UI designers a bit ticked at OG5

[Byron Stevens]

Hi William,
OK, here are some particulars I recorded back in December - and lost  
in the drafts pile, so apologies for not getting them in a lot  
sooner!  These particular changes make my workflow much harder every  
day than with OG4 pro:

. I really miss the old way of indicating visible layers on the canvas  
list - I find the disappearing eyeball very confusing when in a hurry  
- I frequently misread the layer state & have to pore over every layer  
in order to figure out which one is actually on & off. Very painful  
when you have a multitude of layers (as I very often do).
. I also miss the old "selected" indicator on the canvas list  
indicating which layer a selected object lives in. Although the  
abilility to select an object from the new object list is sometimes  
helpful (when objects are totally occluded for example), it's not  
nearly as useful as being able to select an object on the canvas and  
quickly see which layer it belongs to. The selection is also not  
actionable in the main view.  I used that a lot in OG 4 when cleaning  
up misplaced objects, or moving objects to the proper layer.

These new "features" are proving to be quite unproductive for me:
. In OG 4 I could select an object, go to the canvas list, change  
layer focus, and perform operations on the object like select another   
layer, duplicate the object into the new layer, nudge around etc.  Now  
I find that although the object appears selected I can't act on it.  
Instead I must go  back to the main window & then de-select & re- 
select the object  - very difficult now! In many cases the layer focus  
shifts to another layer (topmost?) - an action whose rules I have yet  
to figure out & get it to perform consistently.
. this "feature" also causes an impossible situation when attempting  
to select underlying objects that are completely occluded - they can't  
be manipulated, as hunting and then selecting them in the object list  
and attempting to nudge (for example) only produces a beep - no  
actions are possible without going back to the main view, and finding  
a way to re-select the occluded object - kinda useless & very  
frustrating :-).

Regards,
Byron
On Apr 18, 2008, at 11:11 AM, William Van Hecke wrote:

> Hi Nick,
>
>> I felt like saying something when I first upgraded to OG5.  I  
>> absolutely abhor the interface changes.  OG4 was perfectly usable,  
>> and now I feel like someone turned my world upside down, shook it a  
>> little bit, and then put it back together, but not quite the same  
>> way.  I'm still having trouble accomplishing basic things that I  
>> had down in OG4.
>
> Can you mention any specific tasks that have become more difficult  
> in version 5, even after the adjustment period that's to be expected  
> for a major upgrade? We are careful to change things only when we  
> think they'll be a worthwhile improvement, but the nature of  
> software is that an improvement can take a bit of relearning. If  
> we've actually made certain things worse, I'd love to hear about it  
> so we can try to fix the problem.
>
>> I also have a general "feeling" that the interface is much more  
>> dreary as well - the  inspector icons greying out when they're not  
>> applicable is actually really disturbing to me.  I know that isn't  
>> really much to work on, but the general interface just "feels"  
>> clumsy and unfamiliar, and that is not something I'm used to with  
>> an Omni product.
>
> We did consciously tone down the interface from the shiny, candy- 
> like Mac OS X 10.3-like buttons, to fit in better with the  
> admittedly dreary Mac OS X 10.5 environment. We used iWork as our  
> model for designing the new toolbar buttons, and I think they do a  
> good job of being findable without being distracting. As for the  
> inspector icons turning gray when they're inapplicable, that's a  
> pretty concrete usability benefit, and we've been doing it since  
> OmniGraffle 4.
>
> If you have any specific feedback about features that are awkward to  
> get at in the new version, or other usability problems, please go  
> ahead and use the Send Feedback command in the Help menu. We'd be  
> happy to hear your comments.
>
> Thanks!
> William Van Hecke
> ~User Experience Lead~
> The Omni Group
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