469eb43c95
This brings blog posts, showcase posts, and newsletter editions into the Docusaurus site. It also adds support for using TailwindCSS inside a container. So this will probably end up being the new freesewing.org site in v4.
133 lines
5.9 KiB
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133 lines
5.9 KiB
Text
---
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authors: 1
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caption: 'This post is mostly about our work on progressive disclosure. Also: Three new patterns!'
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date: '2019-10-06'
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intro: "We've just release FreeSewing v2.1 🎉"
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title: 'FreeSewing v2.1: Three new patterns, expert mode, and help with measurements'
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---
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We've just release FreeSewing v2.1 🎉
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<!-- truncate -->
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## Meet Penelope, Waralee, and Simone
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There are 3 new patterns in this release:
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- [Penelope](/designs/penelope) is a pencil skirt by [Wouter Van
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Wageningen](/users/user?id=132)
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- [Waralee](/designs/waralee) are wrap pants, also by
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[Wouter](/users/user?id=132)
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- [Simone](/designs/simone) is Simon (our versatile button-down pattern)
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adapted for breasts by [Joost De Cock](/users/user?id=1)
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All of these patterns are either womenswear or -- in the case of Waralee --
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unisex clothing. Which in an indication of our commitment to bring more
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womenswear patterns to the site.
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Apart from creating new patterns, a lot of efforts have gone into making things
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simpler, without making them dumber. Let me explain:
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## Our work on progressive disclosure
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Striking a balance between giving our users all the power of the platform, yet
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making it easy for newcomers to get started, is an ongoing challenge. We have
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started making inroads into addressing that issue with so-called _progressive
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disclosure of complexity_.
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The idea -- which we didn't make up, but is a concept in UX design -- is to
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simplify the experience for most people without limiting the abilities of more
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advanced users.
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We are focusing our attention for progressive disclosure on two areas that are
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the ones that our users most often struggle with:
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- **Pattern options**: Our patterns often come with dozens of options. That is
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great for those who like to fine-tune every detail of their pattern, but can
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be a bit overwhelming for newcomers
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- **Measurements**: Taking accurate measurements is crucial for good results
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with our patterns, yet not as trivial as you would think.
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While we're certainly not there yet, we've made progress on both of these.
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Let's look at what we've been up to:
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### Pattern options: We now have an expert mode, and it's off by default
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(some of) Our patterns have had _advanced options_ for a while, but they are
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now hidden by default. That is until you turn on the **Expert mode** in the
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settings (below the pattern options).
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Apart from advanced pattern options, export mode also reveals the lesser-used
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draft settings such as the ability to change the language, units, details,
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margin, and contents of your draft.
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:::tip Also shown: Pattern vs Recipe defaults
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When configuring your draft, every option has a little button to restore the
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default value for that option. Things get more complicated when you're
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re-creating a recipe. Now when you restore the default, is it the pattern
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default, or the recipe's default?
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The answer used to be the pattern default, but with this release, you'll find
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that options where the recipe default is different from the pattern default
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will have two buttons. Once to restore the pattern default, and another to
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restore the recipe default.
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You can see this in the screenshot above.
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:::
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### Measurements: Helping you spot mistakes in your measurements
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We've added a few indicators to help you spot mistakes or problems in your
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measurements. Your models will now show a graphical representation of your body
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measurements, which will allow you to spot any outliers.
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In addition, we are showing you an estimate of your different measurements
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(based on your neck circumference) next to the actual value. If the difference
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gets larger, we'll draw your attention to that.
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This is a difficult area for us to work in. We want to help you get the best
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results, and that includes helping you spot issues with your measurements. On
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the other hand, we in no way want to imply that someone's measurements are
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_wrong_ somehow.
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We are an extremely size-inclusive pattern outlet, and a disproportionate
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amount of our users are people who struggle to find clothes or patterns from
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other outlets. So on one hand, it might seem like we're setting ourselves up
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for failure by comparing measurements to a set of more or less _standard_
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measurements. But you know your body. You know which of your measurements
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deviate from the average. And us pointing out that they do is in a way only
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confirmation that you've been measuring correctly. On the other hand, if
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something jumps out where you are fairly average sized, you know to
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double-check those measurements.
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Last but not least, while we try to provide guidance about measurements to help
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spot mistakes, we never exclude anyone based on size or measurement. No matter
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what you throw at us, we will draft a pattern that works for you, or (our
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software will) die trying.
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## Other changes
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- We have extended our size ranges for our comparison views. Menswear sizes
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are now sampled from size 32 up to 48, while womenswear is sampled from size
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28 up to 46.
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- We've made some changes to the defaults in the Simon pattern, based on our
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tests with Simone
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- We've added support for preloading models with breasts to our development
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environment for pattern designers
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- We've implemented fixes and improvements in our Jaeger, Bruce, Benajamin,
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Simon, Carlton, and Carlita patterns
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- We've added a bunch of missing images in the documentation, and [started an
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effort to make sure all options have an image to illustrate their
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purpose](https://github.com/freesewing/freesewing.org/issues/190).
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More information is available [in the
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changelog](https://github.com/freesewing/freesewing/blob/develop/CHANGELOG.md).
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We hope you enjoy this release, and please [stop by our chat
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room](https://discord.freesewing.org/) to share your thoughts, feedback,
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suggestions, or ideas. We'd love to hear from you
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