framers Digest, Vol 64, Issue 4

[Tori Muir]

PREACH IT sister!

Not only is the "Stalin gray" interface fugly and depressing (and much 
darker than Adobe's other fugly gray interfaces), the whole pod/docking 
behavior is incredibly time-wasting. Everything seems to want to glue 
itself into everything else! Maybe it's a sign of having become a 
dinosaur, but I find the cluttered multi-palette interface of v7 much 
faster to work with.

Tori Muir
tmuir at spot-on-creative.com • 650.430.8674
www.spot-on-creative.com 



Davis, Jessica D. wrote:
> On Stuart's rant, I want to add my distaste for the whole pod thing.
> Not only has it taken me a long time to find a view (or whatever they
> call it) that doesn't get in my way, there are some awful bugs in the
> pods.  Try deleting multiple variables or multiple conditions.  After
> you delete one, the next one in the list appears to be selected, but
> it's not.  Some other variable further down the list may actually be
> deleted.  And if you delete too many, Frame crashes.  (BTW-the
> work-around for both of these problems is to click in the body of the
> document between each deletion.) And this not just me, we have several
> writers working on the project who complained about this problem. Also,
> I hate how easy it is to accidentally collapse a catalog.  Then to
> reopen it, you have expand it and drag it out of the pod.  I just find
> the whole interface clunky and cumbersome and taking up too much screen
> real estate.  
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------
>
> <rant>
>
> Bang on, Mike.  I'm also addressing this message to Kapil Verma, who was
> recently introduced as FM's product manager.  The low-contrast,
> monochrome GUI in FM 9 is not just butt-ugly, it's HARD TO USE.  It GETS
> IN THE WAY. It PREVENTS ME FROM EASILY ACHIEVING MY GOALS.
>
> There may be a valid argument for low-contrast grey interfaces in
> programs like Illustrator and Photoshop, where the user's perception of
> colours in the working document could be adversely influenced by colours
> and contrasts in the GUI.  But FM is NOT a graphics design program.  The
> precaution of eliminating colour and contrast in the GUI, if that's what
> it is, is misplaced, unjustified, and highly counterproductive.
>
> Or if it's a marketing decision, originating in the "imperative" that
> Adobe products must all look the same to protect "the brand," remember
> that Henry Ford's user-defying mantra, "Any customer can have a car
> painted any color that he wants so long as it is black" has been
> discredited as a marketing strategy for an awfully long time.
>
> I strongly recommend, Kapil, that you call together the graphic
> designers (and marketing "branders") who have obviously had overwhelming
> influence on this GUI, thank them for their efforts, and politely show
> them the door.  Then get some USER INTERACTION experts and USABILITY
> experts on board and set them to undoing the damage that the
> artsy/marketsy folks have inflicted.
>
> The world (of technical writing) would be a better place.
>
> </rant>
>
> Thanks,
> Jess
>
>
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