I am actually using Views 2 for the first time now. So the interface really gets seen also for the first time thoroughly.

While the much mentioned improvement of the add/edit View UI is beyond doubt, it seems the welcome Screen has ben forgotten, that lists active and non-active views.

If it is like this, I gotta say it actually got worse from Views 1. It is harder to see, which View is active and which is not, and also it is hard to see where a view description starts and where it ends. See attached jink sketch.
(my backend theme is Pixture, but I checked: in Garladn it looks pretty much the same) Why are the active and non-active views no longer separated into bottom and top with a gap inbetween? This was actually quite good and continues practice from blocks module.

If you got energy to work on this a bit (it will be comparatively cheap compared to the add/edit UI I believe) I can provide Mockups and ideas, maybe other folds of the crazy Usability mob will join...

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Comments

merlinofchaos’s picture

If it is like this, I gotta say it actually got worse from Views 1. It is harder to see, which View is active and which is not,

There are two reasons why this is wrong:

1) The separation had nothing to do with active or not. It was default or not; a view could be active and default (meaning it was only stored in the database).

2) There is a feature request to add a list of filters to to only views that are enabled, but that hasn't been done yet. Even without that, the filters are there.

3) The table in Views 1 was about as big as a table could get, and it wasn't clean. There's a fair bit more information now and there is no way to put that information in a table the way it used to be. That's why I opted for the larger information area and a cleaner per view info spot. The filter gadgets at the top are meant to help you find the views you need.

Most of the comments in your jpg are hard to address. Using color is difficult, because themes control colors, which is why I've tried. There is a feature request, as I said, to add another gadget for active/inactive sorting. Adding more border space mostly serves to eat screen real estate, and one of the biggest problems with this screen is the amount of space each view takes up. Even a couple extra pixels will end up pushing 1 more view off of the screen.

eigentor’s picture

Point 2) of yours actually adresses the sorting topic - ah great issue already existing.
I also agree to 3): the table in Views 1 wasn't really nice. =8-0
Yes, color is an issue with themes, I did not think about this. Well, but you got blue in the edit screen, so this could be here, too.

See, I am arguing from the point of a first-time user and also from a purely graphic designer/UI guy point of view.

I also found quite some points in the edit UI.
Given that your collaboration with Alpritt and Yoroy was rather positive on creating the UI, maybe you are willing to do it once more. This would be refining instead of structuring and thus much less cause of hair-tearing. Cause the general concept and structure is great and very well done.

Space consumtion is sure an issue, and something I've been spamming the UI Groups page way to much about :P. I think one could gain space in the height of the rows,

Maybe I'll just create some mockups how I would like to see it, this might establish a mor constructive approach of mine. Notified Yoroy of this issue, maybe he joins.

Views has just such an unbelievable amount of options it is in its own league concerning how to present this...

merlinofchaos’s picture

Sure, post mockups in the Views group on gdo.

merlinofchaos’s picture

I added an auto sort to move disabled views to the bottom. That makes sense. I also added some CSS to make disabled views stand out visually.

eigentor’s picture

Ah, great, I'll check that out. Is it in the latest dev Version?

merlinofchaos’s picture

Yes.

It is, by far, not the only thing that can/should be done on this page, but de-emphasizing disabled views is totally sensible.

eigentor’s picture

Ah, great. Active Views are sorted to the top now, the rest gets all light grey fonts.
Well, now I would make the top bar blue for the active Views to clarify it even more (views-advanced-welcome-screen-1.jpg).

And to be able to separate the views better, a little bit of spacing would maybe help (views-advanced-welcome-screen-2.jpg) I am not completely sure about this, the white spaces might also make for optical irritation.

But as you don't want colors on there, maybe a darker grey could do (views-advanced-welcome-screen-3.jpg).

eigentor’s picture

O.K. You have driven me into trying to create my first ever patch. I tried to do it against CVS, but this did not work, as the latest CVS version appeared to have lost the changes you made before - no grayed-out inactive views, no sorting to the top. May be my incapability to properly checkout is to blame. Don't know. Am also new to CVS.

So I created the patch against the latest Version that worked for me (of Dec. 4th) which is the latest Dev version you can download from the Project page given the time of this post.

No big deal anyway, only the views-list.css is changed and I added two images to the images folder. So hopfully my patch is of any value, other you can also just put the two directories into the module folder, should work also, as I put nothing in but the two images and the changed views-list.css.

With the changes it should look like the also attached screenshot. If you don't like the blue for the active views, outcomment the #ddd for those elements. This is without color, but not nearly as nice. :)

Files attached.

eigentor’s picture

Status: Active » Needs review
yoroy’s picture

Status: Needs review » Needs work

Guten Tag Herr Eigentor! Merlin pointed me to your latest patch in IRC so I had a look (thanks for the added screenshot).

The organisation of the elements is improved now, easier on the eyes and clearer hierarchy, certainly worth doing this.

We're both not so sure about adding the gradient though. Do we reallly need it? It may look stylish but I don't know if that's a good thing to do, adding graphic UI elements to a single module, even if it is Views. I think the blue color in the title bar is sufficient visual labelling for 'enabled'.

eigentor’s picture

Sounds good. :)

With the gradient I may have put too much cream on the cake. What I wanted to archieve was a clearer distintion where the white box is ending, so one sees which blue bar and white field belongs together more easily (which is hard to scan now).

But following the principle of consequently equal UI design over individual tweaking you are right. It would mean one had to put gradients everywhere, or have them defined as a UI Element in the still to come UI Guidelines.

So I am completely happy if the rest but not the gradient is included.

I made the light grey of the inactive Views a Microgram darker, to balance better against the heavier active views.
(this refers to the font color)

merlinofchaos’s picture

The rest seemed ok to me, visually. Updated patch?

eigentor’s picture

FileSize
1.01 KB

O.K. here we go, removed the gradient. Created the patch against the same release (shouldn't be a problem since the file won't have changed) and from inside the folder the css file is in.

eigentor’s picture

Status: Needs work » Needs review
eigentor’s picture

FileSize
1.01 KB

Converted Line Endings to LF, after having gotten a Recommendation to do so from the channel. Updated Patch...

merlinofchaos’s picture

I have committed a patch that affects this views-list.css file so you may need to reroll this against -dev.

eigentor’s picture

FileSize
2.67 KB

O.K. rerolled it.
Indeed there was a change in that file from Jan 7th...
The patch was created in a somewhat strange way (replacing everyhting instead of only the needed bits) but should work. (agh, it's a long way to a pro patcher)

Rerolled against the latest dev.

merlinofchaos’s picture

I suppose the patch works but it's difficult to read and analyze the differences.

I'll look more at it when I can. In the meantime, patches work best if you can do a cvs checkout (Views 2 exists in HEAD) and use cvs diff -up -- that makes the best patches. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of checking out of CVS, which is the hardest bit.

eigentor’s picture

O.K. I'll have another try another day. The first patch (for the old css file) really only contains the differences, so if you want to have a quick look what I changed, it is better.

Yeah, CVS diff - I watched Addys Video and will try to get a hang on that. Wanting to get a patch in it is sure a good idea to present it in a painless format.

eigentor’s picture

FileSize
1.24 KB

Rerolled it, this time as a CVS Diff, and it looks all right now.

merlinofchaos’s picture

Status: Needs review » Fixed

In the future, I prefer patches that were generated from the base module directory, but it isn't *too* hard for me to deal with.

This one is committed. Thanks!

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.