[GRASS-dev] Making start of GRASS GIS easier for newcomers

[Maris Nartiss]

Taking into account usage patter of a person who knows (a bit) GRASS,
I would say that this could be a good solution - access to
functionality should be provided based on usage frequency.
To make this solution perfect, it would be necessary to add some
"black magic" that launches some "configuration wizard with
hand-holding help" for first time users (determined i.e. by missing
grassrc file). Add a button "start-up wizard" to allow start it also
later and - poof! - simple dialog, friendly for experienced users but
with "hand-holding" just a click away.

And now, please, can we refocus away from this bike-shed problem? IMHO
much bigger problem are not users scared of first screen at the first
time but users not returning for second time because of missing/broken
<insert here your favourite bug>.


Just trolling,
Maris.


2015-02-04 0:33 GMT+02:00 Blumentrath, Stefan <Stefan.Blumentrath at nina.no>:
> Even if there are probably already more proposals out there than I can count, here is yet another idea, which is a kind of intermediate solution between the minimalistic and classic approach:
> What about simplifying/reducing the Welcome-screen significantly as follows:
> 1) keep the two lists for selecting Locations and Mapsets (probably with a pre-selected combination), but not the buttons to their right. Compo-boxes would require extra clicks and being able to see available choices at once should not be a problem for newbies (as they have most likely only the demo-location). For those who have more locations and mapsets, the current solution with lists is likely to be significantly more convenient.
> 2) Remove the "Select GRASS GIS database directory" section.
> 3) have only three buttons: "Start", "Cancel", and "Manage GRASS GIS database". The latter button can then provide all other functionality (selection of database directory, create or delete Locations and mapsets). In practice it would probably be a "go back to classic welcome screen button"... That way the solution gets quite close to Markus M`s proposal (with only 5 elements in probably 3 groups (plus banner) left on the welcome screen), while keeping the probably most frequently used functionality at the surface.
> Finally, things (GUI elements) could be arranged on the screen in a left-to-right work-(mouse-)flow: Location -> Mapset -> Button
>
> The rational behind this proposal is, that switching between locations and mapsets is something probably more common (and choosing a location and mapset has to do be done always even if one accepts a default). So that functionality should be directly and easily accessible at startup. Creating new locations and mapsets and especially changing the GRASS database directory is something people probably do less often. So here one additional click with a "Manage GRASS DB" button is maybe not that painful for second-time-users?! But I am afraid this is also just another way of having two parallel/alternative startups...
>
> Cheers
> Stefan
>
>