[Bf-funboard] UI talk + session at bconf

[Karl Kühberger]

Am 24.09.2013 um 05:21 schrieb Bassam Kurdali <bassam at urchn.org>:

> I think this is an exhausting way to have a discussion. There are a lot
> of good points here but they should have seperate threads, not a grab
> bag of 'some thoughts, not thought through'.
> Some of these are great, some are probably getting lost in the noise.

100% agree!

I know there is another place for UI/Feature proposals. 
Probably it is too far from the normal user, it attracts more the developer.
But to make Blender more user-friendly and intuitive it is necessary to
get more feedback from the users. I remember the reactions when I
asked for a Undo/Redo feature in the "stone age" of Blender and later
when I asked for a Snapping feature. Some developers at that time didn't
understand the basic necessity for this features ;-)
Now it is better, but there is still a too big gap between developers and
users.

Principally I think Blender should become more standard and only 
keep UI differences which are really of advantage for a faster workflow.
Blender should not stick to traditionally Blender typical behaviour. 
It is no shame to adept solutions from other apps if they already have
proved as useful and became something like a standard.

A typical "Holy Gral" of Blender is selection by right-click.
To stick with this non-standard quirk Blender cannot make use of context-
menus using right-click.
It was said many times here and it is of fundamental importance:
The user wants to do something with an object. Now the user must already
know where to find all the possible commands (some are in the menu bars,
others in the tool shelf, others in the properties etc.
As a Blender teacher I often noticed that a beginner left-clicks an object, but
it does not react. Then he right-clicks and it is selected but there is no context-
menu appearing as the user probably is expecting.

A context-menu could show all possibilities (context-sensitive) at a glance,
like: Edit, Add Material, Add Modifier, Add Constraint, Copy, Delete, Set Origin, ...

This object-oriented way would make the learning curve for beginners less steep.
And I am sure, it would be quite easy for us Blender veterans to get used to the new way.
We are already used this way by using other applications.

Sorry for my bad English!

Cheers,
Karl