An Honest Critique of Aeon's New Menu System
Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:33 am
Greetings All,
As much as I like Aeon (and I like it a *lot*), I must say that the new 'Theme' menus are not intuitive in the slightest. Quite honestly, the plugin behaves almost as if it were 'fighting back.'
I design user interfaces for a living and one handy measure of whether the UI is fulfilling its design goals is how easily the user can..well..use it *without* consulting documentation. (Aeon's documentation? It does exist somewhere, I hope? Something beyond that 'canvas' bit?)
Witness the iPod. Nobody reads the manual because *nobody needs to*. The interface is intuitive and lends itself to experimentation that helps the user build a mental model of how everything relates to everything else, and quickly, too. A simple interface, yet you can do so much with it and you can bet its creators put a lot of time into its design. Aeon's interface? Nearly opaque. And those Themes? I really hate to say this, but in User Interface terms, they're a disaster. Truly.
I do really like this program a great deal, and I don't mean to sound critical, but please do something to make those Themes easier to make sense of, easier to use, clear and intuitive. Apart from the menu system and, especially, the way those Themes work (somebody understands them, yes?), Aeon would be an absolute gem of a program. It's nearly there already.
-Tex
As much as I like Aeon (and I like it a *lot*), I must say that the new 'Theme' menus are not intuitive in the slightest. Quite honestly, the plugin behaves almost as if it were 'fighting back.'
I design user interfaces for a living and one handy measure of whether the UI is fulfilling its design goals is how easily the user can..well..use it *without* consulting documentation. (Aeon's documentation? It does exist somewhere, I hope? Something beyond that 'canvas' bit?)
Witness the iPod. Nobody reads the manual because *nobody needs to*. The interface is intuitive and lends itself to experimentation that helps the user build a mental model of how everything relates to everything else, and quickly, too. A simple interface, yet you can do so much with it and you can bet its creators put a lot of time into its design. Aeon's interface? Nearly opaque. And those Themes? I really hate to say this, but in User Interface terms, they're a disaster. Truly.
I do really like this program a great deal, and I don't mean to sound critical, but please do something to make those Themes easier to make sense of, easier to use, clear and intuitive. Apart from the menu system and, especially, the way those Themes work (somebody understands them, yes?), Aeon would be an absolute gem of a program. It's nearly there already.
-Tex