This is a valid point of human behavior on software. It doesn't matter
how many warnings software might offer, the user develops habits and
eventually, for convenience sake, clicks on things very habitually.
THIS is why malware still gets installed on users' machines despite all
of the UAC and other protections put into place. Protections which are
inconvenient and/or inconsistent will be ignored due to their
inconvenience and/or inconsistency.
This is precisely why the 8 golden rules of UI design were listed: (see
link below)
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-gui-list/1998-November/msg00074.html
The first rule is consistency. And it doesn't just mean within the
application, but consistency with the environment. The fifth rule,
offer error prevention, is way down there for a reason I should think.
That said, I have noticed GiMP does at least remember your previous
export action which enables a person to quickly update what they are
exporting as they work. This is a handy improvement which demonstrates
that the developers have recognized the export function as a bit of a
stumbling block to a smooth workflow and they are attempting to reduce
it some.
(Yes, I broke my own rule about commenting on this particular topic... I
just couldn't hold back, because user behavior is a particularly
important topic to me in that as a support person, I am faced with the
fact that users do what they will no matter how many or what types of
warnings and limits and controls you put into place. User problems
start and end with the user. Their drive to do things they think they
want to do over-rides what they should or shouldn't do every time.
Writing software to attempt to counter human user behavior is, in the
end, completely futile and even hazardous to attempt. People are
'thoughtless' by nature. Habits are killers. But it is our nature to be
this way. We may as well embrace it rather than fight it. This is
precisely why the 8 golden rules were written as they were.)
On 07/18/2013 05:06 PM, mrule wrote:
I agree.
There are a lot of good arguments for the new save functionality on this thread,
and I respect that some users may want the new functionality. However, I am a
long-time user of Gimp and I do not want this change.
For me, the new save functionality is more hazardous than the old save
functionality:
I was using the new Gimp today for editing single-layer PNG files. In this use
case, there is no data loss since I am saving a single layer in a lossless
format. The main problem is that, even after exporting, Gimp will ask if you
want to save on exit. Since this dialogue appears regardless of whether I have
exported my work, it is uninformative, and I have to click to close it every
time. This creates a hazard because, when I actually do forget to export my work
to PNG, I don't get any useful notice when I exit Gimp, and I lose my changes.
For now, I will be using an older version of Gimp that is safer for my use-case.
I would prefer the old save format and add a warning ( that is easily closed
with a keystroke or two ) if the save operation will cause loss of data. This
will result in less loss of work on average.
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