On Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:13:23 -0600, Argent Stonecutter wrote: > On 2010-03-10, at 11:48, Tigro Spottystripes wrote: > > IMO the 2.0 interface looks way more like a "developer's interface" > > than 1.*'s > > Which brings this thread back onto topic for this list. :) > > I agree. The browser has become a familiar interface, but it was > largely developed by developers for developers, and for an application > things like the address bar and bookmarks and sidebars are distracting > and divert attention from the content (the page you're viewing, or the > world your avatar is in). Which is why web applications are allowed to > remove those decorations when creating a new window. > > The 2.0 interface looks like something a web developer would like to > use, not something someone IN SL needs. The address bar, toolbar, side > panel, and all the new highly decorated chat boxes and message boxes > should at the very least be made optional.
Here is my take on v2.0. It is an extract of a message I wrote in reply to Nyx Linden yesterday, but since there's nothing secret or private in it, here you go: NL> Any specific feedback on how we can tweak the 2.0 viewer to get it NL> to an acceptable state for power users would be appreciated! I already took the survey. Basically, the whole new UI is a nightmare for the old timer, the power user, and the role-player (and since I "play" in the three categories, it's the worst kind of nightmare as far as I am concerned: to be frank, I *refuse* to use v2.0 as it is and should I be forced to use it, I'd quit SL immediately !). Old timers have to relearn everything and waste their time adapting their "muscle memory" to the new UI (when at all possible, see below about the pie menu), while if you provided them with an old-style skin/UI it would make it so much simpler for them to migrate to v2.0... Power users miss the ability to freely open and move floaters around, arranging their layout and size as *they* want it to be. In this respect, the side bar is *catastrophic* as it imposes a single layout, eats up an enormous amount of screen space when open and is not resizable at all (forcing you to close it to actually enjoy the view, while, for example, a friends floater could be left open all the time on v1.xx without impairing the 3D world view), and can only display the equivalent of *one* floater (and even half a floater given how much fewer info is available at a glance without having to click again to get the info which was presented in v1.23 floater: the friends list is *horrible* in this repect: can't see or change the rights without clicking three more times, and this for each friend !). Role-players *scream* at the ridiculously small chat input line, at the enormous, non-transparent chat console, at the needless, impossible to hide voice button (role-players don't use voice !) and at the real life tab forced under their nose when they look at an *avatar* profile (everything that is linked/related to Real Life is a HUGE turn off for true role-players who want FANTASY and do not care the least for who is the real person behind the character (avatar) they role-play with). Everyone who knew v1.23 or former viewers will deeply long for: - the old skin, with small, space-saving borders and title bars (and why the Hell did you make the mini-map, movement and camera controls into full floater ?... To eat up more screen space ???... and the two controls floaters are now so huge !... Can't let them open all the time anymore, and not of the right side anyway, because of that stupid side bar that expands *under* them !?!), - the well contrasted and pretty fonts (white on dark grey, instead of grey on grey !... and what's that UGLY font used for avatar names and group tags ???...). - the handy pie menu (I can open a profile or a new IM tab in less than a 1/10 of a second in v1.23 and without even having to look at the pie menu: I will never be able to do that in v2.0, because the context menu entries are arranged in a list and you must read the items and carefully move the mouse to click on the right one, when the pie menu simply needed a coarse positioning of the mouse pointer to get on the right item, with an easy to train "muscle memory" as a result) - the toolbar and all the handy buttons which put all the useful features a click away from the mouse (IM, friends, groups, mini-map, map, build, fly, etc...) I could go on like this for hours and pages long... If you really care about what I (and many residents in your *stable* user base) consider a good UI, just check for the Cool SL Viewer (http://sldev.free.fr/)... So, if you *really* want to keep the v2.0 UI as it is for newbies, at the very least, please provide the others with a legacy skin/UI and let people choose... It reminds me of the first days of Windlight and its "Silver" skin which so many hated and screamed about that it forced LL to keep the legacy skin as the default in the final viewer... And frankly, who is using the silver skin now ?... Had I been asked what to do for the new v2.0 viewer UI, I would have replied "just keep the UI as it is, but allow for a "Beginner" setting that hides most of the power-user relevant stuff from them in the menus and floaters". Henri. _______________________________________________ Policies and (un)subscribe information available here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/OpenSource-Dev Please read the policies before posting to keep unmoderated posting privileges
