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godotengine / godot

Godot Engine – Multi-platform 2D and 3D game engine
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Collapse the top menus #8865

Closed nunodonato closed 7 years ago

nunodonato commented 7 years ago

Taking advantage of the current UI changes being done for 3.0, I was thinking that we could also improve the menu buttons on the top.

Currently, the top-left is occupied by

Tools only have one item, making it actually kind of like a button. Export is a button, not a menu.

On the top-right:

I thought in 2 different proposals for a change:

  1. Collapse the top-left buttons into just one, maybe call it "Project"?. This means the scene menu will have 2 more items, and we get rid of tools and export, which are seldom used anyway.

  2. Since the space is not being used for anything else, make a more functional menu "bar", and split some items into different menus to make things easier to find. I'd also bring the Settings menu on the right, to join the left side. Project settings could be inside it, together with Editor Settings

WDYT? :)

nunodonato commented 7 years ago

@reduz how about moving the Project menu to the left, so that it has both quit options, and Scene will be the 2nd? Its a bit strange to have "quit" in the Scene menu. Project has a bigger scope, so perhaps would fit better in 1st place

reduz commented 7 years ago

Might make sense.. will need getting used to it by everyone i guess

On May 24, 2017 12:40 PM, "Nuno Donato" notifications@github.com wrote:

@reduz https://github.com/reduz how about moving the Project menu to the left, so that it has both quit options, and scene will be the 2nd? its a bit strange to have quit in the scene. Project has a bigger scope, so perhaps would fit better in 1st place

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nunodonato commented 7 years ago

Yeah its all a matter of habits :) ok, I made that one last change to my PR. I guess after alpha is released we will have a lot of testers and then with that feedback we can see how to improve from here on

puppetmaster- commented 7 years ago

I'm not a big keyboard user and I mostly develop with my mouse. I marked my UI hot spot (green) and I think in this spot should be the buttons or menu I used the most. Red are places I don't like. (to near to the closing button and start programm) image

This are my most used button (sorted by frequency of use)

menu position (sorted by frequency of use)

suggestions

It would be very cool to have a customizable button bar on top in the middle like old firefox or old MS office!!

reduz commented 7 years ago

Sorry, I can't get used to Scene and Project being swapped, I think we should probably re-swap them... Does not seem to be uncommon in UIs:

[image: Inline image 1]

On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 5:20 PM, puppetmaster- notifications@github.com wrote:

I'm not a big keyboard user and a mostly I develop with my mouse. I marked my UI hot spot (green) and I think in this spot should be the buttons or menu I used the most. Red are places I don't like. (to near to the closing button and start programm) [image: image] https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/10463138/26421573/d0cf4a66-40c6-11e7-8e09-c139aca8ebe1.png

This are my most used button (sorted by frequency of use)

  • add/create new node (+ button)
  • play the project (play button)
  • script button (all three places)
  • select mode and move mode (cursor and cross button in scene)
  • go to previous edited object in history (arrow in inspector window)
  • 2D button
  • Instance a scene (chain button)
  • play the edited scene

menu position (sorted by frequency of use)

  • (scene window) Edit --> Configure Snap
  • (scene window) Edit --> Use Snap
  • (scene window) Edit --> Show Grid
  • Scene --> Open Scene...
  • Scene --> Convert to.. --> TileSet..
  • Scene --> Project Settings
  • (script window) File --> open / Close
  • (script window) Help --> Contextual Help

suggestions

  • Buttons Play the edited Scene and Play custom scene could be inside the scene window (I never use Play custom scene)
  • Button Run in Browser never worked for my (could be moved inside a menu)
  • AssetLib should not be in a green spot
  • Play , Pause and Stop should be in a green spot (what about the green spot at the bottom?)

It would be very cool to have a customizable button bar on top in the middle like old firefox or old MS office!!

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nunodonato commented 7 years ago

@reduz something went wrong with your screenshot attachment, I cant view it.

I also clicked the wrong menu a couple of times... but thats due to habit. But its ok, if you prefer not to try this out for a longer time we can revert the positions. In that case, would the quit options be in the Scene menu too?

akien-mga commented 7 years ago

I'd say let's give it some more time and reassess in a week or too. We're all used to the Scene menu being the first one, but functionally it makes a lot more sense to have the Project menu come first. The Scene menu being first was natural when Godot was a single scene editor, but since 2.0 we have multiple scene support and Godot effectively became a project editor.

eon-s commented 7 years ago

I'm always hitting Project instead of Scene :confused: And used to click the play button when editting scenes and now can't find it until I remember I'm on 3 :sweat_smile:

But maybe @akien-mga is right...

reduz commented 7 years ago

Been two days and I keep screwing up :(

On Sun, May 28, 2017 at 12:42 PM, eon-s notifications@github.com wrote:

I'm always hitting Project instead of Scene 😕 And used to click the play button when editting scenes and now can't find it until I remember I'm on 3 😅

But maybe @akien-mga https://github.com/akien-mga is right...

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volzhs commented 7 years ago

Theory and practice do not always go together as all of you already known. :smile:

volzhs commented 7 years ago

I remember there was a someone about the eye-tracking things on facebook. can he help on this? :smile:

reduz commented 7 years ago

yeah, will probably be better to swap them back..

