Ultimate tool - a call for UI coders
grand marshal polycounter
Hi there!
I think I quickly mentioned this some time ago but I have been thinking about it more over the last few days. There is a possibility that such tool already exists somewhere, but I thought I could share the design document and maybe, find someone interested in coding it!
***Hotkeys holder for tablet and tabletPC users***
Observation 1 : Most advanced programs let the user define keyboard shortcuts (hotkeys) ; and even if the most mainstream apps like itunes, firefox don't give easy access to user customization, they very often come with hard coded hotkeys.
Observation 2 : Some users enjoy UI buttons over keyboards shortcuts. In some cases it is actually more practical to rely on UI buttons rather than hotkeys (tablet PCs, Cintiqs). However not every program allows for UI customisation and button creation.
Observation 3 : Every interface is different, but streamlining them could improve the user experience.
I am thinking of a shortcut container somehow similar to the Maya shelf, but with added functionality and running as a separated program. It would be turned on on start up and stay on display all the time.
Core features:
-Always on top of all the windows on screen.
-Contains an unlimited amount of slots.
-Each slot holds a keyboard shortcut, activated by clicking on it.
-Each slot contains a visual label making it easily recognizable : .gif, .ico, .png, or plain text description.
-Clicking an icon accepts 'sliding' behavior : no need to hold the stylus firmly in place for the click to validate as opposed to the Windows desktop icons behavior. See the Firefox3 Back and Forward buttons as an example of slide-friendly click behavior.
-The main part of the interface does not allow for dragging. In order to drag the container, one needs to clickdrag the dedicated Drag icon.
-The contents of the hotkeys holder update according to the app currently in focus. (if photoshop is in focus, the holder only displays photoshop related shortcuts)
-Absolute screen position of the holder is a user preference, defined for each application. (to avoid hiding useful UI elements)
-The holder can be resized by dragging the dedicated Resize icon
-When all apps are reduced and nothing is in focus, or when a folder explorer is in focus, the holder displays OS related shortcut icons
Low priority features :
-Support for complex shortcuts to provide 3D navigation support : click-drag on an icon can be bound to alt-click-drag
-Supports for repeatable actions (alt-click-drag-10pixelsXaxis) for discrete rotation, zooming, and pan.
-Multiple holders
And finally, a mockup! Examples of Firefox and Photoshoop behavior.
This is basically this
http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/
and this
http://www.xkeys.com/xkeys/xkstick.php
combined together in a virtual, desktop way.
Related tools :
Clutterbuster
http://appsapps.info/screenshots/clutterbuster.jpg
(only for .exe's)
Wacoms popup menu tool
www.wacom.com
Directfolders
http://www.directfolders.com/
Launchy
http://www.launchy.net/
Anyone wants to jump in?
If it ever sees the light of day I could see that being quite popular amongst visual artists. And then it's just a matter of adding a 'Polycount donation' link somewhere in the options = server maintenance + minicomps prizes money!
Also it's worth mentioning that the biggest benefit would be for tabletPC and Cintiq users - because the keyboard really is hard to reach in such cases. For a classic tablet+keyboard combo it might be a bit redundant! But maybe it could be a anti-RSI thing too ?
[edit : the Close button is unnecessary in the UI. This should be accessed with right click hit, since it's not something one wants to hit by mistake!]
P
I think I quickly mentioned this some time ago but I have been thinking about it more over the last few days. There is a possibility that such tool already exists somewhere, but I thought I could share the design document and maybe, find someone interested in coding it!
***Hotkeys holder for tablet and tabletPC users***
Observation 1 : Most advanced programs let the user define keyboard shortcuts (hotkeys) ; and even if the most mainstream apps like itunes, firefox don't give easy access to user customization, they very often come with hard coded hotkeys.
Observation 2 : Some users enjoy UI buttons over keyboards shortcuts. In some cases it is actually more practical to rely on UI buttons rather than hotkeys (tablet PCs, Cintiqs). However not every program allows for UI customisation and button creation.
Observation 3 : Every interface is different, but streamlining them could improve the user experience.
I am thinking of a shortcut container somehow similar to the Maya shelf, but with added functionality and running as a separated program. It would be turned on on start up and stay on display all the time.
Core features:
-Always on top of all the windows on screen.
-Contains an unlimited amount of slots.
