GUI customization to make something exceptional is not the same thing as customization to make something functional. This dichotomy has been illustrated (intentionally or otherwise) by numerous user postings of their recently customized UI's. People are pulling off tabs, filling up the QAT with frequently used commands, and using even more short cuts.
All of this activity indicates that users are effectively trying to create a persistently exposed toolset in order to overcome the underlying philosophy of a Ribbon which subjectively and contextually exposes and hides functionality.
People who are trying to build things (even when they build them in the computer) usually don’t want their tools constantly moving around. This is an important distinction that is not about the pros/cons of a customizable UI. My contention is that a well designed GUI isn't a step backward when it can be customized, but when it must be customized.
It's enough of a challenge for one life spent in rigorous pursuit of elegant design. Must we also face the additional challenge of having to rigorously design a UI being used to rigorously design? Specific to Revit, a new UI that is more familiar to AutoCAD users could lower adoption barriers so that those users can create details.
But what if it hobbles the users that need to create buildings?
1 comment:
Perfectly said post. Having to customize a UI in order to make it usable indicates a really bad UI design.
Though I really liked the simple look of Revit Classic, it's not a deal breaker if the tools move to a new location in a UI re-design - as long as they then stay there. 2010 is an epic fail because the same tools are in different places depending on what contextual panel you're on and because the common modifying tools are now buried in panels. I will eventually "remember" where most tools are, but it will never become second nature because the tools never stay put in the same place for long. It took all of five minutes using 2010 to realize this was a disaster. How it got released like this is mind-blowing.
BTW, great blog - really glad to see someone who really cares about Revit and wants to see it succeed, but isn't drinking the Kool-Aid. Keep it up.
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