Discussion: Scribus UI/usability improvements

Scribus has received its fair amount of praise for good usability. But there has also been valid criticism.

This is the page where you can make suggestions regarding improvements to usability and user interface design. Please do not add requests for new features unless they are related to the improvement of Scribus' usabilty. If you like, you can create mockups with UI builders like Qt Designer and upload a screenshot. If possible, don't just complain, but suggest alternatives. In case you think an existing application offers a good solution, you can add screenshots with a description.

Consistency with other applications

Unless there are solid reasons for going its own way, Scribus should act like that of other applications. It should follow their conventions. The more similar it is to them, the faster new users can get up to speed with it (i.e., a lower learning curve.)

Individual commands

Insert Page

Considering myself an experienced Scribus user, I still catch myself clicking the "Insert" menu to insert a page instead of the "Page" menu. I'd be interested to hear what others think about it. Maybe the "Insert Page" action should be moved to the "Insert" menu.

Menu naming

Windows menu

Even though the Windows menu has distant relatives under QuarkXPress, many users are unable to find essential features there, because Windows isn't specific enough. Personally, I don't have a problem with the menus, but many others do. At least the title of the menu should be changed ("Advanced Tools"?), but I think a major change might be the better solution. Please add your suggestions here.

Cleanliness/simplicity

A complex UI detracts from the user experience. It hinders both novice and professionals by making commands a) hard to find and b) hard to use. The UI should be as clean/simple as is possible without sacrificing any functionality.

Complexity

The Scribus UI is chock full of commands. Unfortunately, these commands are scattered rather haphazardly throughout the UI. In addition, many of them are redundant. For instance:

Closing documents

There are four separate ways to close a document window with the mouse:

• click the X in the upper-right
• double-click the control menu
• click the control menu and choose "Close"
• click the X button on the toolbar

This clutters the screen and probably detracts from usability. In addition, it is not standard practice to include a close X on the application toolbar--because it is not part of the child window, it is not clear whether it pertains to the parent (the Scribus application) or child window (the open Scribus document.)

Recommendation: remove the X button from the toolbar

• Comment: Scribus has to work under different OSes and different window managers. Eg. under KDE there's another possibility to close ist. Also, user expectations are certainly different. Some users are used to closing from the icon bar, others use File > Close, others prefer a shortcut etc. I also don't think this is really confusing. C_Schaefer

Intuitiveness of the UI

The user interface should be intuitive--users should be able to guess or use their gut feeling to figure out how the program works. This is especially important in open-source projects, which often lack comprehensive help systems. There should be a logic behind how commands are named, placed, and used.