[Bf-funboard] UI talk + session at bconf

[Bassam Kurdali]

> But for more complex changes there's often issues that only come up
> once the implementation is being done. I just find it a very rare
> thing for even experienced users to think about the implications and
> trade-offs of the features they request until you point them out. I
> don't know if that's just because they aren't expected to think about
> those things or because they don't have the insight into things that
> you have as a developer looking at the code.
> 
+1
Every UI design is a trade off. Which is why I think a lot of the
lurking users get a little bit alarmed by rapid fire proposals that are
pretty wide, touching every aspect of blender in ways that are not at
all skin deep. Since we're talking a bit about process , here are some
modest proposals:

0- Module owner who can make more global UI decisions. I nominate Ton at
the time being; but it needs to be somebody who is *really* familiar
with blender, knows how to design interaction, and is trusted by a
majority of the community.
1- If we discuss a UI change in funboard or so, only discuss one UI
change per thread if we can help it- this means not starting 'grab bag'
threads, and not hijacking threads for pet changes.
2- Propose Cons as well as Pros of your change. if it is not just an
obvious fix, see if you can find some Pros as well as Cons in 'the
current way'.
3- Be more willing to approach non-controversial improvements. Such as: 

*adding drag and drop to item re-ordering tasks (modifiers, animation
channels, constraints, generic ui lists...) 

*picking a particularly clumsy but limited section of UI and redesigning
(such as the background image panel, which requires way too many clicks
to add an image to the background of the 3D view) etc.

*find an area that acts buggy/poorly designed in many cases, and seeing
if it should be fixed or removed (the Add menu in the Info Header for
instance)

*find an area which was planned/ToDo but never finished fully, and see
if it can be helped by a more detailed proposal.

*If a developer is working actively on a feature, see if they want help
with design/feedback (including a UI feature such as UILists
improvements)

4- Don't copy features or interactions from Maya. ;)

Sorry for the overlong email, 
Bassam