How should calligra apps start by default? Was: Re: Don't show template selection ui any longer

[Boudewijn Rempt]

So... Maybe it's a good idea to start a real discussion on how we want Calligra apps to present themselves to the user at the first time.

The current template dialog is said to be the result of usability work, though I've never seen the report nor the interaction design. Does anyone have those documents? I can't find my way through openusability anymore.

Historically, we had a template dialog in a separate window (http://www.valdyas.org/fading/index.cgi/hacking/krita/templates.html has a screenshot).

Now we have the big startup widget which offers the following features:

* recent files
* file browser
* custom document widget
* template browser
* optionally extra custom panes

We get a lot of negative comments about it -- I remember that Peter Sikking (the gimp interaction design maintainer) couldn't keep from laughing out loud when he first saw it. I've got used to it myself, though I never use the integrated file browser, I alway press ctrl-o.

Apple's office suite also starts with a template browser, but there the original idea of the whole suite was that users would select a jobs-okayed template and fill in the blanks with their own text, not develop from scratch.	

I'm really unsure about how to go from here -- but maybe we should go back to stage one and start defining what users generally do in which application if they don't start by clicking on a document?

-- 
Boudewijn Rempt | http://www.valdyas.org, http://www.krita.org