[Bf-funboard] Re: Large Blender UI improvement proposal

[William Reynish]

I'm sorry about my choise of words. It came out badly.
Didn't mean to sound so worked up, I wasn't trying to
aim anything at you. Sorry. 

I agree very much your idea about having a good and
easy to find help/knowledge system. That would make
learining Blender much much easier. I think there
should be a small(ish) html (not pdf because thay take
up too much space, and a browser is much more common
to have than Acrobat Reader) document with the
installation, accesable form the Help menu. The Help
menu could also link to a place on blender3d.com which
had tutorials and help listed in order of dificulty.



OK, I went over the top in my argumentation I see now!
But anyway, I still think as much as possible things
should make as much sence as they can from within the
interface. This doesn't have to comprimize
efficientcy. Changing names certinately won't halt
efficientcy, It'll just make the learning curvea whole
lot smoother.




William



 --- ph <hidarikiki@gmx.net> skrev: > 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: William Reynish <wreynish@yahoo.dk>
> To: <bf-funboard@blender.org>
> Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2003 11:41 PM
> Subject: Re: [Bf-funboard] Re: Large Blender UI
> improvement proposal
> 
> 
> > I urge you to use common sence.
> 
> I normally do. Please do not exaggerate my points to
> extremes.
> 
> > Don't mean to be sarcastic, but what your argument
> > really seems to say:
> >
> > That all functions in Blender should be called
> > "Function 1", "Function 2" and so on, the names
> are
> > not important because you can just go through
> > tutorials and find out what's what.
> >
> > We could call the 3d window "Funny hat from
> Berlin",
> > or write all the names backwards with greek
> letters..
> >
> never said that. But I cannot understand that
> 'Grabber' is equal to
> 'function 1' or 'Funny hat from Berlin'
> >
> > I know there IS a way to find out what a function
> > means, but try searching for "IPO" in the Blender
> > forum.
> 
> I rather try to search for that in the online
> documentation at blender.org.
> 
> >It will take you quite a while to find what the
> > name stands for, and even longer to find out what
> it
> > is used for! Some functions though, are pretty
> much
> > impossible to find (like the Shift+F camera)in the
> > forums even if you KNOW it is there! Imagine being
> a
> > newbie... I mean, if you don't know what to search
> for
> > it will be much harder!
> >
> 
> Yes, but that proves that the way of documenting is
> not newbie-friendly yet.
> A complex 3d application cannot compensate that.
> 
> 
> > There is no reason why not to use naming that
> regular
> > people can understand. You shouldn't have to look
> > every feature up. A good interface is as
> > selfexplanetory as possible.
> >
> 
> As Ton stated:
> All major 3d programs have naming weirdness, and
> none of these will
> ever copy the conventions from others.
> I totally agree with Ton's opinion on that one.
> Apart from that, in my opinion, a good interface is
> as efficient as
> possible. That should be goal #1. Everything else is
> second place.
> 
> > And you know what, most people will try tutorials,
> but
> > very few will try EVERY tutorial there is.
> 
> Haven't demanded that.
> 
> >You are
> > likely to go through a few and then experiment for
> > youself. Even if you think people should not, that
> is
> > what the majority do.
> 
> I do not think that.
> 
> >And if the names are too far
> > away from what they can understand, most will not
> > continue learning the application, because the
> > interface starts to get in the way of your work
> (You
> > get stuck because the names don't make sence).
> Some
> > will continue however, and that is you and me and
> the
> > rest of us at elysiun. But we could be hundreds
> and
> > thousands more Blender users if a few things were
> > adressed..
> >
> 
> So 'Interpolation window' and 'grabber' do not make
> sense? Strange that I
> didn't notice. The more so as I am not a native
> speaker. Again I say, the
> problem is that the user runs unguided into Blender.
> If you let that happen,
> the user will either search for documentation or
> more probably abandon the
> application. You won't alter that by renaming. You
> just will not. A user
> that runs unguided into Blender is very likely a
> lost user that switches to
> another application.
> 
> 
> > You have got to remember the importance in
> choosing
> > good names. You see, what is the point in having
> > (insert great feature here) if only few knows it
> > exists?
> >
> again a documentation issue.
> 
> So my suggestion still is: two levels of
> documentation: Level one: a small
> set of structured tutorials that are not scattered
> over the net but are
> presented right before the blender download area and
> at other places and
> Level 2: the already existing extensive
> documentation to provide further
> background knowledge after the first contact is
> done.
> 
> There is a multitude of places where such a
> tutorialset can be recommended.
> On the major download areas, on the splash screen,
> inside a help menu etc.
> 
> by the way: do you claim that flight mode is not
> widely known, because it is
> badly named?
> 
> Peter
> 
> 
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