.For this to happen, first run usability is key and there are some points to that(this might seem like superficial talk and a waste of time but it runs down to good design principles)
1- allot of times less is more
2- coders are power users and regular users are not most of the times. They might be overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that's happening on the screen.
3- contrast and readability of elements/text is what makes the difference between a beautiful interface and a unusable one.
You might have seen this in the glass module forum post but it all applies here too.
I really think that contrast and readability is the first thing that should be addressed. Especially on fully transparent panels text should behave like subtitles in movies where there is always an outline or shadow making it readable even if there are 3d elements underneath it. Unfortunately i discovered that styling qt text can't be done directly with a style sheet but it is available trough QGraphicsEffect and must be coded directly. qt DropShadowEffect Class or even better a simple text outline that ideally should be of the opposite color chosen for the text in the qss .
Also having the option of blurred panels would be just awesome. It would really make freecad look like a modern application.
Effects availble in QtGraphicalEffects
I don't know if a widget with transparent background and and blur applied would pick the pixels underneath it (i know that on desktop that is the compositor work) but even implementing it with transparent background->noise map(as target image)->qtblur would be awesome and could potentially give a result like this :
- mokup3.png (397.34 KiB) Viewed 2470 times
The less is more thing in my opinion is the most difficult part to tackle. Allot of small "paper cuts" issues and less panels opened by default should be looked into . In the current state of development for example(and in my humble opinion)
-transparent panels should not have an outline(it just ads to the confusion)
-the overlay controls should not disappear when the mouse is not over the panel header(as they are small, leaving them always visible is a nicer choice and does not add to the "blinking led" sensation when using the interface)
-if i have a combo view opened and change its overlay mode it opens all the possible panels(report view/property view/combo view/selection view) and cramps them in one vertical space with no visual separation between them. I think this is just something to be addressed in this early code and not a design issue.
-allot of overlaid elements unnecessary change appearance or even move when the mouse passes over. This adds to the blinking led sensation when using the interface. Again I think this is just a mater of fine tuning the style sheets more than a fundamental design flaw.
-ALT+click on the change panel dimension clashes with some window managers for moving the entire application window. Can that be changed with CTRL+SHIFT or CTRL+ALT ?
-the navigation cube should be aware of the space taken by the overlayed panels and should move accordingly. Right now it hides beneath them if the overlay is changed.
- lessIsMore.jpg (170.05 KiB) Viewed 2470 times
A really big THANK YOU for the time and dedication that you put into Freecad.
