VectorCat Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Again, don't mean to be nitpicking, but why is it necessary to have "personas" which form in a sense, different "tool spaces" or function spaces in AD? Can't the tools simply know who and what they are, and behave accordingly, and enable the User to avoid still more clicking which is required to get into the different-tools spaces? Can the tools simply just be there? Maybe there's a great under-the-hood/programming reason for compartmentalizing this way, but to me, it just feels like more horsing around to get things done. Speaking for myself, what really takes its toll in wear and tear on me using computers in general are: 1. excessive clicking. it's tedious and I have this "alright already" feeling, or going through a maze, or jumping through hoops every time I must click, beyond a click or two. I've been mouse clicking now for about 30 years, so that perhaps lends a little perspective. I probably have 12 billion clicks under my belt by now. :D 2. What I call "tweezing." Imagine not having the wonderful hands we have to interact with our physical world, and to manipulate objects, but instead, tweezers. Imagine gripping things with tweezers, adjusting, moving, adjusting, ad nauseum. Tweezers are great for some things, but if they're all you have, working can be a PITA in short order. When I have to "tweeze" too many things in an interface to get something done, I call that "tweezing" and it gets annoying for me. Dunno how peculiar to me this is, but I have heard and read that in UX studies, fewer clicks = happier users. AD already does an amazing job of reducing the User Hoops to jump through in a lot of tools, especially the ones that work in real time...I see fewer clicks and less tweezing as a logical extension of that ethos. just my 2 pesos. Vcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff MEB Posted January 30, 2015 Staff Share Posted January 30, 2015 If everything was in the same UI, can you imagine the time/focus/attention you would have to spend to identify/pick the correct tools and panels? Some tools only make sense in a particular environment. If we included them all in the same UI, other tools would be completely out of context. You would end with an interface crowded with buttons/functions useless for the task at hand. Personas help to avoid this, displaying only the tools adequate to their main function. Besides there's probably even more Personas coming which would make things even worst... ronnyb, LilleG and KipV 3 Quote A Guide to Learning Affinity Software Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrograde Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Well explained MEB. I don't think I'd like to wade through layers of options and tools and panels in one giant everything included UI... I think it's crucial to divide things into specific tasks that relate and make sense. VectorCat your second sentence seems to me like some kind of artificial intelligent UI that thinks a couple of steps ahead knowing what you want to do next, presenting the options you'll likely need as you need them... at least that's how it reads to me... :) I'm must be off base... LilleG 1 Quote http://www.kevincreative.com https://www.behance.net/kevincreative https://dribbble.com/kevincreative https://www.instagram.com/kevincreative/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorCat Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 I dunno about AI, but I guess I've used both types of apps..ones where all the tools are in the same space, and ones where different functions have different spaces. Lightwave 3D has different "spaces" I guess I can see merits to both. maybe it's just my getting used to how AD does it. Thank you for entertaining my question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrograde Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 It might be that. I had some initial frustration in AD coming from years of illustrator experience where I didn't even have to think where things were. My fingers knew where to go... It's the muscle memory that works against you until you re-train it I think. I did a bit of work in Lightwave years back with it's modeller and layout setup. I work in Blender now and it's much more integrated and customizable but still separated into logical "workspaces" for different tasks. Eventually if the team at Affinity allow for more customization we'll be able to set things up in more personal ways. ronnyb 1 Quote http://www.kevincreative.com https://www.behance.net/kevincreative https://dribbble.com/kevincreative https://www.instagram.com/kevincreative/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronnyb Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I welcome Personas as a way to organize tool sets based on workflows. AD is such a versatile piece of software that having these Persona's allows an uncluttered U, more access to more of the user's content, and less wasted space on "grey pixels" for the interface. That being said... It might be interesting to explore the idea of USER-defined Personas, in addition to the standard personas, as a way to keep disparate tools together for specialized workflows... LilleG and penwiper 2 Quote 2021 16” Macbook Pro w/ M1 Max 10c cpu /24c gpu, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Sonoma 14.4.1 2018 11" iPad Pro w/ A12X cpu/gpu, 256 GB, iPadOS 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrograde Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 It might be interesting to explore the idea of USER-defined Personas, in addition to the standard personas, as a way to keep disparate tools together for specialized workflows... Actually that's sort of what Blender can do. It comes with a default set of workspaces but you can reconfigure just about everything and save those as your new defaults. It's pretty cool but it's also a pretty mature package with deep focuses in areas so it makes sense to be that customizable. There are entire sections of it that I know absolutely nothing about and don't need to know for what I do... ronnyb 1 Quote http://www.kevincreative.com https://www.behance.net/kevincreative https://dribbble.com/kevincreative https://www.instagram.com/kevincreative/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronnyb Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 @retrograde, sounds a lot like MODO, which if you haven't played with, is also an amazing software package... they used to be somewhat affordable, but since they were bought up by The Foundry, the price has gone up by over 2X... But yeah, customizability of the UI is the way to go... Quote 2021 16” Macbook Pro w/ M1 Max 10c cpu /24c gpu, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Sonoma 14.4.1 2018 11" iPad Pro w/ A12X cpu/gpu, 256 GB, iPadOS 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrograde Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Hi Ronny, I did play with MODO for a bit, it is awesome but yeah too rich for me, same with Cinema now. I took to Blender since they overhauled the interface a couple of years ago. The global community is huge! Quote http://www.kevincreative.com https://www.behance.net/kevincreative https://dribbble.com/kevincreative https://www.instagram.com/kevincreative/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 If everything was in the same UI, can you imagine the time/focus/attention you would have to spend to identify/pick the correct tools and panels? Some tools only make sense in a particular environment. If we included them all in the same UI, other tools would be completely out of context. You would end with an interface crowded with buttons/functions useless for the task at hand. Personas help to avoid this, displaying only the tools adequate to their main function. Besides there's probably even more Personas coming which would make things even worst... Here comes the analogy: when working on paper you keep the pencils in one tin, the pastels in another. Then in a different area, you would have the liquids i.e paints, masking fluid, easel(?) and jar of muddy water. Now you wouldn't expect the pencil sharpener to be in the tin of acrylics, would you? So in a nutshell; you have wet and dry areas and that helps to keep things organised...well that's the theory anyway. BTW, I do know about watercolour based pencils. Quote MacBook pro, 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB, OS X 10.11.6 http://www.pinterest.com/peter2111 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Harris Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 The personas are intended to be task-oriented in a way that means you aren't continually switching between them. For example, when you're preparing for export you probably aren't also drawing new things. I guess the most interesting division is between the pixel and vector drawing modes. They both have a lot of tools and options, and organising them this way is supposed to make it easier to find things. If you are switching a lot, that may mean we've got it wrong. More specific feedback might help. Is there a particular tool that is missing from a particular persona that causes you to switch? ronnyb 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.