[Bf-funboard] Review of UI

Guillermo S. Romero / Familia Romero bf-funboard@blender.org
Sun, 26 Oct 2003 16:03:04 +0100


I have been playing with the new NKEY, the 3d viewport options, new
headers and toolbox. Probably there will be some "work in progress"
replies, but I dunno what is the final idea, or even if there is one
set in stone, so "constructive critic over work in progress". Larstiq
proposed to get this written for the IRC session, so I assume he means
things are starting to settle enough to comment about them.

Lets separate the issues a bit, even if they relate sometimes:

* Mode indicator in 3d header.

Mode info could be compacted, leaving only the icon, but poping out
the full text version when clicked. That would save space, like the
other selectors to its right. And thus make it nice for small views.

Another viable option is to put it in an unique place like the info
header cos it is global (it should be visible for maximized 3d view,
of course), saving the space from all the 3d view headers.

Probably other indicators can be moved to a general place too or
sorted into a couple of places, after finding some kind of logic rule.
"Critic in progress". :]

* Menu in 3d headers.

Menus could be colapsable, some people do not use them at all, or just
rarely when they forgot something, so more space saving for them. And
again, like mode indicator, you get one per view when they are more
general, no? This a bit weird, see below.

* 3d view options window.

Currently it became a menu-accesible window. So it overlaps when it
stays, and blender style aside (no overlap windows, use and hide
controls), that sounds too much for something you use and then keep
working.

It has been a great improvement to have it in a less obscure place
than original Blender, of course. It could become a small button in
the header that popups the big control area and goes away when mouse
leaves.

* Transparency.

Derived from previous, but applicable in other places, I have seen
people complaining about the transparency and how it affects the
speed, and I think they are right. First, if the system gets choopy
due the candy, the user feels bad and that is something to avoid, he
has to be able to focus in the work.

Second, I found an study about how this affects increase or dicrease
reaction, and my conclusion was that it rarely increases it, at best
it seems to keep the same level. Add the "angry user", and you
probably have a bad recipe.
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi96/proceedings/papers/Harrison/blh_txt.htm

* New toolbox.

Interesting experiment, but I have severe reserves about being an
improvement over old style (talking as user, which does not care if
the coder had to do black magic to get something working). As is, it
looks like a (pseudo) radial first, then normal menus, so better be a
impressive improvement over old Blender, or to dare ignoring common
systems. Check the following issues.

- What I call the "whack-a-mole" effect: with this new menu you can
only be sure where things will appear in the center of the monitor,
and if you move near the borders, it is hard to figure where things
will appear. Check yourself by opening the menu all over the monitor,
using space key, and trying to guess where the five other items will
appear before you move the mouse, and where the submenus will open
too.  Notice how small differences in positions can change
results. This puts mental and visual stress in the user, instead of
just let him focus in his work.

- As side effect of the previous (or another point of view of the same
issue), it changes directions: sometimes you have to move up then
right, sometimes down then right, depending where it decided to appear
each time. With pure radial, directions is the only important thing,
with pure normal you know you are always going from top left to bottom
right (if there is screen avaliable) and with NeXT style it works
similar to normal but a bit less diagonal, more horizontal.

Check sourself (imagine all menus are like the add one, not single
level, do not limit to current item list only, remember it is planned
to change) you can sometimes go as a normal menu, and sometimes do
some kind of circle path or left then right, never a clear style.

- Another issue due the shape it can get: it is hard to guess if it
will disappear or stay when you move the mouse, a more complex version
of the popups one, and also a harder solution. Traveling from any part
of the menu to another means it disappears... or not, there are lots
of possible combinations.

With old toolbox or other controls it was easy: you can go from one
place of a rectangle to another without going out. And if you go out,
it is clear and quick to guess what is the trigger distance. What is
more, you do not even have to care about distance, just shake quickly
the mouse and you are done.

- Menu reordering hurts muscle memory. I do not remember any app or OS
in which menus changed from bottom to top or top to bottom, the items
always stood the same order, even if there where issues about hiting
the monitor borders, sometimes even implementing scrolling to avoid
going "backwards".

Some will say distance is important, and it is, but I have serious
doubts that means reordering is nice, people is used to check for
things in some orders more than others (derived from what is normal in
their language). Predictability is an important thing to make usage
easier.

- Separators are too simple, you can miss them easily. They could have
more contrasts (approaching the typical line) or be taller (full
"empty item"). All interfaces I know make good use of clear
separators, to help the user go faster when he is focused in his work
and only sees rough items.

- So please consider experimenting with pure radials, some kind of old
style and pure normal menus. If the problem is about been bad for
cases with too many items, maybe the problem is not the menu style per
se, but having too many things or bad classification.

About this point I still have to check more, sorry for not having a
clear solution, but just a "it got worse". :[ It also seems to be the
more unsettled part to.

* NKEY control.

Similar issue to the 3d view options, it overlaps. Or even worse, cos
you get one per area but it is global, with small close control (or
far away key) and roll up that beheaves like iconify (inconsistent).
And there is no cancel now, which would be great with the preview.

OTOH, it is nice that updates to objects are on the fly, that part
should stay. It could become a panel in the buttons, or part of other
panel, and make the old NKEY style come back for 3d views, with its
big OK or Enter for accept, leave out for Cancel.

* Subsurf modes.

Still figuring all the options, but the draw simplification mode seems
a nice improvement for some pretty complex cases. For the moment all
looks fine. Bring in the hiding of covered vertices (I think that is
in T2), and pretty nice. :]

* Menu.

After the points above, why not make the menu be some kind of second
header in info window? And put all the menu things there, cleaning any
menus from 3d views.

| | View | Edit | etc buttons...                       |
|-                                                    -|
| File Add etc menus...                                |
|------------------------------------------------------|
| |i| |ActiveMode|SCR:3View|SCE:Default|v2.30 ObjInfo  |
+------------------------------------------------------+

This would have some adventages: it would save space everywhere, put
all in one group instead of having to hunt all over the place, and
would allow hiding for those that do not like it or just use it as
keyboard reminder. It could even allow some kind of hack for MacOSX
people, so it can all be removed from here and passed to the typical
menu, or cloned there easily.

Probably for better handling it should behave with two "stop points",
the current stop (the long "---") and another one for the menu (the
"-" on each side), making sure menu active area covers up to the
"stop" (remember the talks about monitor borders :] ).

* That's all folks (for now and from me).

OK, I think that is all I have found with past days CVS versions.

GSR