Suggestion for Specto GUI

[GoogleCodeExporter]

The specto GUI which can be seen in development branch could maybe be
rearranged.

There no reason for having on the same pane 
Refresh all | Clear All | + | - | Modifier | Aller à (go)

"Refresh all" and "Clear all" concern all watches therefore it seems
logical to have them in the pane

BUT "-", "Modifier" and "Aller à" are about the selected watch : maybe
these options should be displayed near the selected watch and not in the pane.
we could also imagine having only the "Aller à" button near to the selected
watch and having the "Modifier" and "-" options in context menu.
Personnaly i prefer that second solution.
That way the GUI would be less clutered and more practical (actually your
pointer have to travel a lot : you have firt to move the pointer to the
watch you want to select, then to move the pointer to the pane to click on
the "Aller à" button)

"+" has to be in the pane since there is not yet a watch in the list.

I've attached a mockup of my suggestion based on the download window of
Firefox 3 (also attached)

Original issue reported on code.google.com by thibaut....@gmail.com on 1 May 2008 at 8:08

Attachments:

• specto_mockup.png
• Firefox3_download_window.png

[GoogleCodeExporter]

> these options should be displayed near the selected watch and not in the pane.
goddamnit, this is precisely why the UI in specto 0.2 was done that way, with
contextual buttons into a separate pane at the bottom instead of the Main 
toolbar,
and now that it's all changed we should be changing it again for something that
basically does the same as 0.2? ;___;

Also, currently the watch names are not ellipsized if they are too long. This 
will
inevitably f*ck up when we add a bunch of buttons on that row, things will jump
around, etc.

Not sure what to do about this whole issue. And the more bugs crop up about 
this, the
more I'm getting confused, there are already more than 4 bugs floating around; 
140,
141, 103, 96, 42, whatever. I'm strongly tempted to just make them all 
duplicates of
some random bug that would point to a wiki page, because it's getting so 
difficult to
keep track of information all over the place.

The thing is, I'd like to get some extensive ui review by third parties such as 
GNOME
usability folks, if that's possible at all. This is currently quite chaotic and 
I
miss the days I didn't worry so much about the specto gui :)

Original comment by nekoh...@gmail.com on 1 May 2008 at 8:52

• Added labels: Component-UI, Milestone-Release0.3, Usability

[GoogleCodeExporter]

ok I think I am unclear, basically what I'm saying is:
- we have to many contradictory comments about the UI
- there is no clear-cut solution proposed by the HIG
- the bug reports are too broad and overlap each other
- there needs to be a centralized place to manage this whole UI design
- I would really like to have a team of usability review this, not just 1-2 
persons

Original comment by nekoh...@gmail.com on 1 May 2008 at 8:58

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Well sorry for adding confusion...

i didn't like in specto 0.2.2 the fact that the "remove" option was hidden 
(select a
watch, the click "modify" then "remove"... too much clicks !)

The mockup i suggest take the best of the 2 GUI (from my point of view ;-) 
GUI is contextual but options are easily accessible

I'm a very lazy guy and i like when things can easily be done
that's why i don't like the 0.2.2 GUI which asks for too much clicks, and 
that's why
i make the present suggestion for not having too move the pointer too much

Maybe i should just take some vitamin ?

"goddamnit, this is precisely why the UI in specto 0.2 was done that way, with
contextual buttons into a separate pane at the bottom instead of the Main 
toolbar,
and now that it's all changed we should be changing it again for something that
basically does the same as 0.2?"
Not exactly : Specto 0.2.2 has a separate (contextual) pane whereas i suggest 
placing
the "go" button near the watch (not in a separate pane)
The "go" function definitely IS contextual but having in a separate pane 
(though a
contextual one) may not be optimal

Original comment by thibaut....@gmail.com on 1 May 2008 at 9:07

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Well i'm not the team of usability you wish but maybe we could indeed have a 
wiki to
develop the discussion and where we could agree together on some 
fundamental/basic points

for instance :
GUI elements that are contextual should be displayed in a contextual way

Then we could have several mockups based upon that idea

Original comment by thibaut....@gmail.com on 1 May 2008 at 9:14

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hmm. The thing is that remove is not supposed to be an action you use often 
like you
do for Add or "Jump to".

