ingimp: A Smorgasbord of Usability, Adaptive UIs, and Visually Arresting Graphic Design for 2009

2 Responses to “ingimp: A Smorgasbord of Usability, Adaptive UIs, and Visually Arresting Graphic Design for 2009”

• alex

  May 26, 2009 at 3:08 pm

  I think the proposed enhancements regarding Task Sets and the four modal buttons/tabs on top of gimp toolbox are headed in the right direction, but as-implemented in the video are not optimal.

  It’s good that you’ve identified different Task Sets that people want to achieve, but I think a key detail that has perhaps been overlooked is that although different people do require different Task Sets, the same *low-gimp-expertise* users will likely require the *same* Task Set. I.e. Alice *mostly* uses gimp to do photo re-touching. Bob *mostly* uses gimp to create web icons. There are obviously plenty of users who are exceptions, but we are talking about simplifying the functionality for less advanced gimp users.

  I would consider having the Task Sets appear when you are creating a new image. Sort of like Opera Speed-dial. Or how k3b has those big buttons when you first start it. So you open a new gimp window (or use the existing always-open window) and there are big buttons for each Task Set inside the empty image window, with plenty of room to descibe what each Task Set does.

  In addition, if you had all the different Task Sets displayed in the right-click menu (and their associated related Tasks/Commands at a sub-menu level), then you could simply use the menu detach functionality (the thing that happens when you click the ————– in the right-click menus up the top), to pop-out the relevant Task Set. Voila a handy palette of Task related commands.

  Anyway just some food for thought. I also like the idea of having *moderated* user-generated wiki-style documentation. Good luck with that But the four button thing on top of the gimp toolbox is a monster. IMO.

  Cheers,
  Alex

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• Nemes Ioan Sorin

  October 15, 2009 at 7:48 pm

  http://www.bohemiancoding.com/drawit/index.html

  please check the movies at bottom of the page (marques with a quicktime icon) there are perfect examples of a task based work-flow

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