Hi Chipp,
> I get that it's not really PC anymore to have a bunch of 'toggle' button icons
> next to a list--> too much visual noise.
Yeah I don't like it so much when there is a big grid of controls on each line. It tends to be nice for readability if there's often not much there other than the text itself.
But those invisible clickable areas (which are not always invisible, just in their "off" state like hidden has no eye showing, and unselected has no selection dot showing), could get a bit tricky to use if the were nested a couple deep, so I wanted to only put them on the left and right outside edges.
> As a thought experiment in GUI design, I might try and put that same icon
> to the LEFT of the Styles where 2 other controls (visible and color) are. That
> way when a 'partial' selection is made, it would show up half-filled (as it does
> now on the right), thus helping the user to notice it as the OTHER buttons are
> toggles as well. Just an idea.
It could probably work ok that way, the thing I would not like is when both visibility and selection were in their off states that would be a kind of an especially big blank area on the left side, and maybe targeting the inside click zone would be a little less natural than when they're all the way to one side.
> The contrarian argument, especially for CAD programs, is that users sooner or
> later get around to noticing the 'half-selection' mode and inquire. Certainly we aren't
> building an ATM (where everyone needs to be successful on the first interaction with
> the interface), and CAD programs can certainly demand more 'learning' from users.
MoI is largely based on this philosophy where I figure it's not so bad to require a certain level of learning to uncover more functionality over time...
The problem with trying to make every single function immediately obvious right off the bat is the amount of clutter that accumulates with everything trying to get a lot of simultaneous attention, that then brings about various unpleasant side effects of it taking longer for the "everyday" stuff because there's so much stuff to wade through. It's a big focus for MoI to try and keep the basic stuff have a fast and fluid streamlined feel to it.
Thanks, - Michael
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