[Bf-committers] Current state of Blender's user experience

[Duaret Ramos Sapo]

Despair not, haters are always much more vocal than pleased users who 
generally lie in the shadows happily busy with your software.

I was a regular 3Ds Max and in recent years fully migrated to Blender 
professionally. And not just because it's free, I've been using Blender 
for quite a few years now and really really enjoy it's user interface 
and flexibility, and find it far superior in many ways despite it's 
known shortcomings and limitations.

I think much of the hate comes from the fact that Blender is "a bit 
different" and breaks some conventions and usual ways of doing stuff, 
but I think that is also where lies its biggest strength.
I generally enjoy helping people and beginners with Blender around the 
internet (Blender Stack Exchange Google Plus comunity etc.), curiously 
one pattern I've been finding (very) frequently and funny enough 
mentioned it recently to someone 
<https://plus.google.com/104560331766265233154/posts/UyacHR6hEYD>:

 1. Beginner starts learning Blender
 2. Where the f* is feature X?
 3. Frustrate > Rage quit
 4. Ask around the internet
 5. Who the hell thought that??
 6. I would have never figured it out on my own...
 7. Hum, well it kinda' makes sense
 8. In retrospect I actually quite like it
 9. Actually this is far better than before! how was I living without this??

Not to say it can't be improved, god knows every use as it's (long) 
feature wishlist, but as it stands I would chose Blender over the 
competition any time.


On 22-04-2016 12:49, Owen Hogarth II wrote:
> I'd also like to chime in on the icon heavy ui, I think it would probably
> be more trouble than it's worth. Blender is like vim and I use both vim and
> blender, but I agree with Fabien.
>
> The main disadvantage I see with icon heavy software is the issue I deal
> with a lot right now. hDPI support is pretty terrible for most software on
> linux. Blender is one exception with the ui scaling things just works
> worlds better than most other software that I use on linux.
>
> Best,
> Owen
>
> On Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 7:08 PM, Doeke Wartena <doeke.wartena at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I really like blender is not Icon heavy.
>> For me the worst interfaces are the icon heavy ones.
>> The the add on for pie menu makes blender UI even more great.
>> The thing I dislike the most about blender UI is that it is a bit scroll
>> heavy. But that is the least of my worries.
>>
>> 2016-04-22 12:00 GMT+02:00 Fabien Devaux <fdev31 at gmail.com>:
>>
>>> Hi, the trick with blender is: the more you know it, the more it fits
>> you,
>>> like Vim or Emacs, there is some arch learning curve at the beginning
>>> (unlike Maya) but it definitely worth it.
>>> I follow blender since my youth, and I think this is the best OpenSource
>> as
>>> an example I can give to anyone, along with Linux.
>>> There is for sure things to be more "unified"  etc... but it's improving
>>> always and always, the blender way. I like it being different than others
>>> if not what's the point about having multiple 3D software ? I think two
>>> levels of interface could be done with current system, one very easy for
>>> people to get familiar with (mostly icon & menu based) and one "full"
>>> version (the current one) with less boilerplate on screen.... what do you
>>> think about it ?
>>>
>>> fab.
>>>
>>> Le ven. 22 avr. 2016 à 10:50, Ton Roosendaal <ton at blender.org> a écrit :
>>>
>>>> Hi Daniel,
>>>>
>>>> Blender always had a share of haters and negative feedback since the
>>> early
>>>> days.
>>>>
>>>> The most avid haters are typically the unemployed freeloaders, self
>>>> proclaimed professionals (the "I used every 3d program out there in the
>>>> past 20 years" people) and other people who never paid a dime for Maya
>> or
>>>> Max. There's also still a fair bit of contempt for anything free/open
>>>> source software in many (also professional) circles.
>>>>
>>>> The positive side is very impressive too. For example, you can find
>>>> Blender recommended on the Pixar website, and Nimble Collective (former
>>>> Dreamworks animators) invests heavily in promoting and supporting
>>> Blender:
>>>> http://www.nimblecollective.com/
>>>>
>>>> Given the fact we make Blender in an open project for less than 1% of
>> the
>>>> budget Autodesk spends on Maya or Max alone is something we can only be
>>>> incredibly proud of. We can always do better (as Piotr points out) but
>> I
>>>> would suggest to keep a relaxed and healthy mind - not waste time to
>>> please
>>>> the haters, but to keep supporting our existing and growing user base
>> and
>>>> to closely work with the top talents out there who want to be
>> positively
>>>> involved.
>>>>
>>>> -Ton-
>>>>
>>>> --------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Ton Roosendaal  -  ton at blender.org   -   www.blender.org
>>>> Chairman Blender Foundation, Producer Blender Institute/Studio
>>>> Entrepotdok 57A  -  1018AD Amsterdam  -  The Netherlands
>>>>
>>>>> On 22 Apr 2016, at 00:07, Daniel Stokes <kupomail at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Greetings,
>>>>>
>>>>> I recently came across this thread on the gamedev sub Reddit:
>>>>>
>> https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/4fs4db/why_dont_more_professional_game_studios_use_free/
>>>>>
>>>>> In that thread are several unfavorable opinions about Blender, mostly
>>>> about
>>>>> its UI/UX. I thought we had moved past the opinion of Blender's UI
>>> being
>>>>> terrible during the 2.5 time frame, so I was a bit surprised to see
>>>> several
>>>>> complaints about it. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of specific
>>>>> complaints other than "it is not the same as Maya/Max".
>>>>>
>>>>> I was curious what others on this mailing list thought about the
>>> current
>>>>> state of Blender's user experience, if something should be done to
>>>> improve
>>>>> it, and what could be done to improve it.
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>> Daniel Stokes
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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