By merging all the stuff in one toolbar in 0.3, it added to the confusion that 
there
is basically no way to say if an action affects one watch or all watches.

Now we're basically supposed to revert this to 0.2, but by making it more 
complex
technically (and possibly introducing radioactive bugs), because frankly gtk
listviews are really weird to work with. I don't see this as easy to implement
properly at the moment.

And you can even jump to a watch by double-clicking its icon. Or by clicking 
its Jump
to button in the notification bubble.

Ah, I'll need to think about how to handle this.

Original comment by nekoh...@gmail.com on 1 May 2008 at 9:19

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Since i'm not a developer i have no idea if my suggestions can be realized or 
not !

That's your job i guess ;-)

I didn't notice that it was possible to jump to a watch by double-clicking its 
icon

Original comment by thibaut....@gmail.com on 1 May 2008 at 9:24

[GoogleCodeExporter]

considering my comment # 4 : these principles (even just a few) could be a kind 
of
"Specto HIG" that would extend the GNOME HIG to cope with Specto specific needs.
That way, it could help in future Specto developments ?

Original comment by thibaut....@gmail.com on 1 May 2008 at 9:28

[GoogleCodeExporter]

"The thing is that remove is not supposed to be an action you use often like you
do for Add or "Jump to"."
I guess it depends on people
As far as i'm concerned, i've never used the tick close to the watch (labbeled
"actif" in french)

Original comment by thibaut....@gmail.com on 1 May 2008 at 9:36

[GoogleCodeExporter]

you said :
"gtk listviews are really weird to work with. I don't see this as easy to 
implement
properly at the moment."
& "And you can even jump to a watch by double-clicking its icon"

Therefore, here is another mockup
Its goal are :
- uncluttering the development branch GUI : contextual actions are displayed in 
a
contextual way (the go button has replaced the icon of the selected watch, 
whereas
other contextual actions (Edit, Remove and Clear) were moved to contextual menu 
and
menu bar.
- having the main action (go) easily accessible and discoverable
- proposing something that could technically be done
- this mockup also (virtually) fixes issue 141

Original comment by thibaut....@gmail.com on 9 May 2008 at 12:28

Attachments:

• specto_mockup_reloaded.png

[GoogleCodeExporter]

there are two other mockups based upon the former one
The only difference is that the arrow doesn't replace the icon of the selected 
watch
but the arrow is added to that icon (so that the information concerning the 
type of
watch : web, mail... is not hidden)

I like best specto_mockup_reloaded3.png

Original comment by thibaut....@gmail.com on 9 May 2008 at 12:58

Attachments:

• specto_mockup_reloaded2.png
• specto_mockup_reloaded3.png

[GoogleCodeExporter]

the problems I see in the Reloaded series is that
- the metaphor is not necessarily much clearer without a label (I think), but 
that's
not really the problem
- the problem is that it implies that I can just pile up two icons that are
dynamically loaded from the icon theme. As far as I know (just guessing), 
that's not
possible...

Original comment by nekoh...@gmail.com on 9 May 2008 at 1:35

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Another problem is that the icon is not a button, i don't know if that solution 
is
usable enough (it needs a double click)

Original comment by thibaut....@gmail.com on 9 May 2008 at 9:19

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Fixed in rev 79, please verify!

Original comment by woutclym...@gmail.com on 7 Jun 2008 at 11:00

• Changed state: Fixed

[GoogleCodeExporter]

by fixed, wout means "revert the gui to how it was in 0.2".
However this is not fixed. You removed the buttons from the toolbar but did not 
put
them back in place in the info pane. Result is tracebacks when clicking any 
watch:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/jeff/trunks/specto-woutc/spectlib/notifier.py", line 390, in
show_watch_info
    self.wTree.get_widget("button_remove").set_sensitive(True)
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'set_sensitive'

Could you use "bzr uncommit" and rework revision 79 so that it reverts the ui 
without
regressions before committing?

Original comment by nekoh...@gmail.com on 8 Jun 2008 at 2:18

• Changed state: Started

[GoogleCodeExporter]

fixed in rev 80

Original comment by woutclym...@gmail.com on 16 Jun 2008 at 6:27

• Changed state: Fixed

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by nekoh...@gmail.com on 4 Oct 2008 at 12:49

• Changed state: Verified