On Sun, May 28, 2017 at 1:05 PM, volzhs notifications@github.com wrote:

I remember there was a someone about the eye-tracking things on facebook. can he help on this? 😄

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akien-mga commented 7 years ago

It's been two days... give it some time :) Or best, ask new users what feels the most natural to them. Experienced users will always find some frustration in any UI change, but sometimes it's worth getting over it.

volzhs commented 7 years ago

@akien-mga probably. but AFAIK, most important (used a lot or should be noticed) things are mostly located at left or top. additional (nice to have) things are at right or bottom. this is general for most case like web, application, os... I think Godot 2.x already followed this also.

nunodonato commented 7 years ago

hehe I agree with @akien-mga , old users will always dislike any changes at all... its all about muscle memory :)

having that said, @reduz, I also am not 100% if this is the way to go... but I dont think reverting the positions would be better either. I find myself click the wrong button, not only because I'm used to it being on the left, but because the stuff I want would make sense to be on the left!! "New scene" is something I would expect to be part of the project(main) menu.

So, perhaps I would try to find a better way to merge them back... but without ending up with a HUGE menu that is painful to read and has a load of different options. A few ideas:

this would reduce the menu in 7 items less!! (separators included), making it more tolerable when both are merged :)

volzhs commented 7 years ago

who doesnt close scenes using the close button in the tab or the shortcut key

here I am, sometimes. it's some related "revert" I guess. I did sometimes when I don't like changes after making a few.

eon-s commented 7 years ago

@nunodonato I use revert scene when I break something bad (like animations or shaders), or while creating tools for fast reload

nunodonato commented 7 years ago

point taken. Do you guys want to suggest a way to better organize the menu than just dumping a gazillion items on it? :)

volzhs commented 7 years ago

my quick suggestion is like this. image Acutally, it's almost like what reduz suggested long time ago.

Zireael07 commented 7 years ago

I have no preference regarding the Scene and Project ordering. But undo and redo as buttons and not menu options would be wonderful <3

toger5 commented 7 years ago

for me having 2d,3d,script on tab level also is still the best solution: If it is only affecting this main dock why not make it part of the main dock... discoverability is still there!

If the asset lib is on the top right I think it should be a popup instead of another main dock alternative. How much effort would it be to move it? What are pros cons?

volzhs commented 7 years ago

my suggestion is based on images on this thread. so it's not what it looks like on current master branch. but I suggested what is where.

puppetmaster- commented 7 years ago

How about this? image

volzhs commented 7 years ago

@puppetmaster- there should be for room related what is selected image

toger5 commented 7 years ago

I really like "play current scene" in the scene dock!! would put it on the right though. I think the android/html5 button should stay in the top bar though. It only appears when it is set up anyways... so usually it's not there. EDIT:(thats only the case for 2.1... my bad)

puppetmaster- commented 7 years ago

Yeah I know and I would like more of this. You need to have a scene open to play it so why not put the play scene button inside the scene window

puppetmaster- commented 7 years ago

the html button is always visible but I have no html setup !?!

toger5 commented 7 years ago

@puppetmaster- you are right sorry

puppetmaster- commented 7 years ago

And buttons inside the scene are not always very intelligent.. image The button should disabled when not working.

volzhs commented 7 years ago

@puppetmaster- oh, only play(run) at there based on what you suggested. now I think it's not about the room. html5 or android run button is shown or disappeared based on configuration is good I think. and running project from it directly is best UX I've used. I really used it a lot when developing modules or testing changes for another platform which is not I am using for developing.

puppetmaster- commented 7 years ago

What about the idea to have a customizable button bar in the middle .

volzhs commented 7 years ago

@puppetmaster- agreed about not very intelligent. it should be better.

nunodonato commented 7 years ago

Guys, please keep discussion on focus. this issue is about the project/scene menus. you can perhaps have the discussion about toolbars in another issue. Can be?

volzhs commented 7 years ago

@nunodonato I'm not talking about toolbars. :) I was just saying because @puppetmaster- suggested to move something to toolbar.

Zireael07 commented 7 years ago

Toolbars and menus are interrelated - if something is moved out of menu to the toolbar or vice versa.

puppetmaster- commented 7 years ago

In the project menu I would like to have something like this image List of the last project I opened. Also a possibility to jump directly to Input Map would be cool.

Zireael07 commented 7 years ago

Do you want recent scenes or recent projects? Because it's not clear...

puppetmaster- commented 7 years ago

Sorry for the bad screenshot .. recent projects image

eon-s commented 7 years ago

@puppetmaster- but that is for the project manager, not current project (settings, tools and things like that)

I would not mind having Project and Scene on the same menu entry. "New Scene" fits with Project.

puppetmaster- commented 7 years ago

@eon-s I thought the menu point Quit to Project List will be also moved to Project menu and a list with recent project would be practically.

ghost commented 7 years ago

As a new Godot user, I've acclimated to having Project come before Scene pretty quickly, and think it makes more sense overall. I'm happy leaving it as is! That said, I don't think many people are too fussed about this, and I wouldn't mind having them swapped back if it really is that big an inconvenience for some.

djrm commented 7 years ago

Is this still relevant? since the top of the engine was redesigned

vnen commented 7 years ago

I guess it's not relevant anymore. The discussion can still go on though.