Inkscape UX priorities for 1.2
1. PERFORMACE
the performance got a little better since 1.0 but not by much we are still missing a lot of performance from gtk 2 on windows and on mac. It's unrealistic that this will be addressed in 1.2 coz after long discussions with Inkscape devs and gnome devs i found out that gtk3 is failed project in this regard. And hopefully will be addressed with migrating to gtk4. But we don't even have solid evidence that this will fix our performance problems. Unfortunately, gtk4 migration is a hard and long process.
Another solution is to add (/replace Cairo ?) a new GPU renderer. Pathfinder is a good candidate for that. Unfortunately, Mozilla discontinued development. So we would need to take over the project. But once again this is out of scope for 1.2
2. Project - Better defaults
Inkscape can look good. **IF ** you have knowledge how to do it
- download and set the correct theme
- change icon pack
- Icon size
We can customize very well. I like that. Problem is that most users don't want to fiddle with all the settings. So set up defaults that look good for everyone.
* New single default theme for all OSs:
I already proposed this and got mostly agreeing reactions. Now we just need a person who will co-design and implement this theme. I know some devs are under the impression that designers should be able to do gtk css but that's always a case So front end dev is needed for this task. This theme will overwrite the OS default theme. if i get pushback on this idea i am willing to compromise and keep linux out but for Windows and mac we should have better defaults
TODO:
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find front end dev willing to work on this -
design theme -
implement theme -
test on all oses -
set as defoult
* New default icon pack
Personally I think Multicolor pack is better than Adwaita symbolic and should be set by default. If we cannot agree on that, I would propose to use adwaita symbolic for one main reason. Current default does not work on dark themes. I saw that many users are able to switch to dark but don't know that they can change icons. Result is that they have dark theme with BLACK icons which violate all usability guidelines #2 (closed) TODO:
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create MR with this proposal
* Toolbar and icon size
We simply cannot fit all tools into the toolbar on smaller screens (1100p).Ideally we would implement a two row / responsive toolbar (similar to gimp). BUT a simpler and arguably better solution is to detect smaller monitor size and set all icons to smaller and pick default theme to be small gtk theme. .
There are other solutions to this problem like collapsible icons (adobe style). Personally, I am not a big fan of this solution because it makes it harder to switch tools .
* tools presets
Some tools have bad starting presets. Example pencil tool smoothing is set to 4 from my testing 15 will give you much better results in most of the situations. It would be useful to go through all tools and make sure than have reasonable presets
* Dialog presets
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Trace dialog multicolor mode should be set for stacking as default setting
TODO:
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make a review of all settings -
propose better defoults -
make MRs
3. FIX THE SPIN BUTTONS
This would be an easy UX win. I tried to do this on GTK level but got rejected and they told me that we should create our own widget if we don't like spinboxes. If we don't want to invest in a new widget we could just simply fix spacing, THIS IS NOT a THEMEMING issue. Spin boxes in the toolbar have hardcoded sizes that are just plain too big. Maybe I am naive but I believe that if some dev would take a day or two to figure this out. Fixing this would help so much in all of the Inkscape but mostly in Toolbars for small screens. #25
4. Refining Docking and fixing regressions
The new docking system is good but could be improved:
-
- undocking on windows by drag and drop (gimp can do it we should look at how they deal with that) -
- top bars are redundant and ugly we should try to get rid of them -
- dropping zones don't have good indicators -
- you are unable to reorder docks/dock to left -
- you cannot push one dialog with separator (left to right) -
- unable to make save layouts (take a look at workspaces)
5. trying to shrink the width of most panels so they can fit in to dock better
problematic docks:
-
- document settings (undocked by default) -
- filter editor (undocked by default) -
- Arrange (fixed and also merged in to align and distribute as a tabs) -
- text and fonts (fixed) -
- SVG font editor (fixed) -
- tiled coles inbox#5411 -
- transform (fixed BUT i think it could be even smaller) -
- trace bitmap (fixed) -
- Messedges inbox#5498 (moved) - i did go throo every dialog i hope i di not mised any
Most of this will be fixed by fixing spinboxes. some would need a complete redesign to fix. we should open this dialog as undocked as a soft fix.
6. New object/layer panel
This is an ongoing project of merging layers and objects dialog. Currently the first pass of this project is done and merged in to master. Now we need to test it and polish it. If we are sure that its as good as old layer dialog we woulde remove old layer dialog and replace it with new layers and objects dialog.
7. Project improves Bezier tool workflow
Ok, i am going to be honest this is not UX priority for the project. This is my main selfish priority. There is no disagreement about this issue and I outlined what should be done. I just need a dev who is willing to work on this . #5
8. Custom changeable workspaces
One of the big problems of Inkscape is not lack of features but that it's hard to present them to users at the right time. There is this neat concept of work spaces. #89
9. Customizable shortcuts for commands
This is related to converting commands to actions in ideal world we do this for all commands but i am identifying few very important:
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Aligment -
Distribution -
Pen tool commands from toolbar -
Adding LPE
10. Continue development of welcome dialog.
- connect the template loading from the welcome dialog with the template loading inside Inkscape (currently, they're two systems, and even offer different templates...).
- an option to open any file from the welcome dialog, with a file chooser.
- if its possible us welcome screen to hide start up time (load inkscape in bg)
11. Help GSOC students
These are new features. They should have good UX if we can help develop them correctly. Also its an opportunity to teach students how to develop features with good UX and work in a team