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It’s amazing they’ve made this available, but if you need a 220 page manual to use a software then maybe the UX could be improved a bit.

morsch 5y ago
I've only looked up a few things here and there, but in order for that to work the documentation needs to be pretty thorough. If you think pro software doesn't need a manual, I invite you to check just how many shelves in your local bookstore are devoted to Photoshop, InDesign etc. Those books used to come with the software.
rhn_mk1 5y ago
There are limits to this. There's no amount of UX that will explain mathematical concepts as a side effect of being useful. Sure, you can implement some UX to show the differences between different demosaicing methods and how good they are, but you're going to implement an interactive toy/tutorial (so another form of a manual), or you'll end up failing to explain the theory.
tomc1985 5y ago
Or maybe people should RTFM This idea that software should always come to us, and not the other way around, is untenable. And, I think, selfish.
- Zak 5y ago
  There are valid points on both sides of that issue. On one hand, sophisticated image processing techniques require a level of user education that doesn't fit nicely into a UI. How to get the most out of the various tools belongs in the manual. On the other hand, Darktable's UI would benefit from some polishing, and perhaps a more gentle learning curve for beginners to become productive. This is very common in open source applications, as there tend to be more programmers contributing than UX designers.
eitland 5y ago
I used to be in your camp. Make it so easy no manual is needed. After having been subjected to this dumbification of software I myself use I'm starting to have doubts: my search engine is broken, every app is hiding the menus thereby hampering discoverability, plugin APIs gets neutered and won't be fixed because "it can confuse users". I'm well and truly fed up.
- ttctciyf 5y ago
  We've gone past mere constraints and are now in the era of strait-jacketed interfaces.
- Derbasti 5y ago
  What you say is particularly true for image editing and Darktable especially: there are already tons of image editors available in all levels of dumbed-down-ness. Lightroom is actually one of the more complex tools, all things considered. Which is exactly why Darktable is special: it is verbose and technical, but offers deep control and complexity, which is truly unique in image editors. (I want to compare it to Emacs, but it sort of lacks the extensibility to be a good analogy. But it is certainly more emacsian in spirit than any other image editor)

morsch 5y ago

I've only looked up a few things here and there, but in order for that to work the documentation needs to be pretty thorough. If you think pro software doesn't need a manual, I invite you to check just how many shelves in your local bookstore are devoted to Photoshop, InDesign etc. Those books used to come with the software.

rhn_mk1 5y ago

There are limits to this. There's no amount of UX that will explain mathematical concepts as a side effect of being useful. Sure, you can implement some UX to show the differences between different demosaicing methods and how good they are, but you're going to implement an interactive toy/tutorial (so another form of a manual), or you'll end up failing to explain the theory.

tomc1985 5y ago

Or maybe people should RTFM This idea that software should always come to us, and not the other way around, is untenable. And, I think, selfish.

Zak 5y ago
There are valid points on both sides of that issue. On one hand, sophisticated image processing techniques require a level of user education that doesn't fit nicely into a UI. How to get the most out of the various tools belongs in the manual. On the other hand, Darktable's UI would benefit from some polishing, and perhaps a more gentle learning curve for beginners to become productive. This is very common in open source applications, as there tend to be more programmers contributing than UX designers.

eitland 5y ago

I used to be in your camp. Make it so easy no manual is needed. After having been subjected to this dumbification of software I myself use I'm starting to have doubts: my search engine is broken, every app is hiding the menus thereby hampering discoverability, plugin APIs gets neutered and won't be fixed because "it can confuse users". I'm well and truly fed up.

ttctciyf 5y ago
We've gone past mere constraints and are now in the era of strait-jacketed interfaces.
Derbasti 5y ago
What you say is particularly true for image editing and Darktable especially: there are already tons of image editors available in all levels of dumbed-down-ness. Lightroom is actually one of the more complex tools, all things considered. Which is exactly why Darktable is special: it is verbose and technical, but offers deep control and complexity, which is truly unique in image editors. (I want to compare it to Emacs, but it sort of lacks the extensibility to be a good analogy. But it is certainly more emacsian in spirit than any other image editor)