[CinePaint] Interface Design for OSS

Hello together,
to quickly introduce myself: Me (Arno) and Joao are students of the 
University for Applied Sciences Schwäbisch Gmünd and currently working 
on a project about interface design, especially for Open Source.

For this semester we have chosen Cinepaint as a project for redesign, 
because it is a very promising program but still could use a lot of work 
on the design. For us interface design doesn't mean to make nice buttons 
and icons, the way we work with a program and how the workflow evolves 
is more important.

Right now we're a bit short on time, so we will just give a few 
headwords on our ideas:

-Cinepaint (0.20) is, as far as we understand it, a modular program, it 
can run different tasks at the same time (like color correction, gamma 
exposure, etc.)
Photoshop is a linear build up, it can only run one task at a time.
The interface of Cinepaint mimics the interface of photoshop. Because of 
the big difference in the informational architecture a lot of awkward 
behavior results from it and most importantly, the power of Cinepaint is 
not used.

-In the analysis we did on Cinepaint we realized quickly, that with a 
different interface this program can become a very powerful tool (also I 
like the rip-off function of the menus a lot).

What we lack is a knowledge on the programming, so what can be done and 
what not. What we have is experience in interface design as a very 
important element in the communication between man and machine.

greetings
Joao and Arno

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