I agree Blender has an intimidating UI (most 3D apps do). There's been a recent campaign to improve the Blender UI that has (not surprisingly) met with mixed views from the Blender community.
In my view, Blender has the same problems with UX as many open source projects: you can't design by committee, but everyone feels they should have a say in the UX. As soon as you create a dedicated team to shape the UX, it creates so much resentment. (Ubuntu is another example of this).
Here is a Youtube video of a presentation at this years Blender Conference (Oct 2013) on improving the Blender UI. The Q&A at the end of the session is a bit depressing: the audience seem resistant to change and feel that making Blender easier to use would mean "dumbing down" the app.
I agree Blender has an intimidating UI (most 3D apps do). There's been a recent campaign to improve the Blender UI that has (not surprisingly) met with mixed views from the Blender community.
In my view, Blender has the same problems with UX as many open source projects: you can't design by committee, but everyone feels they should have a say in the UX. As soon as you create a dedicated team to shape the UX, it creates so much resentment. (Ubuntu is another example of this).
Here is a Youtube video of a presentation at this years Blender Conference (Oct 2013) on improving the Blender UI. The Q&A at the end of the session is a bit depressing: the audience seem resistant to change and feel that making Blender easier to use would mean "dumbing down" the app.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aIA2LaB2Iw