topic Re: Setting Dialog - Opinion on why it's a poor UI design in Modeling

Setting Dialog - Opinion on why it's a poor UI design

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 08:58:07 GMT

To accommodate wide screen video most monitors are being made with those aspect ratios.

There are several aspects of the Archicad UI design that tend to be friendlier to taller monitors than wider monitors, and that is a problem as most monitors are wider, not taller.

A specific area I feel that really is hindered by this is the Setting Dialog. The roll-up panels and constant resizing/readjusting of the dialog is a major time waster for me. I could see my productivity and sanity levels really helped with an update to the design that keeps wide screens in mind with a consistent over-all size.

One UI design I think would work better is to introduce tabs instead of roll-up panels. It's easier to have a few of tabs open side by side than to have a few roll-up panels open on top of each other.

Another feature in my opinion that would help is a maximize button that would maximize the dialog to the screen size. I think it would work best if AC remembered to keep the dialog maximized as well, but at the very least it would be handy to just maximize it instead of dragging to resize.

For the sake of brevity, I'll stop here, but I hope this inspires Graphisoft to update the UI in AC to accommodate wide screen monitors, especially where the Settings Dialog is concerned.

Re: Setting Dialog - Opinion on why it's a poor UI design

David Maudlin — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:33:59 GMT

Another approach is to allow the dialog box to add columns as it is stretched across the screen, so there could be two or three depending on screen width. The mock up below is from a 1440 pixel wide 15" MacBook Pro. I am not fond of the tab idea, ArchiCAD used this before and you needed to keep clicking between tabs to get to all the settings, I'd rather have a solution that can utilize all the current screen real estate.

David

Re: Setting Dialog - Opinion on why it's a poor UI design

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:21:48 GMT

David wrote:
Another approach is to allow the dialog box to add columns as it is stretched across the screen, so there could be two or three depending on screen width. The mock up below is from a 1440 pixel wide 15" MacBook Pro. I am not fond of the tab idea, ArchiCAD used this before and you needed to keep clicking between tabs to get to all the settings, I'd rather have a solution that can utilize all the current screen real estate.

David

Nice idea, so simple, yet so brilliant.
I think this would certainly help.
Well, that and a 36" monitor:-))

Re: Setting Dialog - Opinion on why it's a poor UI design

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:25:30 GMT

I like that idea.

And I agree, I would rather have it so the dialog took advantage of all the screen real estate.

And when I meant tabs, I meant tabs acted more like vertical versions of the panels and that more than one could be opened at a time, side by side.

But I like your solution a lot. I can't think of a single aspect of the current system in any of the panels that takes advantage of a really long space to display in, so allowing for multiple columns like that would be a good fit.

Re: Setting Dialog - Opinion on why it's a poor UI design

vfrontiers — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:40:48 GMT

I was thinking of another BUG that chews up GUI time for me...

Why do dialogs such as the LAYER palette go over the top of the tools and navigator, etc.... (GOOD)..

and the GDL ENVIRONMENT sits underneath! (very, very BAD)... So I have to give up real estate for palettes that I can't use..(ok, not technically correct...you can use the tools in the 2d symbol window)..

But I'd still like PRIORITY given the GDL windows over the AC palettes while GDL'ing.

Re: Setting Dialog - Opinion on why it's a poor UI design

vfrontiers — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 02:20:41 GMT

Alright, here's another...

Why do FILLS need to be displayed in the pick list by TYPE OF FILL (symbol, vector, etc....)..

Might be fine for EDITING fills, but when I want to select something I need to see all the CARPET options TOGETHER... Some some symbol carpet here and some vector carpet here and some solid carpets here....

Re: Setting Dialog - Opinion on why it's a poor UI design

Dwight — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 05:07:13 GMT

They call this kind of talk arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Re: Setting Dialog - Opinion on why it's a poor UI design

Barry Kelly — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 05:14:40 GMT

Dwight wrote:
They call this kind of talk arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Yeah but if they were all out on deck arranging the chairs someone might have spotted the iceberg coming.
Barry.

Re: Setting Dialog - Opinion on why it's a poor UI design

Bricklyne Clarence — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 05:35:57 GMT

Another idea would be to make ArchiCAD truly dual- or multi-monitor aware.
That way, it would allow you to keep open palettes and dialog boxes in the second monitor and always open, while all the screen real estate in the first monitor is reserved for your actual modeling and drafting needs.

In fact iof the idea where to be taken to it's logical conclusion, it would also eventually allow the user to position Section, Elevation and possibly even the 3D window in the 2nd monitor and have just the plan view in the first monitor and always keying your workflow. And ArchiCAD would even remember what windows and palettes you had opened in which monitor the next time you start it up and not force you to re-position everything again. Most 3D. drafting and designing programs work like this already anyway and if stockbrokers in Wall Street with their boring numbers, graphs and figures can have mutli-monitor aware number-crunching programs, then why can't Architects and designers too?

With monitors being relatively affordble these days, and dual-monitor set-ups making a lot of sense for people in drafting/designing professions, it doesn't make sense to me that ArchiCAD can claim to be the first and only dual-core aware application, and yet can not make the same claim about being dual- or multi-monitor aware.

But Dwight is right.
This is likely all futile and pointless conjecture and speculation.
Even if, someone from GS were reading this thread and it wasn't already in their plans to implement any or some of these ideas, and they decided to do so today, we likely wouldn't see the fruits of them anytime sooner than ArchiCAD version 18 or 19 - 3 or 4 years from now, at least. (Or possibly even in ArchiCAD v20 or v21 when monitors as we know them will be obsolete and we'll be working off of holographic interfaces like in Sci-Fi movies and or with Avatar-like see-through glass monitors. )

And that's assuming that they can even do it at all in the first place, and that they are not limited by the program's decidedly older 3D engine kernel.

Re: Setting Dialog - Opinion on why it's a poor UI design

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 06:24:30 GMT

why don't you use the info-palette instead of the settings dialog?