Interface UI

[purple]

I say, lets vote
Just to see how many people would love change and how many people are fine with it as it is..

[ghisler(Author)]

How can you vote if you don't know how it would look afterwards?

[Samuel]

How can you vote if you don't know how it would look afterwards?

No problem I am for it.

[KucingLapar]

If there were changes to be made on the TC UI, the first thing I always wish to see is a better consistency in the UI elements and the use of more standard UI controls. The preferences dialog too needs a massive revamp and rearrangement imo. I think this is far more important than adding fancy skins support right now

[purple]

ghisler no worries man, that's easily solvable

Anyways, plenty people from community wants something done so it can't be ignored any more


Yeah, and icons need to go too

[ThurahT]

Yeah? I find more people want it as it is. So that is a funny statement to make.

And if you need icons to go there is an easy option in the: configuration->icons-> check "No icons" and just beneath that you uncheck "Show icons for commands in the main menu" and you're good to go.

I always wish to see is a better consistency in the UI elements and the use of more standard UI controls. The preferences dialog too needs a massive revamp and rearrangement imo.

Please explain what you mean with standard UI controls. I can control every place holder and option with keys in the Configuration-window. Which is really easy to access and browse.

[purple]

I just cant believe how scared of change you are.
You think its really going to rock your world so hard that you won't have a reason to use it at all.

You had it same way for last 10 years, maybe its time for other people to have their eyes pleased too for a while dude.

What a selfishness!

[bobputnam]

IMHO, the only good change is an improvement in function. That _can_ include a visual change, but a visual change for its own sake has zero value for me.

[Sob]

You had it same way for last 10 years, maybe its time for other people to have their eyes pleased too for a while dude.

Yeah! And next year we switch it back to make old users happy again and then another year it can be new look for you and so on... just kidding. ;)

People, listen to the moderator. He's moderator for a reason, he knows what he is saying. :)

There's no single great design to please everyone. Making things more customizable is the closest thing to making everyone happy. First rule of success is not to break anything for users who like it as it is now. Second is to go the safe way by default, which is to stick to Windows themes (including not-really-themed Classic style) as much as possible, no additional fancy stuff. If TC has the familiar look of base system, it can't scare new users. Non-standard "cool" look may impress some, but will discourage same amount of others. Additional customizations should of course be possible if it's not too much work and it doesn't break anything. Things like different colors, backgrounds and such, it shouldn't be too hard to implement and it has potential to make some people happy.

And that was just look. Then there are several possible functional UI changes (or better added possibilities, no pressure for old users to use them). For example more flexible toolbar system (any number of customizable toolbars possible to stick almost everywhere in main window) sounds interesting. Definitely some BTM improvements, that is frequent request. Etc..

[ThurahT]

I just cant believe how scared of change you are.
You think its really going to rock your world so hard that you won't have a reason to use it at all.

You had it same way for last 10 years, maybe its time for other people to have their eyes pleased too for a while dude.

What a selfishness!

Of course change to the worse is not on my wish list. Eye candy has never improved functionality. But I am also not blind that I cannot see that some users need it.. for various reasons. Perhaps you should read my first post on page 3 again.

@Sob. Those are some good rules you point out there.

[ehab]

do another TC branch and have it called TC Candy or TC ribbon or TC purpleSkin.

but leave TC as it for the others who don't want to change.

[m^2]

Eye candy has never improved functionality.

This is not true. For example Win XP made the close button on windows red, which made it easier to spot and therefore faster to click.

But I totally think that most of eye candy has detrimental effect on productivity.

[SlavaG]

I'm a bit reluctant to change the design (or have it changed by a disigner), because design is always a question of personal taste. It's also a problem that you get used to certain user interface elements and hotkeys. For example, I don't like the way MS Office is going with its ribbons, and therefore switched to Open Office. I fear that a similar exodus might occur if I changed the design too much.

However, I'm open to hear suggestions for small improvements.

Hello Christian,

I would say it is not about personal tests, it is about marketing TC to the mainstream users.

I work in a huge multinational corporation. Since I cannot exist without your program I got our corporate IT department to approve the program. This means that any user in our offices in 100 countries of the world can request the program and it will be purchased and installed on his computer. In their turns, these users will promote your program as the migrate to other corporations of similar caliber. The opportunity is definitely there.

However, in the case of my organization, I believe that very few licenses were purchased of the three years that TC has been approved by the corporate IT.
There are two reasons for it: the first reason is that few people know about the tool, the second reason is that whenever I show TC to a new person, the person gets intimidated by the look of it, thinking that the program is old and cumbersome to use. Since I strongly believe that TC is a superior file manager and can significantly improve productivity in some departments I have been actively promoting it for at least 3 or 4 years… I’ve got may be 3 or 4 users hooked up on it – that is one user per year. The rest of the effort was wasted because people were scared off by the GUI.
IMHO, if you want to market the tool actively (and it has a huge potential) it is time to start looking at the GUI or, better, get a strong GUI developing company to rework it based on user psychology, ergonomics, current trends and efficiency.
It sure has to be much more consistent with Windows or Leopard GUIs (fonts and icons are no exception). The design should be clean and streamlined. In terms of GUI design I would say Apple rules and it is supported by consumers paying extra dollars mainly for the design of the devices and OS GUI (though I am a Windows user). The “extra dollars” is a keyword here, even if some people do not like the design trend personally and oppose the change.
As for the MS ribbon, I believe that is was a breakthrough as it made the MS Office interface much more intuitive for new users and, while there is always some resistance from existing users, most of them eventually come to like it. The beauty of it is that it makes tools and features previously buried deeply in the menus to stand out in the context of what a user is doing, thus, making the features readily available just when they are required the most. MS ribbon is actually a tutor not just a means of navigation through menus.
Thank you very much for your program, Christian!

[ghisler(Author)]

Actually the ribbon shows less functions than the previous interface, and more clicks are needed to use them. I see this even in MS Paint: The zoom function is on a different ribbon than the draw functions, which is extremely frustrating. But yes, it may be easier for the "ignorant iOS" generation.

[MVV]

I hate ribbons too=) they take TOO MUCH screen space (yes, one can collapse them but it is just like switching all toolbars off) and require quite long searching for needed item. And they are not customizeable at all. And ribbons were introduced INSTEAD of old good toolbars (not together) -> old users can't use software as they did.

With classic toolbars user can leave only most frequently useful buttons placed in a single button line -> compact and doesn't require to constantly switch ribbons. Menus also provide compact and fast access to commands.