[Bf-interface] More ideas on improving panel usability

[Julian Eisel]

Hey there,

Funnily, finding a good way to expose the drag-ability of panels is
exactly what I was playing with the entire day and I'm still not sure
what the "best" solution is.

Issue with your proposal is, that it heavily conflicts with panel
drag-collapse which is now possible in master
(https://developer.blender.org/rBSa4203814d1f52f475aad6fbe90bdeb2edec19d4a
- just click+drag over a bunch of panels). Although I quite like your
idea, I'm also not a big fan of having to change the panel
drag-collapse behaviour so that you have to hold ctrl or so. It's
already hard enough to discover it.
But maybe we can keep it in mind as a good "Plan B" for the case we
don't find a good "Plan A"? ;)

This is btw the current state of things, it's okay but I'm not totally
happy about it: http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=88860
I still have some other ideas for this, but I'm open for more ;)

Cheers,
- Julian -

On Mon, Jun 1, 2015 at 4:52 PM, S A <lockalsash at gmail.com> wrote:
>  Hi all,
>
> recently there were a number of improvements for panels in
> UI-graphical-redesign branch. I think we could go further and remove
> drag grippers by joining expand/drag zones. I formed a mockup in
> jquery (ignore the color of checkboxes):
>
> https://jsfiddle.net/Lockal/uD5hu/8/embedded/result/
>
> Interaction design explanation:
> * When user generates a mousedown event on panel header, ui code
> starts tracking the cursor
> * If manhattan distance of cursor is above threshold (e. g. delta_x +
> delta_y > 7) and LMB is still down, dragging starts at delta position
> * If user release LMB below threshold, ui code treats this as
> collapse/expand operation.
>
> Note, there are also few important side improvements to be implemented:
> * Highlight the panel header on mouseover (already done in
> UI-graphical-redesign branch)
> * Replace cursor to finger on mouseover to resemble finger drag paradigm.
>
> The adaptation time is short! After finishing the mockup in jquery I'm
> constantly trying to drag panels by header in blender, even though it
> is not implemented yet.
>
> --Sv. Lockal
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