[Bf-funboard] Lots of cool ideas on how to improve consitancy, ease of use ect. (with mockups)

[The Fallen Weeble]

On Mon, Oct 20, 2003 at 05:39:36PM +0200, William Reynish wrote:
> Proposal 1 - Vertical text in collapsed horisontal panels
> http://www.shadeless.dk/request1.jpg

Yes, but I'd rather have the text read normally, but rotated 90 degrees.  

> Proposal 2 - Consistant arrows and menus
> http://www.shadeless.dk/request2.jpg

Consistancy is good, but I'm not sure the arrow is the right tool for
this job... and if it is, it might be misused.  Rotating the arrow to
expand/collapse doesn't make any sense, logically, as there is no
direction change.  Pointing left or right might work, but the arrow
should indicate where you want the menu to go, not where it is (i.e.
point left - < - for an expanded menu that you want to collapse and
point right - > - for a collapsed menu that you'd like to expand). 

> Proposal 3 - Global Frames/seconds
> http://www.shadeless.dk/request3.jpg

Fair enough... although, personally I think we would be just fine
keeping the entire thing frame-based.  I don't find seconds as useful.
Seconds can still be indicated every n frames, though, based on an
assumed framerate of n fps.

> Proposal 4 - use tabs whereever possible
> http://www.shadeless.dk/request4.jpg

Not a big fan of this one.  I prefer icons as well.  Why not the tab
paradigm using the icons in the tabs?  Or am I misunderstanding
something here? 

> Proposal 5 - include Grab, Rotate and Scale in menus
> http://www.shadeless.dk/request5.jpg

While it might be initially helpful, I can find two problems with this.
1) Implementing this would be tricky considering that the mouse would
start in a weird place when doing transforms from this location.  The
trouble necessary to make it... um... not tricky, probably wouldn't be
worth it in the long run.
2) Really a minor thing, but these options would probably get in the way
of vertran users who are looking to do something a little more complex
or less frequently used.

Personally, I'll leave Grab, Rotate, and Scale for hotkeys and the
toolbox.

> Proposal 6 - More preset Screen styles
> http://www.shadeless.dk/request6.jpg

More presets is good... but I wouldn't go to crazy.  I wouldn't
recommend having more than 3 or 4.  Beyond that, it just gets a little
excessive.

Also, as already mentioned by someone else, I highly recommend *against*
preset names like "Flash MX" or "Softimage"

> Proposal 7 - New cool startup screen with new functionality.
> http://www.shadeless.dk/request8.jpg

Not a horrible idea, but before building that functionality into it, I
think it would be smarter to have the quickstart made *first*.  Nothing is
worse than thinking you're going to get help and then not getting any.
This sort of thing wouldn't be difficult to add, so it would be best to
have the content there before making it accessible.

I also don't relish the idea of having to click to close out the startup
screen.

Good set of suggestions... not something I'd finalize on, but good for
maintaining a dialog about this.

Later.

  Groo