2024-04-09 User Interface Meeting

Meetings
,
1

User Interface Module Meeting 2024-04-09T15:00:00Z

Regular User Interface module meeting for planning and coordination. Last meeting was March 26th, next meeting on April 23rd.

Attendees

  • Julian Eisel
  • Pablo Vazquez
  • Harley Acheson

Merged Since Last Meeting

Review

  • UI: Splash Screen Import Changes #118224
    • This is approved, but will be merged without the “… Or”. Although that did indicate better that the sections were mutually exclusive we all found it a bit goofy. We don’t do that anywhere else and seemed much more “conversational” than we usually are.
  • UI: Changes to Extensions UI #27
    • We are having difficulty finding small changes or compromises between the current state, what Dalai wants, and desire of the UI Module and Brecht. Pablo will talk to Dalai and see if there is other common ground we can use.
  • UI: Outliner “File Mode” Manage User Count #118691
    • We are still preferring the one-column display, so that we can use this pattern consistently elsewhere in places that don’t have a lot of space like ID-Search. However we do want to show the “0” in red to better indicate the seriousness of the state.
  • UI: Add popup layout panels sub brackground color #119803
    • Harley will dig more into the need for this. We’d prefer to not have to make a new theme item for subpanel background color. Although this might require theme change to work correctly in our dark theme.

Future Joint UI/Modeling Meeting

Discussion

  • UI: Theme Color Tooltips #117815
    • Needs approval by Pablo.
  • UI: Screen Area Docking #104665
    • Harley waiting for module members to try this.
  • UI: Blinking Text Cursors #116595
    • We decided to backtrack and add back the (binary) user preference for this. At the very least this is needed for accessibility purposes for those needing decreased movement.
  • WIP: UI: Operator to Save Custom Keymap #120043
  • We talked a lot about status bar / operator header info.
    • Harley will first try to reduce some inconsistencies. Ideally header showing only dynamically-changing values with status bar showing everything else including toggle values.
    • Showing the dynamic values at mouse position during operations is something that Julian and Pablo want to see explored. Harley worried about it being intrusive but will make something to test.
  • We talked a lot about user counts and “fake user”. How a change to saving by default would affect user control. A “trash” view of to-be-removed items has some metaphor issues if saved items remain in the trash, or disappear. A “Protected” view? A separation of protection or deletion from user counts?
  • New Collection export shows some things to change, like the “export” icon shown next to collection name in Outliner. Clicking collection should probably open applicable Properties area. The export item could be in list after the name, be actionable, etc.
  • “Append” operations do not indicate the type of nodetree when it probably can do so. Also the “Size” and “Date” columns are n/a.
  • “Maximize Area” can’t change to show entire monitor, but “Full Screen Area” could be changed to hide panels and do so for entire monitor.
  • A way to add (or show) editors to maximized layout could come in handy. Or maybe just add editors to any layout - simple menu item rather than splitting and changing type.
  • Some minimized areas could get specific features for that state. For example Properties could bring up menus and popovers for each panel. Timeline could have a minimized layout.
  • Having hidden overlapping areas at left edge is interesting. Open on top of existing areas without changing their layout. Could be used for Top Bar operations when using pen or touch. Could be used by Assets or File Browser.
  • Harley will submit PR to change default color for console text cursor.

Status Bar-related Experiments

Other Experiments & Tests

18 Likes
2

eagerly waiting for this

btw, i know you guys are thinking about tablet support, so dont forget that this functionality is also tablet friendly. all it needs to work on tablets are onscreen modifier keys (which blender should have already tbh)

so please keep in mind all of that when discussing this feature. this is not just a “nice to have” thing. there’s a reason most 3d apps work like that, it’s actually a very important feature

5 Likes