T-SHIRT DESIGN SOFTWARE?

Mechanical design software usability (seeking a second researcher)

• We recently launched beta of a new mechanical design software package in connection with our http://www.emachineshop.com - the first on-line machine shop. The software is a free download on the site. What parts of the user interface need improvement? Is anything in the software unclear. Are any messages confusing? Are there any bugs? Are there any problems creating a design from conception thru ordering? Can anything be improved? We seek researchers ranging from software experts to novices and those with and without mechanical design knowledge. We will post this question more than once to get the views of different researchers. We seek actual answers to the questions - not information on how to research an answer. This requires working with the software and performing real tasks such as designing one or more of the shapes shown on the main web page.

• Answer:

  Hello Swisscheese, The website is very easily understood, especially the 1 - 2 - 3 introduction of what your service and the software deliver. (The website layout is too big for a screen resolution of 800*600 pixel to completely see the content without scrolling vertically, though.) The download was a bit confusing. Are you sure you need the additional download manager? It also doesn't seem to close itself automatically and continue with the installation. But when I clicked on "Close", it actually continued the setup. This is a minor point. On start-up, I go through the video graphics validity test by moving the shapes. It was unclear to me I had to select the outer lines of the shapes to do so, as I tried to grab them inside. An explanation of this would be helpful. Also, is it absolutely necessary to start with this test? I don't know the technical reasons, you must decide on this one. Also, the "Update Price Files" is slightly confusing, because you don't make it obvious wether or not this is an optional step. I click Cancel, and the program seems to stop, so I restart and download. Already I notice the e.g. "OK" and "Cancel" button follow a slightly old-fashioned interface style more common in Win3x software, using the icons of check and cross. Some people might prefer it, but it does not look like a modern, streamlined software to me. Minor point, again. I do not start to read the help, as suggested in the first pop-up dialog. I want to try to play around with the software, only then consult help. Myself, I'm experienced with several 3D packages, such as LightWave 3D, 3D Studio Max, and some others. I do not have experience with CAD programs for technical construction. I move over the toolbox on the left. The tooltip -- the little yellow pop-up help appearing when you keep the cursor over a certain icon -- is a bit too long. It also hides the lower buttons and was therefore slightly confusing. I think including a verbose help entry into a tooltip is too much; just the single word -- e.g. "Rectangle" -- should be helpful enough, for everything else one might consult the help file. Drawing the shape is fairly intuitive. I'm used to left-click to set a point of the line, so I draw a box. I use right-click to cancel the last line after I finished, again very intuitive. This is good. Now, when I want to drag the shape, I come across one big problem: The mouse cursor doesn't change to the "grab/ drag" icon I'm accustomed to from other software packages. Before I actually hold down the mouse key, there's no indicator if this will result in dragging. This should be changed, in my opinion. This goes for other cursors too, like: resizing and so on. There's a little icon to the top right of my shape. It pops-up the context-menu. Usually, I open a context-menu with the right-click. (This also works in your software, additionally, which is of course good.) Do you think the extra-way to access it is necessary? I now want to see my shape in 3D, so I go to the "View"-menu and click "3D". The menu, on first sight, is very nicely structured and grouped, with helpful icons. Not too much confusion. Some icons seem a little dry and amateurish, but this is not a big deal. A dialog pops up, reading: "Error: Material is not specified. ...". The error dialog of this style is typically used in Windows software for unexpected errors and appears a little too drastic on this occasion. Go for a "Note" or "Warning" style dialog and don't use the word "Error". I choose the part material. The dialog is very easy to use. I click on "Lead". I notice there seems to be a problem with the font-sizes somehow; the upper-right part of the dialog reads "For more d" and the rest of the sentence is cut off. I use the inch size dialog. (I guess the product is specifically tailored to suit the North-American market. I'm not used to inch, coming from Europe.) To make this dialog (and others) even easier, you might want to include a little "Help" icon in the upper-right, next to the closing "x". This feature can be used to receive help for a specific part of the dialog, like the "Thickness" part. Pressing F1 while focussing this part does pop-up the correct entry in the manual, which is very good. I click "OK" (where's "Apply"?) and the dialog closes. There seems to be no visual indicator my shape now has a material attached to it. Now I can view my shape in full 3D. This is a great feature and I can easily rotate my creation. However, did you think about integrating the "3D"-part of your emachineshop-software more tightly into the main interface? This could be done via tabbed dialogs, that is: the "3D Preview" would be an optional, non-design view, and one could easily switch from one to the other. Or, even an optional real-time preview. Now I want to try to cut a hole in my rectangle-shape. From 3D programs like LightWave 3D I'm used to boolean logic to add two shapes, subtract from one shape based on a second one, or to create a new shape using the intersection of two shapes. I now draw a circle inside the rectangle. I notice that after drawing the shape, the cursor function doesn't jump back to the pointer. You might think about this option, as it is used by some other software packages. This means I can draw, the directly move and resize a shape without clicking on the pointer again in the toolbox. (No, it's not necessarily better.) I resize the shape a bit and create an ellipse, upon which I get a warning message that this action might increase the manufacturing costs. I'm thankful for the tip and say to not proceed, but the ellipse is still there. I don't know exactly what's the meaning of all this. I want to click "Edit" - "Undo", but it's disabled. It should definitely not be, since I want to undo my last action and go back to the circle shape. Anyway, after deleting the one and creating a new circle, I click preview -- it does exactly what I wants and subtracts from the old shape, very nice and easy. Let me sign my creation by clicking on the "Text"-tool. I write a text, change the font-size, but somehow don't know if or how to alter the font-face. Also, I notice that the preview didn't change, as I can't seem to see the engraving. I do some more things, try out some tools, calculate the center of gravity, go to the checklist. And then go over (after entering my address details in "Job" - "Settings") to "Analyze price". This is also simple to understand. However, the "Quantity"-textbox doesn't seem to change the end-price unless it loses focus. Maybe there should be a little "Recalculate Costs..." button somewhere. Finally, I could place an order! To wrap it up, all in all the tool is very good and easy to use. My biggest complaint for longer working sessions with would be the lack of cursor-icons when the mouse moves around, as this makes it hard to know what one can do at any given position. I hope this helps, and wish you the best of luck with your product!