Famously, in 1991, a plane crashed into a mountain due to a mode error - in different modes, the same control could be used for either the degree or the speed of descent, but it was not sufficiently clear which mode was currently active. Mode errors have been a longstanding problem in our discipline, and, especially in complex systems, can have deadly consequences. Mode slips happen because the system doesn’t clearly indicate its status to the user, violating the very first of the 10 usability heuristics. Modes can cause a range of usability problems, including mode slips (occurring when the user is not aware of the currently active mode) and low discoverability of mode-specific features. It'd be good for everyone if there were an easy way to convert Art Text boxes to Frame Text boxes. This is not the kind of initial experience you want users to have. I just made masters, precise layouts (Bringhurst's golden section grid on ISO), running headings, page numbers, sections, table of contents, and columns for a 46-page prospectus only to find out (once I started putting in real content) that I used the wrong kind of text box. If you use the wrong one, the only way to fix it is to remake it. The two behave the same until you try to resize them. The only thing that differentiates the boxes on the page is a single dot. Compare the Artistic Text 'A' to Microsoft Word's WordArt icon. The signifiers that differentiate the Artistic Text and Frame Text tools aren't strong enough. It's easy to make an Art Text box instead of a Text Frame because they both use the same keyboard shortcut, `t` (same as InDesign's text box). Just for the devs: This is a major stumbling block to new users.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |