User Interface improvements

Hello,

I'm new to Indigo, and really like its simplicity and functionality. Great job! However, due to being new to the product may be I can see issues that seasoned users may have used to already. I feel like a little bit of face lifting is needed. Here is my list in no particular order:

* images are not retina-ready. Icons in lists and , "pro" in menus, sunrise/sunset in status bar. They look dirty and blurred.
* buttons in toolbar (new, edit, delete) are not mac-style, see Mail for an example of toolbar with a search. Text buttons are ok, but style should match.
* navigation panel shouldn't have "expand" button (triangle) when group is empty, also check group font style.
* plus sign in navigation panel (create folder) shouldn't create folder immediately, it should popup dialog with create/cancel buttons.
* new device button should have ok/cancel buttons, also it should create device when I finish all configuration, not when I select type of device
* control pages editor toolbar is not mac-style again (more like a Borland style? huh.. )
* plugin-provided devices (like timer) should respond to double-click in "state" column and/or inject commands like start/stop into context menu
* in general dialogs are very tight, they need more space to the left and right, less separators and borders (e.g. in z-wave configure dialog)

More to come as I work through the UI to create my smart home

/Ilya

[matt (support)]

* images are not retina-ready. Icons in lists and , "pro" in menus, sunrise/sunset in status bar.

Agreed, we need to update those. It'll probably have to wait until one of us has a retina Mac (well, I know it doesn't have to wait until we do but it probably will ).

* navigation panel shouldn't have "expand" button (triangle) when group is empty, also check group font style.

Agreed.

* buttons in toolbar (new, edit, delete) are not mac-style, see Mail for an example of toolbar with a search. Text buttons are ok, but style should match.
* control pages editor toolbar is not mac-style again (more like a Borland style? huh.. )

Agreed.

* plugin-provided devices (like timer) should respond to double-click in "state" column and/or inject commands like start/stop into context menu

We do have plans to improve and more tightly integrate plugin devices into the UI. Higher priority at this point is providing a mechanism by which plugins can show control UI inside Indigo and Indigo Touch.

* in general dialogs are very tight, they need more space to the left and right, less separators and borders (e.g. in z-wave configure dialog)

Agreed.

* plus sign in navigation panel (create folder) shouldn't create folder immediately, it should popup dialog with create/cancel buttons.

I don't understand why it should. Mail does show a dialog, but that is because there are additional settings/options besides just the name. If you create a new Bookmark folder in Safari though the folder is immediately created, just like in Indigo. Ditto if you create a new folder in the OS X finder. Why force the user into a dialog if you don't have to?

* new device button should have ok/cancel buttons, also it should create device when I finish all configuration, not when I select type of device

Agreed, but there are technical reasons why this isn't easily feasible. Mainly, plugins need access to a real device (in the database) so they can properly configure it while the UI is validated. We could modify Indigo so that the device isn't visible in the Main window until after the plugin has completed its validation (and all dialogs closed), but it likely isn't worth the effort/complexity IMO.

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. We'll add them to our feature suggestion list.

[jay (support)]

* navigation panel shouldn't have "expand" button (triangle) when group is empty, also check group font style.

This is the standard behavior of an NSOutlineView. Changing that would likely violate HIG.

* plus sign in navigation panel (create folder) shouldn't create folder immediately, it should popup dialog with create/cancel buttons.

Again, likely another HIG violation since we don't need to collect any extra information.

* new device button should have ok/cancel buttons, also it should create device when I finish all configuration, not when I select type of device

Dialogs only have a cancel button when changes to the dialog aren't immediate/can be reverted. Our changes are "permanent". As Matt points out, the behavior is a side-effect of technical requirements, but that's really secondary.

I agree with what orangy stated with regard to the look and feel of the user controls. I'm still in my trial period of the software and my only real hangup is how it just doesn't look and feel as nice as it's built. It's very evident that you two have put so much into the programming and making sure it works and is easy to use but the graphical design is lacking. Please don't take that as to much as a knock - I'd rather it work than anything else and understand the limitations you guys have.

I certainly don't mind helping with the buttons, backgrounds, etc but have no idea where I could share the files for the use of others (is in the forum the best place?). I'll work on them locally as I have time (I like to build with adobe illustrator - I'm not a programmer for sure!)

[matt (support)]

Thanks for the feedback. As you noticed, neither of us are graphic designers by any stretch. We did have some professional help with Indigo 6 (main icon and main window device icons), so the trend is towards slow improvement.

If you want to post or share design work for Indigo (either for controls used on graphical Control Pages or the main Indigo UI) then I would suggest just hosting them on dropbox and linking to them from a forum post.

Dropbox is easy enough... I'll do that.