With this, there is no need to have to move your mouse all the way across the screen when selecting a new colour. In both FireAlpaca and SketchBook Express, the colour-selection tools are movable. The orientation of the colour selection tools is also important when thinking about the value it provides to the user. Value – Does the program/interface support the user’s needs? Unfortunately, my productivity was hindered due to this design.Ģ. Remarkably, you need to click on the “window” option, from which a drop-down menu appears with “color” as an option. So, I finally gave up and googled the solution to my problem. As you can see below, you can’t even re-open it from the menu at the top of the screen, because the option you’ve selected is already checked off, while the colour selection tool is nowhere in sight on the left-hand side of the screen: I have been trying for approximately 10 minutes to figure out how to reopen it with no luck. Conclusively, for the average, everyday user, the text box aspect just adds clutter and impedes learnability.Īdditionally, one aspect of FireAlpaca that irks me is the fact that upon closing the colour selection tool, it disappears into oblivion. However, I doubt than anyone doing professional artwork is likely to be using FireAlpaca in the first place. The only way I could see this feature being useful is in a professional context, where you need a very particular colour on the spectrum, thus adjusting it to the correct parameters via text boxes. I would say that the RGB text-boxes in Fire Alpaca may be unnecessary, as the colour sliders are better for visualizing what colour you are selecting. Although SketchBook Express contains a greater number of colour selection tools, they are easy to find and navigate. Usability – How easily can the user complete the intended task?īoth programs are generally easy to use. In order to compare which program is “better” in terms of colour selection, I will analyze them on 2 different aspects of User Experience (UX):ġ. Numbers in the bulleted list correspond to the images, in order, from top left to bottom right.

*Hover over the image composite above to view numerical values.

How to use firealpaca curve tool