[Bf-funboard] editbuttons layout update / Panel Highlighting

Matt Ebb bf-funboard@blender.org
Wed, 15 Oct 2003 19:13:20 +1000


> I find this thin lines very distracting.

Me too. However having no divisions is too messy, and resembles the old
'throw all the buttons in this big area' too much without communicating the
panels system well. The panels aren't just stationary blocks wihch can be
hidden or shown, they are manipulable, dragged, dropped into or over other
panels, they move into their new positions when they are auto-aligned. The
fact that they are discrete controls needs to be shown.

Unfortunately I can't find a good example (this is very small and messy),
but earlier revisions of the panels looked like this, with a subtly shaded
background and header:
http://reblended.com/www/broken/interface/controls/panel_bg.png .

Not too distracting, but also clear.

> So Apple users will know what the disclosure triangle means, but most
> Windows users will not. I still think an icon refering to the action
> could be an improvement. But then again, the triangle is simple.

It's not just Apple - I'm not even a Mac user myself (yet :P). The
disclosure triangle is also used a lot in other graphics software - in
Adobe's apps, in the Discreet compositing apps, in Macromedia's apps (at
least the recent MX series anyway), in Maya, and also in other non-graphics
apps like Mozilla Firebird. One of the reasons behind this UI work is to
make the controls more standardised where they behave in standard ways. The
disclosure triangle is a standard control, and we should use it rather than
re-inventing the wheel and coming up with an abstract icon that people won't
understand anyway ;).

Cheers

Matt