[Soc-2013-dev] Weekly report #6 UI Replay

[Vincent Akkermans]

Hi David,

On Friday, 26 July 2013 at 18:48, David Jeske wrote: 
> Sounds awesome! 
> 
> On Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 10:08 AM, Vincent Akkermans <vincent at ack-err.net (mailto:vincent at ack-err.net)> wrote:
> > The operator defaults that can be set on a button's right click seemed like a good idea, but I've found it to be problematic. Because it is only available for toolbar buttons it isn't available for all operators. Perhaps an extra button "make default" in the F6 panel is more natural.
> > 
> 
> 
> I'd really like to see you try the ".. tail button" idea I suggested. Create a "..." button-tail on specific  tool buttons which benefit from popping up the parameter config. It would look like this for the "screw" tool".  (you have to choose whether a specific button gets a visible shortcut or the "..." tail) 
> 
> 
> 
> That tail-button means "run the screw tool and show the F6 operator panel right now to configure it". This is more discoverable and simpler to use than a right-click-defaults option, since (a) you can immediately cause the action and bring up the operator-config, (b) it makes operator config more obvious and discoverable.

I haven't forgotten the tail button idea. :) The interaction that you propose makes a lot of sense to me, especially for operators that really need adjustment after execution (as we talked about). I should point out though that the "default properties" idea is a different issue. It is meant to enable a user to set the default parameters so these are already set for every execution of the operator after that. For example, you could set the number of cuts of the subdivision to 5 as a default. I think this idea is problematic, and that sticking to the execute, then adjust paradigm is better. The tail button fits within this paradigm so I'm happy to give it a go!

> I think rather than a "make default" button on the operator panel, it might be more capable to add a checkbox "use as default settings". This way you can per-operator decide whether you'd prefer to just keep using the last settings, or stop using the last settings. 
I think this might cause a lot of "oh, I just changed a parameter, but I didn't want to change the default" moments. Whether a 'follow' checkbox or a 'make default' button is best depends perhaps on the operator at hand (I'm not advocating using both). I have to think about this a little bit more.
> 
> I also think the subpanel "..." tail should be an icon-button, with some experiements on what it could look like. I know you are not an icon artist, so we can get someone else involved here. However, as a stand-in, I think vertically centered ellipsis would look better and be consistent with my suggestion above. More like this: 
> 
> 
I agree! I actually had some pen and paper sketches where I used ellipses. We still need some space for the drag button. Dragging doesn't happen so often so it can be a bit smaller. Perhaps something like:


Vincent
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