Hello!
There are some inconveniences in current plugin manager window: - plugin description is too long and is hard to read because of window width - too many actions user need to perform to get access to plugin settings - no plugin search feature - too many windows: settings - window, keybindings - window, help - window
I tried to make some sort of concept of plugin manager interface design. Maybe you will find it interesting: http://pbrd.co/1jBUM4f
Alternative (move description to bottom): http://pbrd.co/1jBUOJh
I offer: - add search field - remove unnecessary labels - remove plugin description from list - show plugin description as tooltip or show it in status bar - show plugin settings immediately - show plugin keybindings as tab where user can check keybindings _only_ for this plugin - show help as a tab (of course there should be API for help window with rich text, maybe show readme)
Any suggestions?
-- Best regards, Pavel Roschin aka RPG
Hi,
On Wed 23 Apr 2014 20:58:07 CEST, Pavel Roschin roshin@scriptumplus.ru wrote:
Hello!
There are some inconveniences in current plugin manager window:
- plugin description is too long and is hard to read because of window width
- too many actions user need to perform to get access to plugin settings
- no plugin search feature
- too many windows: settings - window, keybindings - window, help - window
I agree with your all your points, though I don't think the search too important, as there are usually not too many plugins.
I tried to make some sort of concept of plugin manager interface design. Maybe you will find it interesting: http://pbrd.co/1jBUM4f
Alternative (move description to bottom): http://pbrd.co/1jBUOJh
Looks nice, I like the second one better.
I offer:
- add search field
- remove unnecessary labels
- remove plugin description from list
- show plugin description as tooltip or show it in status bar
- show plugin settings immediately
- show plugin keybindings as tab where user can check keybindings _only_ for this plugin
- show help as a tab (of course there should be API for help window with rich text, maybe show readme)
Any suggestions?
I think the plugin description as a tooltip is a better solution than in the status bar as some descriptions are quite long. In your second layout there might be space at the right bottom for a multi-line widget for this.
Cheers, Johannes
On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 8:58 PM, Pavel Roschin roshin@scriptumplus.ruwrote:
Hello!
There are some inconveniences in current plugin manager window:
- plugin description is too long and is hard to read because of window
width
- too many actions user need to perform to get access to plugin settings
- no plugin search feature
- too many windows: settings - window, keybindings - window, help - window
+1 current plugin manager window can be improved.
I tried to make some sort of concept of plugin manager interface design. Maybe you will find it interesting: http://pbrd.co/1jBUM4f
Alternative (move description to bottom): http://pbrd.co/1jBUOJh
I personally prefer the first, but both are good solutions.
I offer:
- add search field
0 for now not very necessary
- remove unnecessary labels
- remove plugin description from list
- show plugin description as tooltip or show it in status bar
-1 Maybe it could be moved under the plugin/authors/filename, it's essential to understand what the plugin does...
- show plugin settings immediately
- show plugin keybindings as tab where user can check keybindings _only_
for this plugin
- show help as a tab (of course there should be API for help window with
rich text, maybe show readme)
+1
Any suggestions?
-- Best regards, Pavel Roschin aka RPG _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.geany.org https://lists.geany.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/devel
On 24 April 2014 04:58, Pavel Roschin roshin@scriptumplus.ru wrote:
Hello!
There are some inconveniences in current plugin manager window:
- plugin description is too long and is hard to read because of window width
- too many actions user need to perform to get access to plugin settings
- no plugin search feature
- too many windows: settings - window, keybindings - window, help - window
I tried to make some sort of concept of plugin manager interface design. Maybe you will find it interesting: http://pbrd.co/1jBUM4f
Alternative (move description to bottom): http://pbrd.co/1jBUOJh
I offer:
- add search field
- remove unnecessary labels
- remove plugin description from list
- show plugin description as tooltip or show it in status bar
No, it has to be visible in the dialog, not disconnected in some other bar somewhere else or only hidden until mouseover. But sure it could be outside the list in the area of the author etc.
