I agree with "newbie" or commonly known as "usablity" testing. Suse had made great inroads in this area with some strong usablity testing procedures. Suse even went so far as to video tape all types of users on Linux to understand user expectations. Gimp's crop window iirc, was a result of some "usablity" adjustments, and is by far one of the best "cropping" tools out there.
I often find programmers or "experts" looking in disdain on users sometimes. It is the "users that make or break a program in the software world sometimes. MS did not make it as far as they did simply on advertising. They used to make and still work toward making an effort to solve usability issues. I was glad to see this post, and disheartened to see RTFM posts. Usability suggestions don't hurt they help, and I hate to hear "RTFM" all the time. I myself have considered usability suggestions but have been at the wrath of a group of programmers or experts on more than one occasion that I've quit giving usability suggestions. Recently I was in some of the local large mart stores and noticed how affordable software has become. When faced with "free" OSS and a program that is 35.00 it becomes real clear after using a OSS program with usability issues where one's time and money is better spent. IMHO, OSS isn't loosing out because of patent wars, or FUD, or any other conspiracy. In the end it looses out because of usability issues that programmers don't care to fix, even though sometimes those changes are very simple. I enjoy Hugin, and it is my primary photo stitching application. I'll continue to use it as I do believe that by doing so I'm promoting OSS in my area and hopefully usability suggestions by members will improve the application. ---------------------------------------- > Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:37:20 -0700 > Subject: [hugin-ptx] newbie introduction - hugin usability > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To: [email protected] > > > Hello, > > Yesterday evening: newbie introduction to hugin and panorama > stitching. Some remarks on usabililty while watching and tutoring a > first three-image stitch. > > Downloading from hugin.sf.net works ok. Installing hugin on XP with > the exe file works ok, but then there are suddenly lots of aliases on > the desktop. Newbie is somewhat confused. > > Open Images tab. Drag and drop images into white area. Tell newbie to > click on an image name to ascertain that image is loaded indeed. > Methinks that the last image(s) dropped into the window could be > highlighted by default and displayed in the preview. > > Then skipping a couple of tabs going to Control Points. Concept is > easily explained to newbie. Explicit hint needed to set right image to > number 1, as current default is to display image 0 twice. Newbie > roughly clicks on the image, zoom in happens and the desired spot is > obscured by the magnified square. Also newbie tries to click into that > square to adjust positioning. Need to tell to manipulate the faintly > visible crosshair. Mesays that the doughnuts would have been more > intuitive, but thinking about a click and hold (real magifying glass > pops up), drag (fine positioning), release (place CP) workflow. > > Usually only one magified square is visible, hence no hint whether > placement was ok. Methinks two squares should be visible, one may > disappear when cursor is moved. > > Optimising is fine for a start. But need to point out the drop-down > menu with the different optimisation strategies. Maybe that could be > done less hidden. Mesays that I usually optimise several times, adding > more parameters at each step. > > Preview is accessible from the menu. The icons are not yet intuitive > to the newbie. The preview window comes up rather small at the start, > of course a once-only problem. Irritating is also pressing the align > buttons and nothing happens. Of course the default is that the > automatic preview redrawing is switched of by default. If that new > fast preview were not in the pipeline, methinks change would be > needed. > > One CP was placed badly, numbered 8 in the F3 window. Where is number > 8 in the CP tab? There it is numbered 3. > > The F3 control points window is much too small at the start. > Maximising, then much too large. Awkwardly floating at the top. > Methinks F3 should toggle it. If you want to have it in front, press > F3 twice. > > Changing back from the preview window to the main window is not > smooth. Recommendation to newbie was to close the preview window. > > Exposure tab works ok. Popup window is slighly irritating. > > Mecomments on Optimisation and Exposure: maybe we should be doing away > with the popup windows (displaying the values in the main window), and > if one does not like the latest optimisation result, rely on ^Z or > "undo" in the menu for the step back. > > Vertical control points not yet introduced to newbie. > > Slider control and clicking in preview window briefly shown. > > In Stitcher tab optimised image size, both angles and pixels, but did > not use crop values. > Did not change the projection type. Methinks maybe put it into a menu > bar submenu. > Saved the panorama using the default output to TIFF. > > Output filename contained an Umlaut, text terminal output was corrupt > ( did not display after umlaut) but processed fine. > > After enblend had finished, doing the thingy with the EXIF information > took an irritatingly long time, almost felt like hugin frozen. > Methinks that invoking exiftool should be opt-in for experts. > > In the end there was a nice panoramic image. TIFF file. Irfanview used > for subsequent cropping and JPEG conversion did not resize display > window to image size - nothing to blame on hugin. Regarding hugin, > newbie needs an initial tutorial to guide him through the workflow. > > Regards > > Klaus > > _________________________________________________________________ Store, manage and share up to 5GB with Windows Live SkyDrive. http://skydrive.live.com/welcome.aspx?provision=1?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_skydrive_102008 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hugin and other free panoramic software" group. A list of frequently asked questions is available at: http://wiki.panotools.org/Hugin_FAQ To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hugin-ptx -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