-Each slot holds a keyboard shortcut, activated by clicking on it.
-Each slot contains a visual label making it easily recognizable : .gif, .ico, .png, or plain text description.
-Clicking an icon accepts 'sliding' behavior : no need to hold the stylus firmly in place for the click to validate as opposed to the Windows desktop icons behavior. See the Firefox3 Back and Forward buttons as an example of slide-friendly click behavior.
-The main part of the interface does not allow for dragging. In order to drag the container, one needs to clickdrag the dedicated Drag icon.
-The contents of the hotkeys holder update according to the app currently in focus. (if photoshop is in focus, the holder only displays photoshop related shortcuts)
-Absolute screen position of the holder is a user preference, defined for each application. (to avoid hiding useful UI elements)
-The holder can be resized by dragging the dedicated Resize icon
-When all apps are reduced and nothing is in focus, or when a folder explorer is in focus, the holder displays OS related shortcut icons
Low priority features :
-Support for complex shortcuts to provide 3D navigation support : click-drag on an icon can be bound to alt-click-drag
-Supports for repeatable actions (alt-click-drag-10pixelsXaxis) for discrete rotation, zooming, and pan.
-Multiple holders
And finally, a mockup! Examples of Firefox and Photoshoop behavior.
This is basically this
http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/
and this
http://www.xkeys.com/xkeys/xkstick.php
combined together in a virtual, desktop way.
Related tools :
Clutterbuster
http://appsapps.info/screenshots/clutterbuster.jpg
(only for .exe's)
Wacoms popup menu tool
www.wacom.com
Directfolders
http://www.directfolders.com/
Launchy
http://www.launchy.net/
Anyone wants to jump in?
If it ever sees the light of day I could see that being quite popular amongst visual artists. And then it's just a matter of adding a 'Polycount donation' link somewhere in the options = server maintenance + minicomps prizes money!
Also it's worth mentioning that the biggest benefit would be for tabletPC and Cintiq users - because the keyboard really is hard to reach in such cases. For a classic tablet+keyboard combo it might be a bit redundant! But maybe it could be a anti-RSI thing too ?
[edit : the Close button is unnecessary in the UI. This should be accessed with right click hit, since it's not something one wants to hit by mistake!]
P
Replies
I'm thinking that some sort of pop-up pie menu would be better, though. Less intrusive but always on your cursor when you need it (see: modo's).
http://moi3d.com/
its designed with tablet use in mind other things that come to my mind are the wacom build in tools where you can tab a specific area on the tablet to execute specific actions or applications.
As for the pie menus - I see how this would be a great tool since many programs don't have them. The only problem I have with them is that the still require a specific input to be started (right click, button press...) which in the end adds one more step. But obviously if a keyboard holder could have both functionalities (always-on-screen bar, and pie menus) that would be ... totally fantastic!
I personally use pie menus mostly the for less frequent things (accessing the UV and material editors, going straight to an apps preferences menu, opening the Mel script window...) as opposed to actions used extremely often (cut, merge, extrude...) which I store in keyboards shortcuts for the most useful ones and UI icons for the slightly less frequent ones.
The goal of that keyboard holder would be to give access to such primary and secondary tools to tabletPC users, without the reach of the keyboard.
I'm glad you guys are liking the idea. I am trying to spread this around a little, it would be great to see this gain momentum!
It seems like the AutoIT scripting language allows for these things very easily so I posted there too
http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=88576&st=0#entry636429
This thing has everything to do all the things mentioned in the first post (even the "low priority" mouse dragging feature), that's very exiting!!
http://www.chessware.ch/virtual-keyboard/index.php
I'm researching this right now, haven't downloaded it yet, but it looks like it might be semi-useful...
Edit: I'm hoping Pior's idea takes off though, I don't use hotkeys that often, other than the most common standard ones, and use toolbars far more often...
Good luck I'm pulling for ya!
I'll look into a couple of things and see what is possible.
I could see that it might be slightly more complex to pull out since it implies a more advanced visual interface - but the core design (holding app specific KB shortcuts behind visual labels) is obviously the same!
Vig, yeah huh? And thanks for the link, Illusions. I tried Touch-it some time ago and it certainly has all the core features I am mentionning, just wrapped up differently. At least it proves it is possible!
