[Bf-funboard] Menus and toolbox intentions

[Thunderbolt]

I totally agree that the Maya style hotbox isn't very
efficient. It looks like they actually have a
'two-tier' pie menu, where the use has to move past
the first 'ring', to the outer ring,  which negates
much of the speed advantage that single tier pie menus
have. 

Sounds like a very good overall design philosephy to
me, especially the use of pie menus whenever possible
:-).

--- Matt Ebb <matt@mke3.net> wrote:
> I thought I'd send this in a separate email since
> it's about more general
> ideas.
> 
> From some of the responses I've read, I feel I
> haven't been clear enough
> about my intentions for this project with the menu
> and toolbox. So I'll lay
> it all out in the open for debate lest I confuse
> people or seem like I have
> hidden agendas ;) Warning: large semi-rant
> approaching!
> 
> Right now, Blender's menu and toolbox are quite
> disjointed. Neither of them
> contain all the functions available, they are
> organised differently to each
> other for no visible reason, they contain different
> sets of functions, are
> not organised very logically, and so on. It seems
> that there's not much of a
> guiding design to how they are, and if there is, at
> least I can't see it :P
> So I'd like to make their roles clearer and more
> functional.
> 
> In other software there are a few different
> philosophies about how they
> should operate. Usually, the main menu bar is used
> as a big organised
> structure of all the different features in the
> application. The Apple
> philosophy is that every feature in the app should
> be accessible from the
> menu bar. I tend to agree with this idea for reasons
> I've mentioned before:
> easier and more accessible for newbies to 'explore'
> the app and discover and
> experiment with features, easy way to learn hotkeys,
> easy to find
> 'forgotten' features since you can use spatial
> menory and the structure
> helps to find what you're looking for - if you
> forget a hotkey, you're in
> trouble, but if you forget a menu item, you can
> think "well, it's an editing
> funtion so I'll check in 'edit'... *checks* ... oh
> there it is!". Because of
> these things, one major aim of the main menu is to
> have an emphasis on
> logical organisation. It's more important that the
> structure of the menus is
> clear and well organised, then it is to be efficient
> (there are alternatives
> such as hotkeys for efficiency).
> 
> Now a lot of software nowadays has a toolbox type
> thing in addition to the
> main menu, for accessing features. While Maya's
> radial hotbox layout is a
> good idea, I think the implementation is a big
> mistake. Maya's hotbox
> (screenshot: 
>
http://mke3.net:9000/blender/ui/misc/maya_hotbox.png)
> is
> basically just the main menu arranged in a circle.
> Since the idea of having
> a hotbox that appears right where your mouse is, is
> to have super fast
> efficient access to features that doesn't get in the
> way of working, simply
> repeating the menu again seems to me like a *huge*
> waste of potential and
> speed. Rather than having better access to the
> features that the user needs
> to access quickly, time and time again, with Maya's
> hotbox, the user only
> saves about half a second (the time it would take to
> move the mouse away
> from the workspace to the top menu bar), since the
> user has to navigate the
> same structure as the top menu anyway. I'd even be
> willing to bet that on
> MacOS, there is no advantage to the hotbox over the
> top menu bar, because of
> fitt's law
>
(http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html)
> and
> that the menu bar may even be faster. I don't
> understand the choice to just
> replicate all the options of the main menu in the
> hotbox - the more options
> that are in the hotbox, the more crowded (and
> difficult to find items) it
> becomes. Who needs fast split-second access to menus
> like 'Help'??
> 
> Another approach, which I'm much more of a fan of,
> is what 3DS Max uses (Ton
> mentioned this before). Max uses a 4-paned
> contextual menu for its toolbox,
> which gives relevant options what whatever kind of
> mode you're working in at
> the time. Screenshots here:
>
http://www.discreet.com/images/products/3dsmax/3dsmax5_beta/hi-res/PolyModeling-Frog.jpg
>
http://www.discreet.com/images/products/3dsmax/3dsmax5_beta/hi-res/PoseAnimation-Abix.jpg
> I personally think this is a much better approach,
> since it really takes
> advantage of the fast access with the toolbox, and
> gives you direct access
> to the tools themselves - no need to navigate
> through layers upon layers of
> menu structure.
> 
> So, for Blender, I propose this:
> * Use the top main menu as a well organised and
> structured list of all of
> Blender's features that will feasibly work in a menu
> * Change the toolbox into a combination of Max's and
> Maya's:
>   - Display context-sensitive features that can be
> accessed directly with
> one mouse click
>   - Also have one or more *additional*
> buttons/options that will replicate
> (perhaps in a manner similar to Gimp's right-click
> menu? I don't know) the
> main menus as well
>   - Use radial (pie menu) layout as much as possible
> (articles at
> www.piemenus.com)
> 
> 
> So... any opinions? :)
> 
> Matt
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Bf-funboard mailing list
> Bf-funboard@blender.org
> http://www.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-funboard


=====
From,
Ryan Freckleton

Alias:Thunderbolt16

 "But other rocket experts are worried, not least because the Thunderbird capsule is actually a converted cement mixer, containing sheets of hardboard and a few computer joysticks." --BBC Online

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com