30 Mar
2005
30 Mar
'05
12:35 p.m.
Nice design. I hadn't considered a tree-view!
Only thing is, I'm not sure if the tree-view is necessary - how many
users visit the network config dialogs more than once in a blue moon to
adjust something? I only ever delve in there if I'm testing a router for
someone and have to change my subnet.
Also, I think the protocol-specific dialogs are actually in separate
modules, and appear as dialogs. I could be wrong. But this would mean
it'd not be possible to do as you describe :(
But as a compromise - if necessary - maybe it'd be an idea to copy the
Firefox style of "preferences" dialog, with icons where the tree-view
is, but have each icon represent a different connection...
Jasper van de Gronde wrote:
Andrew "Silver Blade" Greenwood wrote:
...
Can you come up with a design?
I don't know about others, but one thing that has always bothered me
enormously is that it's hard to get an overview. Perhaps it would be
possible to list all connections at once in a tree view for example,
instead of forcing the user to open and close dialogs all the time. It
might even work to put some of the options in this tree view.
Or perhaps it would be better (as in more attainable) to just open
property sheets next to tree view instead of forcing the user to
navigate through multiple windows (first selecting the connection in
"Network Connections" and requesting its properties, then selecting
the desired item, click on properties, and then possibly even a click
on advanced).
To illustrate my thoughts I've created a mock-up that shows a lay-out
that would at least be an improvement over the XP layout for me:
http://home.hccnet.nl/th.v.d.gronde/networkconnection.png
For the mock-up source (Glade+Python, if anyone is interested in
expanding on this idea):
http://home.hccnet.nl/th.v.d.gronde/networkconnection.zip
You'll have to imagine the details like icons and so on, but it shows
the general idea of putting all the connections in one tree view,
which makes it easy to quickly navigate to the desired property page,
to switch between property pages (of different connections) to compare
settings and last but not least it avoids screen clutter! (try
navigating to the list of IP addresses under Windows, you'll have four
windows open!!!)
There would definitely be some details to fill-in. Like what to do
when navigating to a different property page when the current one has
been modified but not yet applied? But these issues should be possible
to resolve, either by looking at what other people do or (when lacking
satisfactory examples) by devising new solutions.
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