[on mouse gestures]
When I first started using Blender, I thought the mouse gestures were very cool and used them all the time.
Then, I learned the shortcut keys (I really appreciate that most keys make an attempt to start with the command sound!).
Since one hand was already on the keyboard most of the time anyway... I realized I haven't used them in a long time.
Browsers like Opera (and yes, FFox with extension) are a perfect use for guestures though. But they're pretty simple applications and simple behaviours (link, scroll, close, new window, save). I wouldn't care any more if Blender has them, especially with the new widgets (not that I can actually figure out how to use them well). Rotating and sizing objects is not done nearly as much as creating, moving points etc, and you want to be precise with moving things. Gestures in a word processor would see as little use after the initial fanfare.
[new users & interface]
Like Window users coming to Linux, you have to learn a new way of thinking. I quit using it several times too, but something kept pulling me back. (Free?) The Blender interface and operation has always been so "responsive" that I soon loved what it does so smoothly, like the viewing, spinning etc ability which makes it so fast to view, as mentioned recently. Some of the better high-end ones are probably similar but most of the cheap/free ones aren't.
The attempts to unify and simply the interface are definitely in the right direction, but even after 5 years (5?!) since I first looked at Blender, there's still lots I can't do. And then there's all those new features... I just don't have the time - I'm glad some of you do! With all the new features though, as mentioned by others above, its still cluttered (though better - the modifier stack is a great idea), but now there's even more power hidden behind so many panels.
There's still a number of things that just aren't easily found or even on the menus. I think - maybe I just haven't found them. The context sensitive menus SOUND good... but I always seem to have trouble with them. "Eh?! It was there a minute ago! I know I saw that option somewhere..."
The thing that keeps making me look at other apps somewhat enviously, like say Bryce or Vue or C4D is usually things like always-in-your-face icons and decent preset materials.
A lot of the icons and screens look "nicer", nicely and attracively coloured and clean white instead of the "dingy grey" screen. Its somehow easier to see what's going on, without too much clutter. As usual, there's a power/ease trade-off. Bryce takes a lot of clicks and/or shortcuts to get right down to the materials, Blender - its right there.
BUT... on a lot of other (easy) apps, a new user can (left) see an icon - "pretty - Sphere!" click it, click M and immediately see a ton of standard but pretty rendering materials. Ok and a decent preview appears immediately. Click and you've got a pretty render. Try that on Blender and you get a dully-lit cube floating in a bright blue background. Its better than it used to be - at least there's a cube and a light so F12 gives an actual 3d picture
But the various screen setups don't make a lot of sense to me, and newcomers wouldn't even realize that you can change, add windows, etc at first. Having the Render Panel and the Material Panel both displayed... but then we get back to crowding everything onto the main screen again.(Hmm... Would a context senstive panel make sense? Maybe a material widget.... but no, we have non-overlapping panels instead of pop-up windows -- non-modal)
Of course, there a few preset libraries, objects etc out there for Blender. But new users can't be expected to go find and figure out how to load them - certainly not with Blender. A bunch should be included and sorted - that's one thing that Blender is completely lacking, a decent Material grouping system. I haven't tried the Library script yet, but the general concept is what I'm getting at. Or maybe nodes can used for that somehow - but there needs to be an organized library of presets for new users. How many new users need to ask "how do I make a transparent material?" !!
Maybe Blender needs some "software engineering" type activities. Like defining Conceptual Users (eg New Computer User, New 3D User, Competitive Software Expert), Use Cases (New 3D User starts B. for the first time, Competitive User wants to add a material, etc), User Observation (give instructions to X then videotape and analyse how a new user tries to X) Workflow Analysis (the number and types of activities required to do X).
An easy interface tries to make it easy to find what you might want (argued by some, at expense of power). The goal is a new user doesn't need to read the documentation - cause users won't!
But to do that, you have to meet expectations of the user. Most people who would want to get into 3D have used a computer enough that they definitely will have expectations on how things will work. More and more Linux desktop are coming with Windows-like defaults. They have to or they won't get new users. We need to better identify expectations of 3D users if we expect new users to be drawn in long enough to learn how to do more complicated things. What we have currently a few experts (in Blender and other) who have done sometimes extensive work but AFAIK, no actual study of different types of users.
Sounds like some good research for an enterprising student to me!
