Loomio
Wed 14 Oct 2015 9:12PM

Thoughts about the new interface

AA Alberto Aru Public Seen by 95

First of all, thanks so much for all the developers that made this possible, I know that this is a huge work.

I think it's great, there's a lot of new features and that's always welcome, but I'm the kind of people who really likes the "KISS" philosophy so there's some suggestions:

  • Why having "My activity" twice? (top bar and left bar). I know that this was in the older interface as well but it was a good opportunity to put it off.
  • The same happens with the "Stream" button and the Diaspora* logo.
  • In the profile menu (top bar, when we click on the avatar), I noticed that the items are now more centred. Have you thought about including some icons? that way it would be easier and quicker to see what are we looking for.

I know that it can sound silly and I'm sorry for that, but I just want to know your opinions. In my view the rest of the changes are excellent!

DU

Thu 15 Oct 2015 7:19PM

Have you thought about including some icons?

Bad idea. Definitely bad idea. People always think that icons are a great idea because it makes the user interface lighter but, actually, if one can't find a significant icon, the interface can just fall in an icon hell. IMHO, if you have to click on the icon to understand what it does, the icon should simply not be here. This is actually a flaw in which a lot of open source projet fall in. I made a talk, recently about this. Just tak a look at this interface and try to guess what icons do:

Even though I've used software to compose music for year, I've never been able to understand Rosengarden's interface. Really, icons should be limited as much as possible.

AA

Alberto Aru Thu 15 Oct 2015 7:37PM

People always think that icons are a great idea because it makes the user interface lighter but, actually, if one can’t find a significant icon, the interface can just fall in an icon hell. IMHO, if you have to click on the icon to understand what it does, the icon should simply not be here.

I'm sorry, that's not what I meant. What I really wanted to say is that it could be better an icon with the words. Just like we use here on Loomio

DU

Thu 15 Oct 2015 9:19PM

Oh ! Ok (don't be sorry ;) I think the icons could be a bit hard to choose.