[Bf-funboard] property panel "switch" section toggles.. thoughts?

S A lockalsash at gmail.com
Tue Jul 16 18:13:24 CEST 2013


When de-cluttering the UI it is important to retain some basic details
in elements/widgets.
I understand the idea of removing triangles: it probably comes from
Toolbox element: https://www.google.com/search?q=qtoolbox&tbm=isch
The most common implementation of Toolbox is a simple list of buttons,
which is a good start: at least it shows that this element is active.
On desktop it means, that so called "tabs" react on cursor "enter" and
"leave" events. On tablet user is able at least to recognize the shape
of button and therefore understand that this element is
"touch-sensitive".

While blender does not react on mouse hovering over tabs titles, I
suppose there is no point to remove expand triangles. Color of tabs
could be changed in theme settings, so triangles are essential element
to make tabs and static text distinguishable.

The other good way to show user the ability to interact with elements
is changing the cursor pointer. Every normal gui toolkit changes the
pointer shape, for example, when it points to a text field. Changing a
cursor shape is could also be useful for tabs.

If blender developers manage to make the most of tab-like elements
draggable, it could be a good idea to completely remove the right
triangle and allow user to move tabs just by moving tab header. This
solution is also very touch-friendly: tap once to expand/collapse,
drag to move.

Summarizing all above, I made a HTML/jQuery page to show the proposed
interaction model: http://jsfiddle.net/Lockal/uD5hu/2/embedded/result/

-- Sv. Lockal

On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 9:41 PM, Harley Acheson
<harley.acheson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm not sure why it's so important to have the panel titles aligned
>
> It is just for the anal amongst us that have a strong *need* to have things
> line up neatly. It hurts me, just a little, when I have to scan that list
> and
> have some of the items out of line.  LOL
>
> > The on/off button and greyed out toggles don't really make things much
> more readable.
>
> No, I didn't like it either...
>
>
> > Perhaps the triangles could be removed and the checkboxes moved in their
> place
>
> After playing with this for a while I don't think it is likely to find a
> way to
> remove the triangles. When they are gone, no matter what we do with
> the titles, the checkboxes on their own can communicate (wrongly) the
> open/closed state of the panel.
>
> For example if you close all panels except for "anti-aliasing" and "sampled
> motion blur" and turn those features on. If you then remove the triangles
> the natural assumption is that the checkboxes signify open. The system
> should make sense no matter how you find it.
>
> I think we are stuck with the triangles, and the checkboxes, and therefore
> the anal amongst us will probably have to just deal with the mis-alignment.
>
> But it is still fun experimenting with this stuff.
>
> Harley
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