Poll: Preview Feedback

There have been some complaints regarding the faint hatch-pattern that conveys preview-off mode. I'm currently rewriting a lot of graphics routines and I was wondering if the following (ghostly white) is a better choice:

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David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by taz on November 11, 2009 at 3:52pm

Well, it's not a really a well thought out idea... If I had Illustrator on this computer I'd do some more brainstorming.

I guess a halo would have to go under the component (then it would look like backlighting...).

It wouldn't have to extend much beyond the component nubs to be visible, I think. It might also be more easily visible from zoomed out.

This could also address Damien's duel state dilemma.

P.S. Ghosted for a disabled state looks good!

Permalink Reply by taz on November 12, 2009 at 9:56am

My apologies in advance... This was done with PowerPoint.

Preview On:

Permalink Reply by Suryansh Chandra on November 11, 2009 at 5:04pm

I think the white icon here screams 'Normal' much more than the others.. it contrasts better with the background, and even the icon image looks crisper on that.

Also, I noticed that you're drawing a second set of icon images (all grayscale) for the disabled component... If that is the case, why not just kill the gradient shade as well, and make it flat as suggested by Jacek here? Like you already said: it screams 'disabled'. The Grey-White-Dark Grey is a bit counter intuitive in my opinion. If we do away with the Grey altogether, and keep the white to be normal, dark grey to be preview off, and flat (canvas colour) to be disabled, I'd think it might turn out to be more intuitive..

Permalink Reply by Theunis du Toit on November 12, 2009 at 4:32am

This is what I mentioned earlier as well. The lighter color suites Normal much better. I for the most part like your suggestion but would keep the Preview Off dark grey component's image in color. I find most of my components to be in Preview off mode so I think it would be a bit dull if the images in the middle of the components were then colorless. I am interested if you agree?

Permalink Reply by Suryansh Chandra on November 12, 2009 at 10:17am

Yeah.. I think the coloured icons would be better.. I spent 5 minutes making that so didn't pay much attention to fine detail.. But yes, the coloured icons would be better.

Thanks David for an opinion poll on such issues... I hope you are not pulling your hair out by now on the variety of opinion.

Permalink Reply by to] on November 11, 2009 at 11:02am

hi david
i like your version of preview off-mode, it is real graphical and easy to read due to the black/white logic
it was really sometimes not that easy to see the hatch button ;)

- [u & to]

Permalink Reply by kleerkoat on November 11, 2009 at 12:18pm

How about just taking out the highlighting, and making it a slightly darker grey all around.

Permalink Reply by Damien Alomar on November 11, 2009 at 12:29pm

I've never had a problem with the hatch pattern myself. The only "complaint" that I have about previews is that there are separate keyboard commands to turn the preview off or on. I would much more prefer a toggle so that I don't have to do a little keyboard dance to get them in the opposite state.

I know this then causes an issue of "what happens when both states are selected?". That I'm not sure about, but I would argue to set them all to one state (on or off, I don't think it matters...but I would prefer off I think). The other options would be to simply reverse the state of all of them, which could be slightly confusing, to not do anything, which would be annoying, or to reverse only the ones that are On to Off (or vice versa), then you could deal with the state of the selected objects would all be the same.

Permalink Reply by Harri on November 11, 2009 at 5:25pm

Not convinced about shades of grey. Fine when they are sitting next to each other but far less clear when in isolation. White, black and canvas colour seems the best suggestion to me.

Permalink Reply by Benjamin Golder on November 12, 2009 at 4:50am

It is definitely a huge improvement, because the hatch pattern is a bit too subtle. I have spent tons of time wandering through enormous labyrinthine definitions over the past several months. Making the preview state of components immediately apparent when zoomed out would be extremely helpful. I agree that making the "preview off" component a ghostly white brings it more emphasis than the "preview on' component, and I would much prefer the inverse. With the vast majority of definitions I keep almost all of my components in a "preview off" state, and I selectively preview few of them. I often use control-a then preview off to clear my view. I like the gradient you proposed, but I would put the "preview on" component as the lightest value, and the the "preview off" component as the mid-range value.

The conceptual difference is that for me, "preview off" is the most common and typical state for any component, and it correlates with a lack of attention. setting preview to off says: this component is working fine and I am moving on to elsewhere in the definition. "preview on" components are the exception and should stand out, being immediately apparent from a distant zoom level.

Thanks David. The interface is excellent so far and I look forward to seeing what you choose.

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on November 12, 2009 at 5:12am

I concur with Benjamin's comments, I was sitting on the fence over this issue but what he states applies to my m.o. also.

Any hints as to when we will be able to sink our collective teeth into it?

Best regards
Danny

Permalink Reply by Frans Magnusson on November 12, 2009 at 7:38am