thanks for the program and is it possible to simplify menus)

thanks for the program and is it possible to simplify menus)

Postby denisiy » Sun Feb 13, 2011 6:47 am

hi Ernie,

truth to be told, this is one of the apps that I dont feel sorry about having it bought ;)

Wanted to ask your personal opinion about the complexity of the menus structure existing in your app? Do you rate it as somewhat complex?

to me, there are too many "entries" to some adjustments, and very often I forget where some tuning option is located - indeed, once you open a list of decks, there is one entry to Options menu, then, when you open some deck, there is another entry, and finally, having a list of words displayed, you can find some more settings menus...
I understand that everything has its logics, no doubt it was considered thouroughly, but....man..sometimes it is too complicated for me! Even after 8 months of usage or so I sometimes find it difficult to orient myself in that options structure.

I think it is the main downside of this app - for a rookie it takes a long time to master it, i.e. long habituation period.
thanks!
cheers!

Denis
denisiy
 

Re: thanks for the program and is it possible to simplify me

Postby Ernie » Sun Feb 13, 2011 12:33 pm

Hi Denis,

I think I have two option areas: Global and Deck. Global is "generally" where settings that affect all decks are located. Deck settings are tied closer to individual decks, and located off the study screen. I the menu options can be overwhelming. In the last update, new users are now shown "basic" menus by default, so they don't get overwhelmed. The idea is... there are only a few options needed to get you started. If you get comfortable with these and want to see more, you can turn them on. In today's update, I actually buried many of the "View" options further down in an Advanced menu. This may make it hard to find them, but it also keeps it easier to find the more popular options.

So the direction I'm heading is... show fewer options on the main screens, and bury less common options further down, with the goal of making is appear less cluttered. Most people can ignore these advanced settings.

I might want to merge the Global and Deck option screens at some point. Not sure.

The options on the Card Listing screen I think is excempt. You can ignore these if you want, they are easy to find (since they exist in the same area), and there aren't that many options.

Another thing I did was add searchable help. Yes, I'm starting to bury more options, but if you have something you are looking for, search for it in help.

Bottom line is, yeah I know that the menus are big and intimidating. I will be continually addding more options and continually trying to make them easier to navigate. This will always be work in progress, I'm guessing.

Ernie
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