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veger / TLBE

TLBE - Time Lapse Base Edition
MIT License
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Pause/enable/disable buttons are misleading #15

Closed arnemertz closed 3 years ago

arnemertz commented 3 years ago

In UIs, buttons usually are labeled with what they do, e.g. a pause label when something is playing and can be paused, a play label when something is paused and can be activated. Instead, in TLBE, the enable/disable buttons for cameras and trackers, as well as the "pause game when this window is open" button, are labeled with the current state, i.e. exactly reversed.

The Factorio GUI library has Items that I think are better suited for "enable/disable" controls. I would suggest a switch with "allow_none_state" set to False.

veger commented 3 years ago

Thank you for your feedback! :+1:

I tried to keep the UI compact, and a switch with a label attached (becaue without it would be confusing), takes considerably more space. (and with the pause game button in the title bar it is even weirder I guess)

Also, I wonder if showing the 'action' instead of the 'state' is more clear? :thinking: When you look at the UI you'd like to see its settings/configuration ('state') in a single overview. At least this is what I would expect for a settings-like UI.

Maybe this would help a little:

  1. replace the play/pause icons (for the camera/tracker) with an 'sprite button that toggles'. Then the state/action might be more clear. (I used stock icons and I am not a 'good artist' :wink: )
  2. only show delete camera/tracker when the action is available
  3. Pause game toggles without changing its sprite (only use pause sprite)

Do you think this would improve/help the UI?

arnemertz commented 3 years ago

If I understand you correctly, the sprite button that toggles would e.g. just display the pause icon and have a "pressed" (= paused/disabled) and "not pressed" (enabled) state? Or the other way round with a play icon? That sounds good. You could, in addition, display the current state of cameras and trackers (enabled/disabled) as a string in the properties list on the right.

I haven't had much time to use the mod yet, but it looks promising and easy to use once I've cleared the "is it recording now?" hurdle 🥇

veger commented 3 years ago

yes, instead of changing the sprite/image they would only show 'pressed' vs 'not pressed'.

veger commented 3 years ago

GUI should be improved on next release according to discussion above (and some other things I found while fixing)