[Gimp-developer] [GIMP] Suggestion to simplify user interaction

[David Gowers]

On 10/12/06, Philip Ganchev <phil.ganchev at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi.
>
> I have a suggestion for a new and simple way to interact with GIMP.
>
> A major difficulty in using GIMP, in my experience, is that the menus
> are too many and too deep.  To invoke an action on an image, or to
> open a dialog box, the user spends a lot of time and concentration
> navigating the menus, usually with the mouse.  And, despite best
> efforts to organize the menus, finding the right item for the
> operation you want can be difficult.
>
> A more efficient alternative would be to let the user try to express
> his intention more freely, and show him a menu of options that might
> be what he wants.  This is in effect search for the right command, and
> the user sees the list of options *as he types*.  A command is any
> conventional menu item or folder in the current menu hierarchy.
>
> A query matches substrings of names or descriptions of commands.  The
> names and descriptions of matching commands appear in a drop down box
> underneath the query box.  The user can hit Enter to select the first
> entry, or use the arrow keys to select another entry, then press
> Enter.  Thus the selection of actions and menus shrinks as the user
> types.  If a query contains multiple words, they are matched as a
> conjunction (not as a string).
>
> For example. if the user types "size", he sees the options "Scale
> image - resize the image", "Set canvas size", and "Print size".
> Selecting the first option invokes resize mode, as if the item "Image
> / Scale image" had been selected from the conventional menu.


I really like this kind of interface. Consider this, though:

it doesn't map directly to normal menus. For example, there are
layer->transform menus and image->transform menus, both of which contain
identically-named entries. It's more like function-name completion; in that
case, no ambiguity exists because only one function of the same name can
ever be apparent. How do you make it convenient to choose either rotate the
layer 90degrees or rotate the image 90degrees? I reckon that might require
the addition of a separate string to use for completion instead of menu
name.

It's possible that the menu registration code could address this (generating
unique completable command names); in that case you'd need to avoid the
possibility of newly added menu items causing the existing completion
behaviour to change (ie. where you type the same sequence but now get a
different and likely wrong result.)


The search can be invoked with a key combination like Control+F
>
(or
> perhaps just by typing?).


If this was implemented, I'd expect it to replace the menus, so personally I
would expect to just hit the Menu key and start typing. Ctrl-F is quite
unwieldy  (if the function is going to be commonly used, a single key
trigger is highly desireable)

What do you mean by just typing? clearly you cannot just type when the
completion is not yet active -- that would conflict with keyboard shortcuts.
And if

 I am not sure if the query box should be
> visible all the time, or appear when the keys are pressed and
> dissapear when the command is executed.


Personally I'd like it to show in place of the current statusbar message
(sort of like an inverted browser URL field).
In a program as big as the gimp, eliminating unnecessary widgets is
important; so i suggest that probably such a thing would work best with a
temporarily visible query box
The third option you presented, "appear when the keys are pressed and
dissapear when the command is executed." == modality, which tends to be
confusing and should be avoided if possible

If it is the latter, it can replace the menu bar, to save window


It can, maybe.. personally I don't have a menu bar, but I do have a status
bar. I expect there will be some who have a menu bar, but not a status bar.
It warrants some thought.

space.  The the list should not obscure too much of the image.  So,
> the size of the results box should be constrained, and a scrollbar
> should appear if needed.
>
> The history of executed commands (and their descriptions) appears in
> reverse order the results box, if the user clicks on or presses the
> Down arrow key in an empty query box.


sounds okay.
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