Hi guys. I'm relatively new to PM, and I posted some UI concerns over in another thread,
PM's learning curve, and this was one of the items on my list.
I think the real reason that having sub-folders visible in the Contact Sheet is this: it is much too easy to end up opening a folder in a Contact Sheet and wishing you had opened a child folder, and not seeing an easy way to get there. The current behavior surprises and confuses new users ("Where are my files? Where are my folders?"). Experienced users can easily learn to work around it ("Don't do that!"), but for new users, the damage is already done ("PhotoMechanic is hard to use! I have to navigate its arcane system...").
Additionally, sometimes I know "The photos I want are in /Path/to/my/place" but I don't know if they are directly in place/ or in some subdirectory (subfolder) like place/red, place/blue, or even place/color/blue. PM's interface to folder browsing assumes I know in advance, but I don't. So it can be frustrating.
It might be instructive to look through the ways I could solve my problem using PM right now, and what this feature might add to the picture.
This is maybe a bit too Mac-centric, but I suspect there are parallel issues under Windows.
Our workflow involves a single machine where a bunch of photographers dump their photos. Let's say I put my photos in Desktop:Photographers:jhawk:2010.05.26.project, and so I want to navigate there in PM. Let's say there are 100 other photographers with folders in the Photographers folder, which has some implications for navigation (scrolling, etc.)
Case 1: File -> OpenI hit Cmd-O or File -> Open: the standard file dialog box opens.
I hit Cmd-shift-D to navigate to the Desktop.
I double-click on Photographers. (maybe I used a Finder shortcut to get there instead).
I have to find the 'jhawk' folder. Scrolling is bad.
The list of folders here is long and annoying to page through.
So I type "jhawk<RET>".
BAM! Oops, the jhawk folder opens in an empty contact-sheet, there's no easy way to recover. I'd love to see a list of folders and then just click on 2010.05.26.project, but I can't.
Instead I could have typed "jhawk<Cmd-DOWN>".
But that's nonintuitive.
Nobody remembers to type Cmd-DOWN in the standard file open dialog box.
We're so used to either double-clicking (which works great when scrolling, but not when typing a folder name with the mouse), or hitting RET.
Alternatively, I could have typed Cmd-shift-G (Go To Folder) and then
typed in "~/Desktop/Photographers/jhawk/2010.05.26.project"
but absolutely nobody's going to do that!
Conclusion: Either I learn to remember Cmd-DOWN;
I am forced to use the mouse in uncomfortable ways;
I have to do a lot of typing;
or I should not use File -> Open.
Or the contact sheet could show me folders and then I'd be golden.
Case 2: File -> New Contact SheetI hit Cmd-N or File -> New or use an existing open contact sheet.
I go to either the Favorites pane or the Navigator pane.
My personal folder isn't in either,
because there are 100 different people who might use the machine,
and having 100 favorites would be unwieldy.
I double-click Photographers.
Nothing seems to happen. Actually a tab appears showing there are no photos in Photographers,
but since it is an empty tab it's not obvious what has happened.
If I'm not used to PM, I'm confused and wonder what happened.
If I saw folders in the Contact Sheet (CS), then it'd be obvious.
I click the triangle next to Photographers. It expands. Takes a moment to do so.
I scroll through the list of 100 photographers. This is mildly annoying because the window I'm working
in is fairly small (narrow width pane on the left of the CS window), so it takes more time than
it might.
Also, there is a
Fitts's Law (wikipedia,
AskTog)
component here. Fitts's Law says "The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the target."
Of course this applies to mouse motion. If the folder icons were large and in the big CS window, then it'd be faster
and easier to click on them. (Also, the navigation pane is fairly unfamiliar. Most users don't have to navigate
folder hierarchies that way, so they're not used to it. With practice, it becomes easier. Again, PM's interface
favors the experienced user over the new one.
Anyhow, I open the "jhawk" folder. Again, a delay while the triangle expands
Perhaps I decide to use the keyboard. But then, when I finally land on the folder I want,
Selecting "2010.05.26.project" and hitting <RET>, nothing happens. Nor Cmd-RET.
I have to use the mouse and double-click.
Conclusion: Navigation interface works OK, but is unfamiliar and small, and thus less easy-to-use an efficient.
And there are still cases where I accidently open an empty Contact Sheet because I'm used to double-clicking
folders.
Case 3: Use the FinderYeah, I could navigate to the folder in the Finder, and then drag-and-drop it to PhotoMechanic.
That's OK as far as it goes, but it feels weird to do it. And if you're already in PM, having
to switch to the Finder just to open something feels...limiting.
OK, there we go. Maybe this helps to demonstrate why showing subfolders in a contact sheet would be useful. Basically it's because it's really easy to end up wishing they were there and it would make mouse-based navigation substantially faster and easier, and reduce the number of UI mis-steps.
Pavel asks about clutter. I think generally speaking if you have a lot of photos in a folder, you probably don't have many (or any!) subfolders. And if you have subfolders, you probably don't have images. So there's not much risk of clutter.