Keg, fantastic to hear. I'll report any info gathered from other boards where I posted the doc, if it can be helpful. It seems like AutoIT can do it all (it can even create standalone exes)
http://www.autoitscript.com/
This is exciting!
Have you considered mouse gestures. gMote http://www.handform.net/gmote.php is a pretty awesome tool. When I install gMote I get rid of all of his presets and make my own. Since I use Vista with Areo I have to turn off the stroke graphic (but I think I would have turned it off anyway).
Just to give some examples.
In Photoshop flicking to the left is undo, flicking to the right is redo. Flicking up is copy, flicking down is paste. Drawing a circle selects all. Square makes a new layer. Drawing "b", "g", or "f" presses those hotkeys for me, and so on...
I actually have it setup so that flicking left is "alt + left arrow (Back)" globally except Photoshop. You can customize or turn of gestures for any program.
I know it's not the graphical program you are looking for, but IMHO I think it works faster. And it works will with the mouse or pen. There's other mouse gesture programs, but gMote is probably the best free one.
Oh, one last thing. Don't confuse this with the lame "Flicks" utility that comes with Vista.
Yeah I can see how mouse gestures can be very beneficial! As a matter I messed around with them quite a bit already, using Stroke-It. I took the time to setup everything properly (especially for 2D apps -flip canvas horizontally, brush size, reduce current app to desktop, all that sort of stuff) but I ended up never really using them somehow.
What modifier do you use to trigger them? I think most folks use either MMB or RMB. It works wonders in photoshop, but I don't see myself doing that in Maya or Mudbox since it triggers navigation!
I'll install gMote and will check it out anyways. I 'think' I will still end up wishing for a unified, cross-application graphical interface tho. But it's true that this is all just personnal preference. IRL I like to have all my tools in sight (nightly ordered tho!) as opposed to pulling them out of drawers, and back
Also working in Maya with a floating, resizable shelf with the viewport maximized spoiled me, maybe!
Very interesting point of view nonetheless, I'll check it out asap.
Keep the ideas coming!
No problem about the icons, they were a 5 minutes job!
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/photoshop-blog/06/02/nulooq-logitech-design-tool.html
I really like the one tiny 'touch' button in the middle of the device (no need to press it to register, ala ipod navring), I use it for pan in photoshop. However the other buttons need a strong press, so I dont really use them much. The Nulooq ring is fantastic for brush size tho!!
He is still working on it and polishing some of the behavior, but the bar is working incredibly well with 3D apps so far. Little action video introducing FunkyBar :
http://vimeo.com/4960185
It really is a breeze to work with so far. I always hated how the maya shelf get stuck all the way up there! This is much better for me. Also many programs put the icons on the right hand side which is super annoying for lefty tablet users. This solves it all!
Joy!
he really did a nice job at spending his free time at coding this thingy ^_^
Also, Pior, that is a lot of shortcuts you have there in that one shelf tab. :poly105:
it was an awesome idea so I had to jump on it!
and I'm always looking to improve it where I can, rooster
so feel free to ask!
...unless you have a different idea, in which case I'm still all ears but I'm not sure about my knowhow or my time!
nice work though,- any info on the structure - like how it works and if how it can be extended or edited?
Is there a way for custom icons and or layouts?
what I mean is.
1. hold button
2. pie menu pops up with the center where your pointer is right now
3. slide your pointer over to the desired option pie slice
4. release button and the option gets picked
this makes for a one button press and flick flow which is really neat.
this can also be expanded by adding submenus easily. basically you pop up a new pie menu when you mouse over (pen over?) a submenu pie slice.
uhm... the new wacom intuos 4 does have something like this but I believe it requires a lot of extra clicking and it covers up all of your screen... so I dont find it very usable. but Id actually pay for something that is more akin to what I described above.
Icons are supported, FB even mad a whole bunch of them, I just didn't set them up in my config yet.
Kawe well yeah I see how the pie menu can be useful, but like mentionned earlier this is a whole other step of complexity :P But yeah it would be cool, especially if we can keep a bar with different icons in it (the ones you need the most), and, some icons could open a pie menu for some more shortcuts. That way there would be two things (bar and pie) into one.
As far as pie only , the wacom driver has that now, true!
This thing is so cool! Addicted.
