This is one of those changes that look almost trivial
when done, but behind the scenes take a disproportionate
amount of time to actually flesh out.
In this case, the main problem was that the feature
needs a detailed explanation and the question,
of course, was how one can fit a bunch of text into a
reasonably small space so not to have this text take
over the actual configuration section.
—
The first iteration was the good old message box. You
click on the "More on this..." and you get :
Nice, but looks like a hackjob, does't it?
So, naturally, the
next step was to spruce it up a bit - put text into
a dedicated window, use RTF to add a bit of in-text
formatting and a bit of animation to
liven things up :
Nice again, looks better, but feels off. Too much
going on. It looks like a conventional help window,
but ... crippled. It's also not clear how to
act when the user wants to resize the window - allow
it, not allow it, restict minimum/maximum size, etc.
In short, what's lacking here is the cohesion.
Luckily, the solution is right on the surface:
... whereby the text panel slides out on the "More
info" click.
This is better, but now we have a
window that sits lopsided on the desktop when the
panel is open. It is also becoming wide, meaning
that the app needs to mind the desktop edges,
re-center the window, etc.
But if we just sleep on it, we might suddenly decide
to make it an "either-or" window and then the UI
magically becomes
(a) compact
(b) cohesive
(c) balanced and
(d) with unlimited text space!
So there you have it - a new mini-help subsystem
coming to Bvckup 2 in the Release 71, deployed
on as-needed basis across the app.
Don't know about you, but I think it's neat, tidy
and pretty damn clever :)
This is one of those changes that look almost trivial when done, but behind the scenes take a disproportionate amount of time to actually flesh out.
In this case, the main problem was that the feature needs a detailed explanation and the question, of course, was how one can fit a bunch of text into a reasonably small space so not to have this text take over the actual configuration section.
The first iteration was the good old message box. You click on the "More on this..." and you get :
Nice, but looks like a hackjob, does't it? So, naturally, the next step was to spruce it up a bit - put text into a dedicated window, use RTF to add a bit of in-text formatting and a bit of animation to liven things up :
Nice again, looks better, but feels off. Too much going on. It looks like a conventional help window, but ... crippled. It's also not clear how to act when the user wants to resize the window - allow it, not allow it, restict minimum/maximum size, etc.
In short, what's lacking here is the cohesion. Luckily, the solution is right on the surface:
... whereby the text panel slides out on the "More info" click.
This is better, but now we have a window that sits lopsided on the desktop when the panel is open. It is also becoming wide, meaning that the app needs to mind the desktop edges, re-center the window, etc.
But if we just sleep on it, we might suddenly decide to make it an "either-or" window and then the UI magically becomes
(a) compact
(b) cohesive
(c) balanced
and
(d) with unlimited text space!
So there you have it - a new mini-help subsystem coming to Bvckup 2 in the Release 71, deployed on as-needed basis across the app.
Don't know about you, but I think it's neat, tidy and pretty damn clever :)