Comments on http://youtu.be/xYiiD-p2q80 at 16:32
QQQ A widely used heuristic for evaluating user interfaces: the relative ease with which we can *recognize* things rather than *recall* them...We recognize shapes and faces at extremely fast speeds. QQQ This may be Leo's most important strength. How many times have I said that I don't remember the details of Leo's million-line code base? I don't need to *remember* the details because I can *recognize* where relevant code is from the *shape* of Leo's outlines. This shape is *completely missing* from most editors/IDE's. Only in Leo can you create your own shape. Class browsers not only don't let you alter shape, they are usually too stupid even to remember where you last were. QQQ At the very least, designers should avoid developing systems that burden *long term memory*. Yet that is *exactly* what many interactive systems do. QQQ Again, Leo shines here. QQQ Make it easy for users to switch to faster paths *after* they have gained experience. The slower paths for *newcomers* should show users faster paths if there are any... The best interfaces provide two ways to perform an action: icons for beginners, shortcuts for veterans. We as designers really *don't* want our software's users to have to keep thinking about their *keystroke-level actions* as they work, and users don't want to have to think about them either. QQQ I think Leo is pretty good here. Leo uses two standard strategies to help newbies. Perhaps they could be improved a bit. 1. All of Leo's commands are visible in menus, and menu items show shortcuts if they exist. 2. Leo's minibuffer shows shortcuts, an improvement over Emacs. QQQ If a software application hides its functionality and requires its users to recall what to do, *some percentage of users will fail*. If the software has a lot of users,that...adds up to a *significant number*. QQQ Although the video focused on Blender's key problems, I think the biggest problem for Leo is that @file and @others are well hidden. Some solutions: - Newbie buttons, as previously discussed. - A new help-for-creating-program-files command. - A new entry in the Help menu (and a newbie button) that will open Leo's *video* tutorials. In effect, each Leo headline is like a command line! The way around this are buttons that create the appropriate headline. Edward -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
