user interface suggestions

[rfuerman]

Hi Kiril: My usual user interface suggestions. Nothing urgent here.
PWP32 6.0.05 11 Oct 2011 boB fuerman

user interface: **Download the "Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines (UX Guide)
for Windows 7 and Windows Vista." UXGuide.pdf
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/de ... en&id=2695

1 installer
i) file types - include png files. These are used in video edit software.
ii) installation folder default should include major version with PWP folder:
C:\Program Files\Digital Light & Color\Picture Window Pro 6.0\
a) this is consistent with previous PWP installs (eg ..\Picture Window Pro 5.0)
b) allows user to keep multiple versions of PWP on computer with less confusion. Where will you put PWP 7.0 ?

2 menu bars
see UX Guide, p 234 for "standard menu bars"
i) file menu. to further condense this, make a 'PWP options' selection and group following items thereunder:
preferences.
associations
color mgmt
printer curves
raw settings
Sounds like there is a "Do Not Multitask" option for 64 bit; if so, that belongs here.
Once set, these items are rarely used, so move off main file menu.
NOTE that the UX Guide p235, has 'PWP Options' on Tools menu

ii) File | Browse.. should be NOT available if browse window is open.
iii) File | New .. put slideshows here, also.
iv) File | New .. New image - the 'new' image is redundant, no? Fussy, fussy, I know.
v) File | close this is a window command & should be on window menu, below 'close all.'
HOWEVER, the UX Guide (see below) p 234 has 'close' on File menu. You might put this on
both the file & window menu bars.

vi) On the window menu, there are likewise several items which are window options which
could be grouped together or even moved to file menu PWP options =
show image type
show main toolbar
show transform bar
configure toolbars, OR

vii) Consider adding a 'View' menu for toolbar and zoom options.
UX Guide, p234

//---
3 OK, cancel buttons
most dialogs; see eg preferences dialog; resize dlg; file comments dlg, &c
OK + cancel buttons
a) should be same size
b) OK button is before cancel btn
c) these command buttons should be uniform, size + position, on *all* dialogs
UX Guide see: button size, p59; placement, p611

4 preferences dlg
i) Default unit choices are inches, cm, mm. This should also include pixels, no?
For example, the crop/add border dlg; resize defaults to inches. I would prefer default to pixels.
ii) Suggest: Add a preference item for 'default histogram expansion' = none, med, high.

5 browseinfo file
should PW delete the old PW35.BrowseInfo file when it makes new PW60.BrowseInfo file?
No need for these files, they are big. Suggest get rid of them. Or, it could be a user preference.

6 video files - please add support for AVC HD files
my new p+s Sony DSC-WX10 takes full HD movies, 1920x1080 AVC format. These are stored on
the camera card as *.MTS files (Olympus & Panasonic also use these files).
i) Please add these to the video transfer files.
ii) Browser window videos:
*.mov files display the first frame with the file name, size, date.
*.mts AVC files do not show up at all. If you cannot grab the frame, then use a 'movie' icon and display file name, size, date. Please.

7 Support settings
Window | Support settings
i) put the 'print using' & 'print at' items together.
ii) 'support settings' ?? Maybe 'hardware settings' would be better, more descriptive.
iii) suggest put this on File | PWP options menu with other preference items
iv) if you really don't want users to adjust these items, then put a notice right on the dialog!

//--- Bob's notes
noise reduce transform
Said new Sony p+s is very noisy (the pics, that is). Just tried this it it looks very promising. Will try it some more, later.

workflow break point
This was on my wish list for cropping, but was not sure how to implement it. Sounds like a great idea!! Will try this out for cropping pics to HD 16x9 aspect ratio for videos.

//---
OK y'all; there will be a test on the UX Guide, all 882 pages, on Friday !! ;-)
Thank you,
boB

[ksinkel]

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

.png files are supported -- there was not enough room for them on the association page.

I have added .mts to the video extensions. There are now four extensions designated as video -- .avi, .mov, .mp4 and .mts. If anyone has others that their cameras use, please let me know.

Kiril