alternative suggestion for axoloti gui

[j]

hi Johannes and all of the other Axoloti users,

I made some thoughts about Axoloti's GUI design. I don't know, how the GUI is showed in windows or linux OS. I'm using a mac os and most of the functions are in the menubar. I can't find any keystrokes i.e. upload a patch to internal flash or SD card. The current GUI reminds me to pd's GUI (detached patcher and status monitor window). Sometimes it can be happen that the windows (patcher, axoloti monitor) overlap or cover each other. This happens more often, if you use a single monitor. I think the Max/MSP GUI design (all in one window) has a much better workflow. So I created a quick GUI suggestion in illustrator. The icons and colors are not great. It only should show, how I think, it would maybe more clearly for users.

What do you and the others think about it? Would it be difficult to realize a sidebar?

[Johannes Taelman]

On Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 1:21 PM, j <jo...@iriemovement.de> wrote:

hi Johannes and all of the other Axoloti users,

I made some thoughts about Axoloti's GUI design. I don't know, how the GUI is showed in windows or linux OS. I'm using a mac os and most of the functions are in the menubar. I can't find any keystrokes i.e. upload a patch to internal flash or SD card.

Keystrokes are easy to add.

 

The current GUI reminds me to pd's GUI (detached patcher and status monitor window). Sometimes it can be happen that the windows (patcher, axoloti monitor) overlap or cover each other. This happens more often, if you use a single monitor. I think the Max/MSP GUI design (all in one window) has a much better workflow.

I only have Max 6 installed, on Windows it has detached independent overlapping patcher and "max" windows, with the option to add a sidepanel to a patcher window that can switch between explorer/reference/inspector/max. Max 7 redesigned everything, with toolbar ribbon around a patch, but I haven't used it. In my opinion both the toolbar ribbons and the sidebar cause a lot of redundancy in terms of screen area when you have multiple patches open.

Maybe a global window with (dock-able) object library, log and status, and internalframes for the patches?

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/components/internalframe.html

But internal frames conflict with OSX design patterns I believe.

 

So I created a quick GUI suggestion in illustrator. The icons and colors are not great. It only should show, how I think, it would maybe more clearly for users.

What do you and the others think about it? Would it be difficult to realize a sidebar?

Currently my priorities are hardware and firmware. After that comes consistency - like object categorization/parametrization and issues like #16 on github. Cosmetics have low priority in development currently.

I can see the sidebar working out well when using the full screen, or in a large patch window. When the patch window becomes smaller, the ribbon would need a scroll bar, reducing the overview. Also - what's the use of showing the object selector frame when a patch is live and objects can't be added?

I have no background in UX/design. I'm aware that there is a lot of room for improvements, and while I can't spend time implementing ux/design improvements these days, I really appreciate input, it helps planning future improvements.