cfrag Posted September 11, 2021 Posted September 11, 2021 (edited) Warning: Esoteric topic ahead! Read at own risk! It's the small things I can obsess about, and so it is probably no surprise that a small thing of perhaps little consequence is what I'm writing about now. Now, to understand what I'm annoyed with is the following: In interface design, not all parts of the screen are equal; just like in housing, location is all that matters. That is because not all parts of the screen are equally easy to hit with mouse. Since the borders of a screen are 'infinite' sized targets for the boundary side, the sides are prime estate, and logical placements for important (often accessed) short cuts. That's why on the Mac (which unfortunately sports a much better thought-through GUI than Windows) the menu is at the top of the screen. In ME full-screen we get a similarly good interface metaphor, with the most important functions arrayed on the top and left edge of the screen - as it should be. ... well, mostly. At one of the most precious locations, the top left corner (which is very easy to hit since corners are virtually infinitely sized in two dimensions), we today have not one, but two of the most useless shortcuts possible. A shortcut derives its value by the relative ease it can be used, multiplied by the frequency we use it. Those two icons "New" and "Open" are two of the most easy-to-hit screen targets UI-wise, meaning they occupy the most precious screen estate. Tell me: on your average ME session: how many times do you hit "New" or "Open"? Now compare that with, perhaps, place unit, place zone, or edit trigger zone? In the current layout, arcane and seldom-used icons clutter and obscure important functions, and some of the most valuable screen positions are currently assigned to functions that nobody needs. Let's improve that. I know it will initially annoy people if that is changed in the future, because we have to re-learn some muscle memory - but trust me: if we put some more thought into the order, size and placement of those Icons on the left side, we will all have a much better experience. My recommendation: Place only, daily use Icon shortcuts into the left tool bar, and place them there by relevance (i.e. the more likely to be used in a daily edit session, the further it should be at the top: Place object (Fixed, rotor, ground, sea) icons at the top, followed by Static placement, with individual icons for Aircraft, Helicopters, Ground Vehicles, Airfield Items, Structures which will preselect those categories on the right side (i.e. people can still switch to all the other categories, the icon is a purely convenience accessor) zone placement (and have one icon for quad, one for round Edit triggers [Save (has a key shortcut, and is auto-executed on fly, not that important)] Fly mission Measurement Bottom Left for exit is perfect. Relegate non-essential and especially seldom-to-never used icons to their place in a appropriate menu/menu item on the top of the screen; most menus already exist. As a general rule: no icon should appear on the left icon bar that does not refer to a function that's used at least twice in a one-hour average Editing session. This would mean drastically reducing clutter by removing: New, Open (they already have items in the "File" menu) Change Coalition (seriously? In my life I needed it once. And at that time, it wasn't available, had to edit the .miz by hand). Put it in the "Mission" or "Customize" menu Mission Briefing, Weather, Bullseye Map Options, Mission Options (already have their items in menus) Define Mission Goals, Battlefield Commanders and all the other non-essential stuff that's not used regularly Of course, make everything, and especially those functions that have moved, easily discoverable by giving them appropriate names and menu places. Ok, getting off the soapbox now. Edited September 11, 2021 by cfrag 3
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