Comment 5 for bug 1097484

Allow me to quote the elementary HIG:

"The main function of your app should be immediately apparent"

from http://elementaryos.org/docs/human-interface-guidelines/concision

Judging from the video linked to earlier, it wasn't immediately apparent to
the woman what Scratch was for. She opened it with the expectation that it
would be a text editor, and she closed it again when she (falsely)
concluded that it *wasn't* a text editor.
Den 08/03/2014 07.36 skrev "Jon Loldrup" <email address hidden>:

> What overhead would a newbie/average user/coder incur by being shown a new
> empty text file upon startup?
>
> Also, how do we solve the original conveyance issue (see further below),
> if at all?
>
> regards Jon
>
> Den 08/03/2014 03.50 skrev "Daniel Fore" <email address hidden>:
> >
> > The problem here is that Scratch is not a word processor. Is it a text
> > editor, and more often than not a code editor. So while it makes sense
> > for a word processor to start with a new document, it doesn't really
> > make a much sense for an app where most of the time you're going to be
> > working on existing code/markup.
> >
> > ** Summary changed:
> >
> > - Scratch conveyance issue (useability)
> > + Add "Show New File" to startup options
> >
> > --
> > You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> > report.
> > https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1097484
> >
> > Title:
> > Add "Show New File" to startup options
> >
> > Status in Scratch:
> > Confirmed
> >
> > Bug description:
> > When scratch opens, the main space of the application is occupied by
> > two buttons and a bit of descriptive text. This creates a problem, as
> > can be seen here:
> >
> > http://youtu.be/ULblsnv48WM?t=3m19s
> >
> > What is the problem? She immediately misunderstands the purpose of the
> > program! She thinks it is for "something other than text editing". The
> > problem is that the purpose of the application cannot be derived just
> > by glancing at it. The user has to read some text (not much, but some)
> > to know what to do. As we all know, users are lazy and as long as they
> > can, they just want to muddle through. Had the boy in the video not
> > helped the woman (his mother, actually), she would have closed Scratch
> > before realising that Scratch was exactly the tool she was looking
> > for! I would say that this is a major issue.
> >
> > To deliver conveyance through just glancing, Scratch could start out
> > by showing an empty text file. Actually, that is exactly what it does
> > in this state:
> >
> > http://youtu.be/ULblsnv48WM?t=3m49s
> >
> > Why would that deliver conveyance through glancing? I guess it is
> > because everybody has seen such a view many times when working with
> > computers: Text fields are a very widespread idea in user interfaces,
> > they have instant recognizeability and instant conveyance of how to
> > use it.
> >
> > I wonder if this idea of presenting some text before the actual user
> > interface has also been adopted by other elementary OS applications,
> > thus reducing conveyance through glancing in them too?
> >
> > To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> > https://bugs.launchpad.net/scratch/+bug/1097484/+subscriptions
>