Re: [libreoffice-design] The Sidebar Problem

On 03/20/2014 12:22 PM, Mattias Põldaru wrote:

> Let me explain what is wrong with your picture with an analogy.
> First your case: a person walks around the city, reaches the park and
> hey, how convenient, finds a hammer on top of the fountain. Later under
> the bridge, hey, what a surprise, a nail. Off we go, got some work to do!
>
> Now let's assume the person actually want's to find a hammer and a few
> nails. First place to look for both is a hardware store. Where is the
> hardware store? Probably the best one is where all the building material
> stores are. There might still be one hammer in the park and a few nails
> under the bridge but these are useless.
>
> The same is true for software.

Consider an actual scenario that plays out regularly:

The local hardware store is running a sale on brand x product, in the 
case hammers, and stocks a point-of-purchase display near the entrance. 
 A customer in need of a hammer enters through the garden section and 
proceeds directly to the tools section.  The customer doesn't find a 
hammer that meets his needs, so she leaves empty-handed and a bit 
frustrated. At best the retailer has lost a sale. At worst the customer 
learns that the retailer isn't a reliable source and starts shopping 
elsewhere.

Smart retailers make sure products can be found where customers expect 
them, even if that means stocking two locations.

Now to a point I was thinking about yesterday regarding the use of 
icons. Years ago I taught classes on the use of basic office software. 
Mostly I taught Microsoft Excel, Word, Powerpoint and Outlook. I quickly 
learned that it's very difficult to teach people by showing them icons. 
Fortunately, Microsoft had spent a lot of money studying software 
usability. Microsoft applications at that time took a systematic 
approach.  Any given command might be accessed through the menu, by 
clicking on a button or by using a shortcut key combination.  The entry 
in the menu displayed an icon, the command name, and the shortcut 
combination (assuming it had all three). Any buttons on the interface 
displayed the associated icon from the menu.

I taught my students to find the command in the menu first. Once they 
found that they could find the corresponding button or learn to use the 
shortcut keys. Buttons and shortcuts improve productivity, but menus are 
where people find the option first.

Since introducing the ribbons, Microsoft interfaces have become much 
more difficult to navigate. Now we have to search help or hover the 
mouse over the buttons trying to find the right one. I would strongly 
suggest that Libreoffice not abandon the menu interface with icons. It 
should always be an option.

On a side note I'd like to see one improvement to how applications do 
menus.  I'd like to see an autocomplete menu where users can find the 
command they're looking for. Something where you could type "print" and 
it would show all the printing commands. Each command would display the 
associated icon, the shortcut, link to help and (maybe in a popup) 
provide the menu path and any context menu paths.

Derek Cooper
Continental PC

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