I tried to upload a video to youtube but it's so low rez it's impossible to see anything. My hosting is currently being squirrely so I'll have to wait on a more detailed video! for now this should show the very basic idea
[ame]
Kawe: that's an interesting idea. I can't say how possible it would be for me, but I'll try and look into it as I find some time
Great work though, it looks super usefull.
Sure thing Lampoly
It's still a little bit rough yet in some areas though!
jerry, actually someone mentioned AutoIt scripting earlier and I decided to give it a shot to see if it was up to the task. I kinda wish I'd done it fully in C++ now since it's gotten so big, but it actually does the job pretty damn well
apologies if any of these are in there already
1: ability to have bar hidden by default, and hold a button to show, let go and it hides
2: the bar appears where your mouse is, like mayas hotbox/marking menus
3: some kind of tab functionality, so you can have a lot of shortcuts stored in it (I would put in a LOT), but a bit more organised than just one massive bar. maybe theres a different solution than tabs, but i just mean a clean way to have lots of stuff.
4: saving config- might be in there? (transfer between home and work pc easily)
i think my dream use for this is a bit different to piors, possibly. i'd love something that means in any app (that has sufficient shortcut tools) i can hide all UI and use only funkybar.
when in different 3d apps, i could set up the bar to act the same in each one. create objects tab, edit objects tab, create lights tab etc- everything in the same place. With a bit of work on the users part, it could really super streamline using multiple apps, and reduce everything to one interface
edit:
ps, like someone said- id pay for a pie menu version
It could make the yearly update of autodesk apps somewhat more bearable without having to re-gigger the UI quite so much.
I mostly see this as a way to throw down the keyboards oppression on my workflow freeing me up to use the tablet more and more. I think lefties who like to use the tablet as a replacement for the mouse get a bigger boost out of this by not being so heavily dependent on the keyboard. Most key binds tend to be left handed and actually works better if you're holding the pen in your right hand.
I'm still ironing out a few core things and trying to fix up a new site that has less back doors, but I've increased the speed and added several other features to Funky Bar including letting you run apps or files from the buttons, and easily transfer settings files from one machine to another.
I'll post a video as soon as I get my website sorted
Only one other thing I can think of now that would be amazing to have added.
SUB-MENUS.
With sub-menus you could pretty much rebuild any apps' default menus with just the options you want and then hide their menu bars. This would make me very happy, particularly for Maya. Or you could just use it to save space on your bar by having options tree out.
Anyway, looking forward to a release!
And that would be awesome, rhjs! so far most of the premade icons have been a little rushed so i could definitely use some nicer ones if you're ever bored or something! I'll talk to ya about how I'm currently doing them later.
[edit]
I've posted a video on my new site. I'll make a new one as soon as I get the next version built up
watch it here
clic button+ drag= alt+click+movement based on the drag orientation and distance this way you can pan/rotate zoom...
This would be perfect for tablet pc users without much butons available.
Thanks mLichy
I was thinking about that after pior mentioned it, BeatKitano, still having trouble getting a good method for it though hmmm. Why don't you set one of your buttons to mmb?
man_o_mule haha that's always great to hear! :poly121:
I've been trying to hammer out some of the graphical [and other] gripes I've had with it for a while and it's a little more in-tune with the direction I want. I made another quick video here
I've added some:
there's still a bunch I want to add, but that's as far as I was able to get for now!
I'm not sure i understand your question correctly. The combo I described is for maya-like navigation, everything works with alt+ mouse button. If i do what i think you're saying, i've mmb for pan (for example), right button for rotate, what button do i have for zoom now ?
That's why i'm asking this feature, it would be useable in any software (except zbrush but zbrush has his navigation widgets already), with the same gesture.
[update: sorry bk misunderstood your post]
FB the updates are very cool, thanks for the titillation. I'm looking forward to a release. It's looking like a really great combo of some toolbar apps out there but so much more and better kickingassness (and very nice looking too). Great work man!
What the ?
BeatKitano, I'll have to look into it
I use an intuos3 that has 4 buttons + touch strip at each side of the tablet
so i usually set 3 of them to alt, control, shift, and then set my second button on the pen to MMB. so then you can navigate in most 3d apps easily. But I know a lot of people who never use those buttons, so I'll still have to see whether or not this is possible with funkybar.
On the other hand, on a tablet pc, when in tablet mode, i have no button other than the stylus (2 buttons + nib), and its where the funkybar would be the most useful.