Version:           SVN (3.1.0 RC2?) (using KDE KDE 3.5.7)
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages
OS:                Linux

Original message: http://mail.kdab.net/mailman/pipermail/kphotoalbum/2007-May/003224.html

Hi!

Happened to reinstall KPA and noticed that when you run it for the
first time, many popup windows are shown before you actually get to
the program.

With demo database:
1) Question about creation of the database (-> Load Demo)
2) Introduction videos

Creating new database:
1) Question about creation of the database (-> Create my own database)
2) Select database directory (-> OK)
3) Directory doesn't exist, create it? (-> Yes)
4) Exif support found, want to scan? (-> Yes)
5) Introduction videos

So first run: 2-5 popups before actually seeing the actual program in use..

The question about database has stopped me from trying many archive
programs. How a user would know if he really want's to let the program
index his photos or create files to the disk. How could he know, if
KPA touches / edits the images? Writes to IPTC:s, creates thumbnail
files, whatever, if it's the first time one runs the program?  Demo
database's good for first run, I think it could be some kind of
default.

Suggestion:

One 'welcome to KPA' - wizard or screen that includes all this stuff
as some kind of steps, tabs of a single window or something.. to guide
to start using KPA instead of many popups we now have.

First it would show what features are now available (and what the
features are used for ie. what does it mean to a user that EXIF or
KIPI or SQlite is not available) and what to do/install to get them
work. In a format 'anyone could understand'. SQlite says nothing to an
average user but 'being able to search the data the camera saved to
the image: speed, ISO, focal length etc' tells a lot more.

Then it could suggest to try the demo database before indexing user
photos. It could also suggest having a look at some 'quick help' to
get more information, possibly some kind of walk-through guide that
would show the user what's the thing with KPA. "close & rerun to get
this same dialog to index your files or select something from this ->
that menu". The idea is to make the user try & create something, not
only sit & watch someone do it in the video.

Then there could be this option to index files / select base
directory. It should at least:
-tell that KPA doesn't touch the files but creates this (2?) many new
files in the given directory to store the information about the images
-have the option to ignore RAW:s (at this point, hopefully any files
in the future..)
-tell that if you point to an existing KPA database dir, the existing
XML will be used and new will not be created nor the old one deleted.
-have the option to scan/not scan for exif, in case exif support is available

I think this is pretty much all this welcome-wizard should do..

The survey popup could possibly use more or less the same window
interface so the user wouldn't feel uncomfortable filling it.

Or something like this.. I just think it's too much to have up to five
popups before you actually can access the program..


update: in addition to this, there at least was one more for IPTC settings (see http://mail.kdab.net/mailman/pipermail/kphotoalbum/2007-October/003479.html)