I find Blender an enormously frustrating program. It's clearly very powerful and I've done some nice things with it myself. But the user interface is confusing. Blender 2.5 was supposed to fix that, but it's just as confusing only in a different way. For starters, put big undo/redo buttons prominently into the interface to help people get started, and start respecting some standard UI conventions.
To some extent, I agree with you, but honestly, it's sort of a "once you get it, you never go back" sort of thing.
I guess it may seem "unintuitive" at first, but really it's all about learning the shortcuts and practicing. Once you know them, modeling in Blender is faster and more satisfying than any other modeling program that I've tried.
So... should UI's of a specialized program be designed to be easy to learn, or very efficient once learned? There are definitely arguments for each of those (and others
So... should UI's of a specialized program be designed to be easy to learn, or very efficient once learned? There are definitely arguments for each of those
Actually, it often is. As Henry Petroski lays out in the book "Small Things Considered", there is no such thing as a perfect design. All things are a compromise to some extent between various constraints and a software UI is no exception. Discoverability is great for a newbie -- it put buttons and features in front of him where he can stumble upon them when he needs them. To an expert, this is an intrusion, a waste of space that could be better used for conveying information or something else useful
"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people and that most of them
seemed to come from Texas."
- Ian Fleming, "Casino Royale"
frustrating (Score:2)
I find Blender an enormously frustrating program. It's clearly very powerful and I've done some nice things with it myself. But the user interface is confusing. Blender 2.5 was supposed to fix that, but it's just as confusing only in a different way. For starters, put big undo/redo buttons prominently into the interface to help people get started, and start respecting some standard UI conventions.
Re: (Score:2)
To some extent, I agree with you, but honestly, it's sort of a "once you get it, you never go back" sort of thing.
I guess it may seem "unintuitive" at first, but really it's all about learning the shortcuts and practicing. Once you know them, modeling in Blender is faster and more satisfying than any other modeling program that I've tried.
So... should UI's of a specialized program be designed to be easy to learn, or very efficient once learned? There are definitely arguments for each of those (and others
Re:frustrating (Score:2)
So... should UI's of a specialized program be designed to be easy to learn, or very efficient once learned? There are definitely arguments for each of those
It's not an either/or proposition.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:0)
Actually, it often is. As Henry Petroski lays out in the book "Small Things Considered", there is no such thing as a perfect design. All things are a compromise to some extent between various constraints and a software UI is no exception. Discoverability is great for a newbie -- it put buttons and features in front of him where he can stumble upon them when he needs them.
To an expert, this is an intrusion, a waste of space that could be better used for conveying information or something else useful