waydabber
commented
1 week ago Hi @laxu
I get your points (mostly). :)
- The "Display Mode" menu by default can be expanded/collapsed and the content can be scrolled (except if you only have only a few resolution options - but with flexible scaling enabled you can have a dozens or even hundreds - so I think a good share of users think of this as a menu item with scrollable content - I certainly do so). You can however alter how menu items work in various ways under Settings/Menu (if you disable the expanding menu option, a submenu will be shown in a separate window for example - I recommend you to explore various options, you can make the app look much more "vanilla" by changing some settings). The rightward/downward pointing chevron combo is now used by Apple in Control Center menubar extras for expandable content (see for example the AirPods expandable area, WIFI "other networks" etc), so the way this works should be understandable to most users. The fact that opening the menu hides other menu unopened items under the display block by default is indeed a twist (but: this behavior can also be disabled under Settings/Menu/Additional.../Hide other unexpanded menu items), this is done in order to make the menu more compact/usable.
- The three dots originally denoted "More", it was later renamed to "Tools" but the "..." remained for continuity. I might change this in the future (there were versions when a more classic screwdriver+hammer icon was used but it looked somewhat... not nice imho).
- In earlier versions the Monitor Name headers did have an open/close chevron (in v1.x versions) but this became confusing later due to the by default expandable style submenu items (which use similar chevrons) and also looked bad next to the power on/off switch. Most users don't close the display menus, but I still left the option to do so in the app as some users want it.
Generally the current look of the app is a result of some evolution which might make sense to long time users but might not make sense for new users (but should be learnable quickly). There are myriads of customization options on look&feel, all based on various feedbacks and aesthetic preferences asked by picky users - the default look is what distilled to be a generally fine appearance. This is I think a good compromise and if somebody does not like something, the number of look&feel customization options far exceed what's available in most macOS apps. :)
Honestly, I don't think there are UI conventions to follow anymore. Apple's own first party apps are all around the place, Control Center and Control Center menus break most of Apple's own previous UI conventions (look at how icons, toggles etc work) and Apple has no unified Menubar Extra UI (except for plain old, super limited NSMenu based approach which Apple itself does not use now). I try to give the app a generally macOS like look&feel and I think I succeed mostly but for sure take certain liberties. Tried to follow more faithfully some of Apple's directions in Settings though (except for those foldable small caps sections and some other details).
So there's several UI elements in the BetterDisplay icon dropdown that are unintuitive.
For example you click Display Mode, the list you get has a header that makes it seem you collapse the item, but it basically just backs out of the menu.
To me it should look more like "< Display Mode", because you can't scroll the list to show collapsed items like the UI element would suggest.
Similarly the three dots at the bottom that just shrinks the Tools makes no sense because "..." is often used to represent "More".
Finally the monitor names in the top level menu don't look like something you can click. Those should have the downward caret icon to mark if they are expanded or collapsed. Remove the little carets at the bottom of the list because they perform the same function.
It's a great app, but please follow UI design conventions.