User Experience Group

During my visit to SolidWorks headquarters, I was able to met with members of the User Experience Group, such as Tom Spine, who is working hard to further improve the SolidWorks/human interface.  You may wish to check out his recent article and questionnaire.

Another area where the User Experience Group is focused is on Help files.  I’m not fan of the current SolidWorks Help file.  Contrary to some popular ideas, SolidWorks Corp has been working hard to create and improve the Help file.   The statement from them is essentially that there is no intentional effort to keep the Help file simplified with few photos of the SolidWorks application to avoid costs of translation.  In fact, they have a staff of translators working hard to keep the Help file updated in 13 languages.  This work is tasked to something called the Localization Group, which is within the User Experience Group.  Admittedly, there is too much work for their current staff to do on their own, so a certain percentage of translation is farmed out.  However, the User Experience Group is aware of criticisms regarding the Help file and have made it clear that they are working hard to fill in any gaps, including the inclusion of more photos from the SolidWorks application for each of the supported languages.