- show plugin settings immediately
- show plugin keybindings as tab where user can check keybindings _only_ for this plugin
- show help as a tab (of course there should be API for help window with rich text, maybe show readme)
Any suggestions?
A pull request?
Cheers Lex
PS apart from the one comment about the description, it sounds fine, though I don't know if it will make *that* much difference to usability.
-- Best regards, Pavel Roschin aka RPG _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.geany.org https://lists.geany.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/devel
Le 23/04/2014 20:58, Pavel Roschin a écrit :
Hello!
There are some inconveniences in current plugin manager window:
- plugin description is too long and is hard to read because of window width
Indeed. It used to be presented otherwise, not sure why it ended up like this, but it's clearly not optimal.
- too many actions user need to perform to get access to plugin settings
Is that so? this means *one* more click.
- no plugin search feature
That don't seem required to be, but could indeed be handy with the growing number of plugins. Should be fairly easy to add, minus good matching.
- too many windows: settings - window, keybindings - window, help - window
Settings window, keybindings with all others, help is most of the time opening externally (either website or local HTML help file).
I tried to make some sort of concept of plugin manager interface design. Maybe you will find it interesting: http://pbrd.co/1jBUM4f
Alternative (move description to bottom): http://pbrd.co/1jBUOJh
Both look terribly ugly and not particularly practical to me. I'd rather see something simple and clean like everyone else do it (look at e.g. GEdit or GeanyPy).
I offer:
- add search field
OK
- remove unnecessary labels
OK, filename is not terribly useful to most people, could be moved in a tooltip or something.
- remove plugin description from list
Again, I'd rather put it in, just better presented
- show plugin description as tooltip or show it in status bar
Too important to be hidden I think
- show plugin settings immediately
Why? Most plugins just works, and it's definitely not the first thing you need to touch. Also, clicking *one* button don't seem so hard to me.
- show plugin keybindings as tab where user can check keybindings _only_ for this plugin
Could be a little better maybe, although with the new in-dialog button it doesn't seem so bad already.
- show help as a tab (of course there should be API for help window with rich text, maybe show readme)
Again, I don't particularly like the "all embedded, fat dialog" design, and again, most of the plugins simply want to display a web page. And no, we won't depend on a web rendering engine for this, sorry.
Any suggestions?
Do something simple, not Eclipse.
Colomban
PS: sorry for perhaps sounding harsh, but I had to answer quickly now Lex almost made you lose some of your time implementing before talking :)
PS: sorry for perhaps sounding harsh, but I had to answer quickly now Lex almost made you lose some of your time implementing before talking :)
Think then do :) This is because I made concept before implementing/PR.
The most annoying thing is long, hard to read plugin description (if you remember this bug report: http://pbrd.co/1gR6Ame). Others - just suggestions.
-- Best regards, Pavel Roschin aka RPG
On 24 April 2014 14:05, Pavel Roschin roshin@scriptumplus.ru wrote:
PS: sorry for perhaps sounding harsh, but I had to answer quickly now Lex almost made you lose some of your time implementing before talking :)
Think then do :) This is because I made concept before implementing/PR.
The most annoying thing is long, hard to read plugin description (if you remember this bug report: http://pbrd.co/1gR6Ame). Others - just suggestions.
Maybe just move the description to an expandable text after the author stuff at the bottom. Then it can be as long as it needs to be.
Cheers Lex
PS I only suggested a PR because UI stuff is hard to evaluate in descriptions, or from line drawings, much better when you can actually play with it.
-- Best regards, Pavel Roschin aka RPG _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.geany.org https://lists.geany.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/devel
Le 24/04/2014 06:05, Pavel Roschin a écrit :
PS: sorry for perhaps sounding harsh, but I had to answer quickly now Lex almost made you lose some of your time implementing before talking :)
Think then do :) This is because I made concept before implementing/PR.
The most annoying thing is long, hard to read plugin description (if you remember this bug report: http://pbrd.co/1gR6Ame). Others - just suggestions.
