Re: [libreoffice-design] Re: The Sidebar Problem

Daniel,

Considering the good work that the design team implemented in other areas
such as the new Start screen, the new icon theme, among other things I am
certain that if everyone decided to push in the same direction and refine
the Sidebar, it would truly make Libre Office shine.

Not only that but it would bring the LO to a more efficient UI paradigm. In
my opinion, it's just a great opportunity for the LO design team to grab
something, give it their own twist to make it their own and make LO stand
out against competing office suites instead of being "that open-source
office suite taht imitates Microsoft Office 2003".

I don't think that you guys should be timid and the Sidebar and the new
icon theme should ship as default UI in 4.3 or 4.4. It's the work and
contribution of a lot of people and would mark an evolution of LO and
finally a complete break from the Open Office past not only in terms of
code-base and licenses but also on the UI. Using those two elements and
working on them would make LO and its community stand on its own.
And the fact is that people will only notice the great work and
contribution of the LO design team if those items ship as default with LO.
The traditional toolbars may still be present, just not as default.

Also, right now with the changes that are occurring in the computing world
people are way more receptive to try different things than a few years ago.
Thank iOS and Android and the touch software developed for them for that
change in behaviour from the users.



On Sat, Mar 29, 2014 at 8:09 AM, Daniel Hulse <simplecontrast@gmail.com>wrote:

> Thanks Rosmaninho.
>
> You're right--this really isn't a new concept. Sidebars like ours are
> particularly familiar from graphics editing software like Photoshop and
> GIMP. LibreOffice wouldn't be the first office software to use it, either.
> Kingsoft Office, the Calligra suite, and iWork all use sidebars.
>
> Currently, LibreOffice's UI is more-or-less follows the paradigm of Office
> 2003. This made sense in the past, when Office 2003 was the dominant office
> suite, because it benefited users for them to have a near carbon-copy
> replacement of the suite they already knew how to use. Now, six years after
> Office 2007 arrived with the ribbon, the fundamentals of LibreOffice's
> interface still use this paradigm. Things have changed, though, and will
> continue to change. The ribbon is widespread and common--it's in nearly all
> Microsoft software, and has even made it into other software like AutoCAD.
> The traditional dockable-toolbar-base ui is in decline as major software
> companies are finding new paradigms to fit their needs.
>
> That being said, I don't think implementing a ribbon is the best idea for
> LibreOffice. Many of our existing users use LibreOffice /because/ it
> doesn't
> use a ribbon, and implementing one would likely alienate them. In addition,
> ribbons don't work so well in desktop environments with a global menu, like
> OSX and Ubuntu. Finally, it would be a bad symbolic gesture and would
> probably keep us from ever following the GNOME HIG.
>
> I've identified why the ui paradigm needs to evolve and why we can't use a
> ribbon. So, in order to keep LibreOffice relevant, we need to either make
> up
> a totally new ui paradigm or copy an existing one. Making up a new ui
> paradigm is both difficult and has a likelihood of being difficult and
> contrived, so at least taking inspiration from existing paradigms should be
> a given. This leads us back to Kingsoft Office, the Calligra Suite, and
> iWork. While the Kingsoft suite oddly uses both a sidebar and a ribbon,
> both
> the Calligra Suite and iWork have fully-functioning user interfaces based
> off of a sidebar, a status bar, a single toolbar, and a menu. Thanks to
> Lotus Suite's donation of the sidebar, officially implementing an interface
> like this right now would be simple.
>
> Unfortunately, the sidebar in LibreOffice as it is today has some problems
> and needed refinements, but implementing it would mark the start of
> progress
> towards an interface defined not by an old piece of Microsoft software, but
> by deliberate decisions by the ux and design teams.
>
> Daniel.
>
>
>
>
> --
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> http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/The-Sidebar-Problem-tp4094331p4103408.html
> Sent from the Design mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
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