Usability Eye for The GIMP Guy 353
TuringTest writes "The GIMP has recently signed up for
evaluation by OpenUsability.org. 'Many user interface decisions are being made by developers who often have little experience in user interface design. In order to improve this, we need the help of experts. To find them, GIMP has joined
the OpenUsability project. Here's a platform where Open Source developers and usability experts get together.' They also report their first experiences with the paper prototyping of a new Import PDF dialog."
Great. (Score:5, Interesting)
Gimp devs are doing a fantastic job (Score:1, Interesting)
Will they be able to take... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Oh, wonderful (Score:2, Interesting)
reminder : GimpShop already exists! (Score:5, Interesting)
Getting used to it (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Let's talk about the elephant in the room. (Score:5, Interesting)
I have been hacking the Gimp for weeks and it's finally ready.
What made this project especially difficult is that there isn't one file that holds all of Gimp's tool names and menu structure. I've modified hundreds of files and combed thousands of lines of code to make this version of Gimp a reality. This work pales in comparison to real coding, but for a hack like me, it required a lot of learning and work.
And thats just for moving the menu widgets around.
Seashore for OS X Users (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree (Score:3, Interesting)
You're right. The interface for The GIMP is very different from any other application I've used. It's not really bad, it's just different and it takes a lot of getting used to.
I just started using The GIMP not too long ago. I don't want to spend the money to upgrade my old copy of Paint Shop Pro if there's software that's just as good for free. If it takes me a little longer to learn how to use it, that's fine. (Unlike most people, my time is worthless...) But if they could improve the interface, I can't imagine that people choosing a graphics software package wouldn't use the free one, especially for low- to intermediate-level graphics needs.
Who knows? If they improve it a great deal (and improve the text tool, my only complaint with the software right now), we could be seeing a huge GIMP / Photoshop rivalry on the horizon!
Re:Don't just to something, stand there! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Oh, wonderful (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's something else you're missing - the type of people Gnome is targeting *DO NOT CARE* about 95%+ of the settings that would require opening GConf to change. For these users, it's far better to have a tool layout such that finding basic options does not require digging through 4 layers of option dialogues.
I'm not saying Gnome is perfect by any stretch of the imagination, simply that the majority of people on Slashdot who complain about Gnome being 'ruined' just plain do not understand how difficult seemingly simple tasks are for the average user. I mean, really, I've been using Linux since around '99, and run KDE from time to time just to see how they're progressing, and it almost always ends up with me digging through the control panel searching for things that should be rather simple to change because KDE exposes too many options for the average user.
Sure, if you're a geek and enjoy playing with all your settings, more power to you. But for people who simply want to use their computer, the KDE Control Panel is a confusing mess. So I'd really take issue with the idea that KDE is improving at an "impressive rate." If they spent more time cleaning up the Control Panel and building in HAL tools instead of adding huge oversized tooltips and calling it a usability improvement, I might be able to agree.
The changes that have been made to Gnome (for the most part) were not mistakes. It was a deliberate decision to move toward an interface that's more usable to a computer neophyte. Argue that the KDE interface is 'familiar' all you want, but the idea behind usability is that you don't *need* to be familiar with it to figure out how to do what you want.
GIMP vs Photoshop, AGAIN (Score:2, Interesting)
Use lazy window focus and a single linux desktop (e.g. Desktop #4). Isolated on its own desktop, it has an mdi-like feel to it.
Worst GIMP:
Running under windows, you don't get lazy focus or seperate desktops, it gets messy. Hence the call for MDI-ness.
Also, file open dialogs still kinda suck, esp under windows.
GIMP's great feature set is masked to newcomers by its 'horrible' UI. But like anything else, you can get used to it if you need to. It doesn't make the whole app broken, it just makes it harder to use (still a bad thing though).
Don't like the UI? Use something else, its that simple. Articles like this show the GIMP dev's are at least aware of the UI issues and maybe are taking steps to improve it.
But don't let your initial impressions stop you from learning a great tool. GIMP's functionality is rock solid, lets just hope the UI gets there someday.
Or just stop complaining and use Photoshop. I've used both GIMP and Photoshop for professional photo work before, and either one works great (just one doesn't cost me $700).
Re:Let's talk about the elephant in the room. (Score:3, Interesting)
Then a mear ten years after the limitation in Windows was lifted, even Microsoft abandoned the MDI in Office 2000.
Artist feedback (Score:4, Interesting)
Anyways, I've been trying to give feedback to GIMP(shop) for quite a while, but I can't find any feedback emails or forums.
I failed to register at "open usability". I couldn't activate my account, because of an error or I just got my password wrong (which I wrote down clearly). I also tried to register another account, but that didn't work since my email was taken by my previous inactive account.
So my feedback will have to go here. It concerns mostly my painting technique. Maybe someone could drop this in a relevant inbox?
1: Colorpicking has to be easy. I prefer temporarely shifting to the colorpicker while holding down a key. The colorpicker should be able to handle average colors too, in case you colorpick from an area with a lot of noise.
In GIMPshop it seems I have to switch to the colorpicker tool manually, then when I colorpick a dialog comes up that I have to click down. This takes several seconds and kills workflow. Basically thing single 'feature' alone makes it practically impossible for me to paint in GIMP. I need to be able to colorpick once or twice per second. Yes I paint fast and I blend by using a 50% transparent brush and dabbing several times if I want opaque color, or I dab and colorpick if I want it more transparent. I use a wacom but have pressure sensitivity set to size so I can reach narrow places or fill large areas without having to change brush. Workflow and accesability is VERY important.
2: Brushes. It would be useful to be able to make several brushes that are just a click of a button away. When painting I generally use a few hard brushes and a few soft airbrushes, and some for multiplying on base colors onto line art. I do not want to manually set these up everytime I'm changing brush.
3: Photoshops 'Fade' is very useful. It brings up a slider which allow you to fade the last change, which can be a brushstroke, a curve/level, a hue/saturation change, or almost anything. This is very handy since it's realtime and you can fade your change until it looks balanced.
4: Photoshop's history can be useful. Some artists also make a new layer to experiment, paint a little and if they're happy they merge, otherwise they delete it. I use the history brush occasionally to erase changes I made with a soft or hard brush. This is useful if I for example painted a lot of cool armour details, but ruined the head, then I can just history erase the bad changes to the head. Theoretically this can be done with layers though, if the old layer without the changes is perserved somewhere.
5: Brushstroke quality is important. There might be an option for it but my version of GIMPshop made irregular little blotches on my lines. Giving any changes to pressure some sort of weight might prevent this, so transitions to thinner lines goes smoother somehow. Flimsy and chaotic does not look good unless you're Pollock.