I propose a simple set of changes that IMO improve the situation quite a bit, at least for the part I think is problematic: https://github.com/geany/geany/pull/251
Regards, Colomban
Am 30.04.2014 15:42, schrieb Colomban Wendling:
Le 24/04/2014 06:05, Pavel Roschin a écrit :
PS: sorry for perhaps sounding harsh, but I had to answer quickly now Lex almost made you lose some of your time implementing before talking :)
Think then do :) This is because I made concept before implementing/PR.
The most annoying thing is long, hard to read plugin description (if you remember this bug report: http://pbrd.co/1gR6Ame). Others - just suggestions.
I propose a simple set of changes that IMO improve the situation quite a bit, at least for the part I think is problematic: https://github.com/geany/geany/pull/251
Hi,
I think the most problematic part is that there are 3 places for plugin management. So while your PR seems like a definite improvement, it doesn't solve the major problems IMO.
PS: Could merge the buttons into a single row.
Best regards
Am 24.04.2014 03:26, schrieb Colomban Wendling:
Again, I don't particularly like the "all embedded, fat dialog" design, and again, most of the plugins simply want to display a web page. And no, we won't depend on a web rendering engine for this, sorry.
Any suggestions?
Do something simple, not Eclipse.
What is simple for you, then?
I would argue the current design is fat, as it is 3 distinct dialogs. And it is overly unintuitiv: * Managing plugins is at one place * Managing their settings is at another place * Except for the keybindings which are at yet another place
I really like the design proposed here, and it aligns with my idea of simple, clean and user-friendly.
PS: Why would most plugins want to show a web page, knowing that the user can only visit it in a external web browser? If I was a plugin author (sometimes I am) I would avoid a web page for that reason alone.
Best regards.
Le 24/04/2014 07:07, Thomas Martitz a écrit :
Am 24.04.2014 03:26, schrieb Colomban Wendling:
Again, I don't particularly like the "all embedded, fat dialog" design, and again, most of the plugins simply want to display a web page. And no, we won't depend on a web rendering engine for this, sorry.
Any suggestions?
Do something simple, not Eclipse.
What is simple for you, then?
I would argue the current design is fat, as it is 3 distinct dialogs. And it is overly unintuitiv:
- Managing plugins is at one place
- Managing their settings is at another place
- Except for the keybindings which are at yet another place
All three are accessible from the Plugin Manager dialog, the buttons are here for this.
I agree that there are some imperfect things, like that navigating the plugins from inside the Plugin Preferences dialog is suboptimal (not sure how to fix it, apart maybe removing the dialog and going through manager->preferences).
The keybindings could, perhaps, gain from being isolated from an aesthetic POV, but it would heavily decrease usability when it comes to handling conflicting keybindings. What do you do, ask for what to do about a keybinding NOT in the displayed list?
I really like the design proposed here, and it aligns with my idea of simple, clean and user-friendly.
If we really wanted an all-in-one thing, I'd rather see something dropping less all the (useless) info at the same time on the user, maybe like https://gist.github.com/b4n/fe508350c92456959e32 (http://b4n.netlib.re/misc/geany-pm-dialog-mockup/)
PS: Why would most plugins want to show a web page, knowing that the user can only visit it in a external web browser? If I was a plugin author (sometimes I am) I would avoid a web page for that reason alone.
I guess, mostly because it's simpler. Most people just link to their general howto/docs, that since is also made to be on website is written in HTML or similar. And bringing a web view to display this inside Geany does not really sound like a great option. Maybe people could rather install "real" help files like devhelp or alike, but this would still be opened in another app (here, the help browser) -- like most apps do.
Regards, Colomban
On Thu, 24 Apr 2014 03:26:15 +0200 Colomban Wendling lists.ban@herbesfolles.org wrote:
- no plugin search feature
That don't seem required to be, but could indeed be handy with the growing number of plugins. Should be fairly easy to add, minus good matching.
Hmmm... thinking about the matching part. Full text search will need to add even more text to be translated and tags needs to be maintained...
Cheers, Frank