potrero
Mechanical
- Aug 30, 2007
- 516
If this is somehow a contentious issue, I apologise. But it is very important nonetheless.
The NX user interface has in my opinion steadily improved, at a pace unmatched, from what I can tell, by any of the MCAD competition. At NX5, it is clean and efficient. There are definitely ways to improve, and if things continue as they have over the past few releases, I'm optimistic about what's to come.
There may however be a storm cloud on the horizon...
From the screenshots I've seen of NX6, it doesn't look like the * infamous * "ribbon" style UI has been implemented, and I have to say, thank goodness. However, apparently the new version of Solid Edge DOES have the ribbon, which makes me worried that it is being considered for NX.
As a long-time MS Office user (who isn't?) and one who uses both Office 2003 and 2007 on an almost daily basis, it is clear to me that the Ribbon represents almost uniformly unnecesary bloat. Icons are not organized in logical way (why is Solver under Data?); icons are huge which are almost never used (who needs all the ridiculous chart color/formatting templates?); and overall there is much more of a need for mouse clicks instead of keyboard shortcuts. Why on earth would you get create an entirely new set of keyboard shortcuts, and then despite allowing "oldstyle" keyboard shortcuts, not have an option to "re-skin" the applications with the conventional interface?
The reason this is all relevant is because the threat is that NX will wholesale scrap the evolutionary results of its UI improvements over the years in order to buy in to what seems to be the (unfortunate) UI trend.
I sincerely hope other users (especially those with Ribbon exposure) would weigh in with their opinion on the topic. If I'm not way out in left field on this, perhaps John Baker and others at Siemens might take this point of view into account as future UI changes are considered.
As an aside, Al Dean complements NX6's (non-ribbon) UI in his blog post on "The Ribbon of Doom":
The NX user interface has in my opinion steadily improved, at a pace unmatched, from what I can tell, by any of the MCAD competition. At NX5, it is clean and efficient. There are definitely ways to improve, and if things continue as they have over the past few releases, I'm optimistic about what's to come.
There may however be a storm cloud on the horizon...
From the screenshots I've seen of NX6, it doesn't look like the * infamous * "ribbon" style UI has been implemented, and I have to say, thank goodness. However, apparently the new version of Solid Edge DOES have the ribbon, which makes me worried that it is being considered for NX.
As a long-time MS Office user (who isn't?) and one who uses both Office 2003 and 2007 on an almost daily basis, it is clear to me that the Ribbon represents almost uniformly unnecesary bloat. Icons are not organized in logical way (why is Solver under Data?); icons are huge which are almost never used (who needs all the ridiculous chart color/formatting templates?); and overall there is much more of a need for mouse clicks instead of keyboard shortcuts. Why on earth would you get create an entirely new set of keyboard shortcuts, and then despite allowing "oldstyle" keyboard shortcuts, not have an option to "re-skin" the applications with the conventional interface?
The reason this is all relevant is because the threat is that NX will wholesale scrap the evolutionary results of its UI improvements over the years in order to buy in to what seems to be the (unfortunate) UI trend.
I sincerely hope other users (especially those with Ribbon exposure) would weigh in with their opinion on the topic. If I'm not way out in left field on this, perhaps John Baker and others at Siemens might take this point of view into account as future UI changes are considered.
As an aside, Al Dean complements NX6's (non-ribbon) UI in his blog post on "The Ribbon of Doom":
