[KDE Usability] Re: Display Management Design

todd rme toddrme2178 at gmail.com
Fri Jul 29 10:31:44 UTC 2011


On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 1:38 PM, Lukas <1lukas1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> >
>> > https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1A7bdmsLBE_oeRZPHxZNMBVAxMQZCkQIclWOrd2mRLGs/edit?hl=en_US
>>
>> I've made some changes (all are easy to delete if you don't like
>> them), and have some suggestions for more substantial changes:
>
>
> Online tools are designed for team working, so any changes are more than
> welcome :)
>
>
>>
>> Changes so far:
>>
>> 1. I got rid of the numbers entirely and replaced them with a
>> three-state button.  The button by default is set to "enabled" (green
>> check).  It has to other modes, "disabled" (red X), and "primary"
>> (gold star).  I have a few ideas about how to change this:
>>  A. Single click: enabled->disabled->primary->enabled or
>> enabled->primary->disabled->enabled
>>  A. Single click: enabled->disabled->enabled->primary->enabled
>>  B. Single click: enabled<-> disabled
>>      Double click: enabled<->primary
>
> It looks good, and makes a lot of sense once you know what it does, but
> before I read the description, it wasn't obvious.
>
> Having in mind, that primary display is a subtitle option (just changing
> enabled/primary states wont give any useful/related feedback)
> as well making them clickable in the middle of the screen would reduce
> grabbing area to move display around,
> I'd suggest using Todd's suggested icons as secondary indicator next to some
> switch using strings for each state




>> 4. I put the resolution inside each screen.
>
> Hmm. KDE for smart phones/tablets are coming fast. If user would connect 24"
> external display to his 7" quad-core tablet,
> would there be enough space for resolution on smaller screen? (Tablet is
> more than 3 times smaller)

1. It could appear below when there isn't enough room, or below all
the time, or only appear when you hover over it.
2. There would be a lot more space if we got rid of the bottom area.

>> Suggested changes:
>>
>> 1. Get rid of the bottom area entirely.  Users can use the
>> drag-and-drop interface to customize everything.  For the activity,
>> use a drop-down list at the top right, next to the name.  Use "None"
>> as the default.  There can be a graphical preview of the activities in
>> the list, such as with the existing drop-down list of wallpapers in
>> some interfaces, or just use the activity icon.  "Create new" should
>> also be on list.  It should be labelled "Automatically switch to
>> activity:", or something similar.  Below I would have a check box:
>> "Switch to this layout when this activity is selected".
>
> While everything could placed as you suggest, what benefits would it give?

I think the better question is what benefit the lower part of the
interface has.  At the very least, it should make it clear that you
should be configuring things with the drag-and-drop interface.  As it
currently stands, I don't think people will realize they can they can
use the screen layout display to configure things.  They will think
assume, which is usually the case, that there is one way to configure
it, and that would be the lower interface.  I was under the impression
that having two completely different ways to configure the same thing
is considered bad usability, but I could be wrong.

> Main window has plenty of free space, using bottom area saves a few click as
> well as makes things more discoverable.

As I said, I think it makes the upper interface less discoverable.  It
would just look like a static display of what you configured below.
Also, as you said we won't necessarily have a lot of free space if we
want to make small screen easily visible.  And if we did have free
space, we could just make the window smaller.

> The least argument - having ~4-5 options still makes UI look clean and
> solid, at the same time sending a signal its a pro tool, not some fruitPhone
> app, where everything is decided for you.

The dropdown triangle would be for the pro tools, this would be the
more basic interface.  I thought the whole point was to make this
simpler and easier to use, to avoid the whole "pro tools" interface
that is harder to use.

I should add that on windows the official ATI configuration tool,
which is definitely a "pro tool", also does away with the lower
interface and does all the configuration in an interactive preview of
the screen layout.

>> 2. I think the small interface should show the previews in the list,
>> rather than the icons.  Have the icons in one corner of each preview,
>> or better yet get rid of the icons and just use the previews.  The
>> previews should automatically resize for the detected display's EDID
>> information.
>
> Are you talking about plasmoid?

Both

> Anyway, Icons was added since there could be more than one profile with same
> "extend on the right", but with different resolutions/rotation/DPI, that
> cant be easily identified by small preview.

The preview shouldn't be that small.  At the very least I would make
the preview the dominant component in the plasmod, with the icon in a
corner or on one of the screens or something.

>> 3. I would get rid of the "Meta-info section".  All necessary
>> information should be displayed in the screen box, graphically when
>> possible.
>
> Meta was placed outside since it might not always fit (as of change #4)

All of the information in the meta section is duplicated elsewhere.
The display name and number, in your original layout, were displayed
in the title of the screen.  The rotation is handled now by the line,
or some other sort of visual marker.  So should whether the display is
enabled or not and whether it is the primary or secondary monitor.
The resolution in your mockup is shown in the slider.  If we got rid
of that as you suggested, I already provided several alternative ways
to display it.  So all the information is either shown elsewhere, and
it just takes up space.

>> 4. There should be arrows or triangles or something in the lower
>> corners to tell people they can resize there, and a curved arrow just
>> inside or outside the upper-left corner so people know they can rotate
>> there.
>
> Won't changing cursor be enough indicator. It is consistent with resizing
> any window in any OS.

Yes, but this isn't a window.  As I said, in your mockup there is no
hint that the screen display at the top is interactive, and based on
past and similar interfaces I suspect users will assume it is not.


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