Usability issues.

In my previous experiences with Amaya I have been using it as an
alternative browser, but recently (so as to keep the information in
the form of text) I have started to use it as an Editor under
Windows XP, and will also be using it under win98.

I have had the following surmountable :-) problems, but I would be
pleased if they could be changed.

When Amaya starts up, it doesn't remember the last few documents
which were worked on.  In "About Face" by Alan Cooper, it is
recommended that software remember this kind of thing where
possible.  There is a security issue here, in terms of people
reading the history files.  I would be happy if this feature were
implemented and switched off by default.

Further to this, Amaya doesn't rmember the directory in which one
was last working.

Other things I would like it to remember, (user selectable thngs
preferably) include which views I have open (for a document? It
would make sense to key it off that) and what magnification I was
last using.   I find the ability to zoom in most helpful for
accessibility reasons.  It would be nice if I could zoom in several
times off the menu: have a pull-right on the zoom feature to give me
a way to choose the amount of zoom, or possibly use a tool akin to
that in Adobe Acrobat to give me a choice on a toolbar?

The preferences dialogue is a menu, from which one can select
various things.  I'd like to suggest that this bring up a tabbed
display, with the relevant tab open.  When I wanted to check and set
several different sets of preferences I had to keep going to the
menu to reopen what I wanted.  This did not seem very task
orientated to me.

I hope these suggestions are some use.  I have not forgotten that
the Amaya team is small, so I understand if accepted these could take
time to appear.

         Thank you,
         Hugh

Received on Wednesday, 23 June 2004 10:51:23 UTC