[Bf-funboard] Default file changes?

[jonathan ferguson]

hi.

On Oct 13, 2008, at 9:23 PM, Nathaniel Dickerson wrote:

> I was a 3dsmax max user for 4 years and could not figure blender out  
> due to the "windows types" It took me even longer to figure out that  
> you can scroll vertically through the "Buttons" windows if you put  
> it vertically... has someone written a 3dsmax to blender guide? Or  
> maybe a better title might be Getting things done in blender for Max  
> users? don't get me wrong once I "unlearned" Max BLENDER ROCKS!

> On Oct 13, 2008, at 7:43 PM, Sangwoo Hong wrote:
>
>> Same here.  I sometimes press Blender keyboard shortcuts when I'm  
>> inside
>> other packages because I'm so used to a set of key presses getting  
>> me to
>> what I want to do instead of pressing some icons or making sure to  
>> drag
>> certain parts of widges/manipulators.

FYI: what you're describing here is called Habituation [0] in the  
Usability language. For example: If you switch your keyboard from  
QWERTY (inefficient) to DVORAK [1] (much better) it takes quite a  
while to relearn how to type. For a gentler experience, switch mousing  
hands. :)

The same habituation hurdle exists any time you switch to a different  
app. I've thought about this issue a fair bit, and the core issue I  
see is that no matter what, Blender's UI is... Blender. Blender has  
very different ways of working than other 3D apps. I feel that many of  
Blender's innovations are quite remarkable. I love the fact that I can  
select (and that Blender kindly *remembers* that selection for me)  
then hit one of a wide variety of keyboard-key based tools (which un- 
clutter the UI) to act on that selection. I also love the fact that  
Blender acknowledges that I have more than one input device at my  
disposal--- there is no need to do everything with a pointer--- I have  
a keyboard too, and it is useful.

On selection: Try working in a 2D app such as Inkscape [2] or Adobe  
Illustrator or Flash after using Blender for a while. Make a complex  
selection--- and then lose it with a stray click--- did it remember it  
for you? Do you have to go back and do all of that work again?  
Selecting is often time consuming--- more so in 3D than 2D.

If one were to run a CPM-GOMS [3] evaluation on Blender, I think it  
would fare very well in comparison to other 3D apps. CPM-GOMS counts  
the number of clicks, drags, key presses and time to access functions.  
I haven't done this evaluation yet, but I'm quite sure that Blender's  
cost to do work is really quite low. The biggest problem is making  
Blender approachable to switchers--- a set of default files for each  
"switching from" application might be best--- but to really change the  
inputs for Blender we'll have to wait until after the 2.50 re-factor.

In my experience, the key difficulties are largely conceptual: How do  
I apply a UV texture? for example.  Indeed, changing the default file  
may or may not help with some of those conceptual difficulties. You  
may certainly alter the default file when you are trying to teach  
people, and bundle that into your installations, or refer people to  
one you've created--- but I argue that doing so would be a disservice  
to switchers unless the official default file is changed--- or unless  
such a customization of the default file is easy to discover (ie, on  
the main download page).

Of the preferences you point out, I too have seen many people balk at  
the "strangeness" of selecting with the right click, spinning things  
around in trackball mode, and adding objects with align to view turned  
on (this has changed for 2.48, btw.)

As you may already recognize, Blender starts out with a simple cube  
because that's the most likely way that modelers trained in the art of  
"Box Modeling" will start [4]. As you all may have discovered, after  
modeling for a while, that 3D cursor is very important--- and deserves  
a place up-front and center--- so I fall squarely in the "keep it the  
way it is" camp on the mouse buttons. I tried switching for a while,  
and the tutorials were impossible to follow--- I would forget that I  
had switched the buttons.

Finally, to further argue that the Default File not be changed for  
mouse buttons: placing selection and other actions on a "non-standard"  
button accomplishes a very important thing: It teaches new users to  
*select with care.* Those who are coming from a different 3D app, I'm  
sure, have already learned the importance of selecting with care. New  
users, however, are just a different audience altogether.

OK. Probably too much for now.

Thanks for listening.

have a day.yad
jdpf


[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habituation
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard
[2] http://www.inkscape.org/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPM-GOMS
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_modeling

>