Hi!
I've been thinking about these things too for a while, and I tried to mention it this summer... But, everybody was probably too busy sailing then...
I'm an IT professional, so I'm quite happy about all the flexibilities in Sailwave. But, I'm quite sure that for most (or at least many) users, sailwave is now quite a challange to use. It started out with an idea about userfriendlyness an easy to use software, and has now grown to handle almost every possible wish from alot of clubs around the world. Beside the IT/Computer skills needed, you also have to be expirienced in RRS and "local rules". None of those is simple!
I've been wondering about how it should have been, if it was wanted to handle "everything", and be easy to use. I think that it is not only one answer, but two:
1. A wisard to guide you through "straight" setups, like plain RRS. Maybe predefined "templates" could do it? I've missed templates anyway, so that I could save and reuse them depending on wich series I wanted to make....
2. A tree with all options. Make sure that when selecting in the tree, it should not be possible to make ambigious selections.
A total different way is to split Sailwave into several smaller pieces, like:
SW Dinghy scoring
SW OneDesign Scoring
SW Handicap scoring
SW Team Racing
I think splitting woul make the most userfriendly version, but also the least flexible and hardest to maintain....
Regards
···
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Colin Jenkins <colin@sailwave.com>
Reply-To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 12:11:08 +0000
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<tt>
Hi,<BR>
<BR>
One of the things that has made Sailwave popular is usability. But as <BR>
more and more things need to be user pre-defined - new points systems, <BR>
rating systems, rating values, publishing options, templates, styles etc <BR>
etc, competitors, starts, usability could get compromised<BR>
<BR>
Currently the approach has been for the user to create ASCII files by <BR>
hand and point Sailwave at them (or force them to be created in a <BR>
specific folder). This is OK for confident computer users but is it <BR>
onerous for other users? Would it be better if there was a single <BR>
Tools+Setup item that displayed a tree of all the stuff the user could <BR>
define and have a dedicated editing window (etc) for each.<BR>
<BR>
I would envisage all this setup data being stored in a single ASCII <BR>
(XML) file so that 'expert' users could still edit it by hand if required.<BR>
<BR>
Any strong opinions?<BR>
<BR>
-- <BR>
<BR>
Regards,<BR>
Colin J<BR>
www.sailwave.com<BR>
<BR>
</tt><br><br>
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