How did Hexagon lose its way?

StratDragon

Kyoto Kid said:

...a more intuitive and well laid out UI that is similar to other graphics applications as well as consistency in operation, thus making it (the application) easier to learn so that more time can be devoted to the task of actually modelling.

Even Andrew Price has admitted how unintuitive Blender's interface is for many and how that is what often turns potential users away. In two video presentations he has pointed out a number of areas where the UI falls short of what makes a successful programme from the user's POV, and thus has made learning curve of adapting just to the application alone more difficult than it needs to be. The discussion primarily centered around inconsistencies in (and improving) how tools operate, how parameters are displayed, defaults are set, how the UI is visually laid out when the programme is opened, and how poorly the programme communicates with the user (such as the lack of progress monitors and warnings/prompts).

There is to be a third and final installment in the series which will outline suggestions for "cleaning up" and streamlining the UI.

The way I see it, I'd like to have Blender open to a screen with a basic toolset that involves the primary focus of the application: modelling, rather than rendering and animation, which are secondary operations. Adopting a "tab" or "room" setup like say Daz Studio, Poser, Carrara have would also make it a lot "cleaner" and more elegant.

I watched Andrew's two videos, this should be mandatory to anyone who designs an interface.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIedljapuz0#t=1252
most of his statements are coming from Jeff Johnson's "Designing with the Mind in Mind" so it's not just something you can apply to Blender.

DaremoK3

Kyoto Kid:

I am one of the few who actually like Blender's current UI, and even more astounding, I liked the 2.4 series UI as well. Although, I didn't really like it until I learned how highly customizable it is, and that it did in fact, have "tabs"/"rooms" (which I learned from Preta3D's terrific "Survival Guide" series).

I'm like you in the way that I do not use most of the application (animation, rendering, compositing, etc.), and mostly use it as a modeler (with UV mapping, 3D painting, and 3D sculpting). Though, I do have a version I have used for rendering, including a dedicated LuxRender room.

So... It can be done. You could set it up to be a dedicated modeler for yourself, but I won't lie, it still won't be Hexagon, and you will still have to memorize certain keyboard shortcuts for adequate functionality.

With this in mind, I present to you Hexagon 3 (ish) with dedicated Tabs/Rooms, Blender style:

ghastlycomic

What was great about Hexagon was you could access absolutely every function of the software with the mouse and the shortcut key was listed with icon and menu, so naturally, over time as you used the program you learned the shortcut.

Blender has function that can only be accessed by shortcut, so if you haven't memorized them before you start using the software, you can't use the software. Learning through exploration is one of Hexagon's biggest strengths.