposal/<http://flosmind.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/libreoffice-ui-prosposal/>
> > > 2. http://flosmind.wordpress.com/**2012/07/02/libreoffice-ui-**
> > > prosposal-2/<http://flosmind.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/libreoffice-ui-prosposal-2/>
> > > 3. http://flosmind.wordpress.com/**2012/07/02/libreoffice-ui-**
> > > prosposal-2a/<http://flosmind.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/libreoffice-ui-prosposal-2a/>
> >
> > It's funny -- a couple of years ago, I was thinking the exact same thing:
> > make a very flexible UI so anyone may customize the suite to their
> > liking. Over time, though, my ideas have evolved. I realized that simply
> > giving all the options does not make a good UI -- on the contrary, it makes
> > the UI hard to maintain and opens up a door to various usability bugs that
> > can arise from deep customization.
You are, of course, right but my thoughts (at least to me) are not a " 
giving everyone a bunch of options".
In fact the "Ribbon UI" can be created easily, because there are only 2 
things missing:
a) larger icons [Which should not be a blocker]
b) The icons are ought to be arranged in a specivic area freely --> 
Maximum on personalization; minimum afford ;)

The major change is, that the toolbars on the top are not displayed 
anymore, which means that there should be no toolbar anymore [if someone 
is just writing.] Most of the time a specific set of function are 
needed. So we have two approaches:

a) Try to get the user to create a toolbar (toolbars) with the menus 
he/she needs
b) Do a "start" toolbar, which is in fact that what we currently have ;) 
, expect the opportunity to hide that ( The hide affects all toolbars on 
the top...)

So now you might be asking: What does he want to do with all the other 
toolbars??

The answer is simple: Nothing - currently.
If someone has the time to add a context sensitive toolbar to the Ribbon 
menu it would be nice, of course, but not a must...


Hm, IMHO: If you are changing something it won't be perfect from the 
very beginning....


> > Generally, giving lots of options tends
> > to result in many sub-par UI options instead of one excellent, polished
> > option. We don't want the user to have to waste time making the UI work
> > well for him. We want the UI to work well for him from the get-go.
> >
> > So, if you really want to help us improve the UI, a good start would be
> > analyzing the weaknesses of the current UI and possible ways to improve
> > them. We don't really have developers who would be willing to use their
> > time for UI improvements yet,
Because we didn't have a fantasic idea yet ( Okay, at least I missed the 
idea...)

> >
> Sorry, I accidentally hit send prematurely.
Never mind ;)

> As I was saying, developers aren't very much interested in UI work right
> now, so a grand restructuring of the whole UI is out of the question. UI
> changes need to be incremental and well thought-out.
Okay, I don't know weather my idea is well thought-out now ( Sometimes 
it will be our idea, but see it as a start ;)), but IMHO the changes can 
be incremental ;)

>   Given that LibreOffice
> is cross-platform, it's preferable to stick to each platform's default
> theme as closely as possible (with the exception of Windows, on which MS
> itself tends to not follow the default theme)
LOL, didn't know that's true
> and we need to maintain a
> menu bar at least for Ubuntu and Mac OS X.
In my idea we still have that ( Ribbon is a option, but IMHO the UI 
should get some favourites, quick ;))

>   It's also probably best to stick
> with toolbars, given that they're basically universal across platforms
> (unlike ribbons or sidebars) and tend to be the only "action containers" on
> modern mobile platforms.

To be honest: The UI for a mobile platform and the one for desktop users 
should be poles apart from each other... I can't see the point of Win8 
[havn't tried yet] it simply is (sorry for the sharp word) stupid to 
want someone to use something with a mouse or a fingere at the same time...
> That said, there are a lot of things we could do better.
+1 totally agree
> The current
> menu/toolbar/dialog system is a maze and makes it very tiring to accomplish
> certain tasks. The current organization is messy, illogical, and
> unnecessarily complex. I'll be starting an effort to rework the Options
> dialog -- perhaps that's something you might want to help with.

Of course, but only with rough drawing with sharp ideas behind ;)
To be honest: I can't draw at all ;)
BTW: Link please

> Be sure to check out our wiki (https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design)
> for ways you can help out. You can talk to us this Saturday on our IRC
> chat: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Meetings

Looking forward for your comments

--
Florian Reisinger


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