Colomar's unhappiness (that I share too) might result from the fact that right aligned text looks weird in case of significant differences at text length. You could solve this by moving the unit '(seconds)' from the caption behind the control, using the SI abbreviation (just 's', or maybe sec in English, I don't know). Actually I'd say this has to be the HIG default. @alake: What do you think as maintainer of the design part?

Heiko Tietze wrote:Colomar's unhappiness (that I share too) might result from the fact that right aligned text looks weird in case of significant differences at text length. You could solve this by moving the unit '(seconds)' from the caption behind the control, using the SI abbreviation (just 's', or maybe sec in English, I don't know). Actually I'd say this has to be the HIG default. @alake: What do you think as maintainer of the design part?

+1 from me, not from the visual perspective, but because it's more compatible with natural language. Nobody would say "I'm setting the update interval in seconds to 1", people say "I'm setting the update interval to 1 second". So yes, this should go into the labeling HIG.

myrjola wrote:The settings window got merged like this:

Hey thats an improvement, but I'm also not completely happy with it. You did it like this:

Use theme colors: [x] Enabled

Now I'm not sure if I maybe missed something in this conversation, but for me the "Enabled" label is completely redundand since the checkbox already clearly indicates that it's going to be an enable/disable action. So I'd simply recommend:

[x] Use theme colors

I'm mean, one could do this for every checkbox:

CPU Monitor: [ ] Enabled
Memory Monitor: [ ] Enabled
Swap monitor: [ ] Enabled

Makes not much sense, does it?

Nuc!eoN wrote:Now I'm not sure if I maybe missed something in this conversation, but for me the "Enabled" label is completely redundand since the checkbox already clearly indicates that it's going to be an enable/disable action. So I'd simply recommend:

[x] Use theme colors

This is simply a trick to keep the center alignment. If we'd have a left-aligned checkbox between the other two center-aligned controls, it would look weird.

What would be perfectly well possible, though, is putting the "Use theme colors" checkbox after the Monitor Type radio buttons and left-align it (removing the "Enabled"), because after it there are only left-aligned checkboxes.
In fact, that would probably work better than the current implementation.

myrjola wrote:

Great work! Here are some comments on the Settings dialog:

1. Update interval seems to be the least important (how many "normal" users actually care?), I would put that at the bottom.
2. Showing/hiding the different monitors is probably the most important setting, and currently it's not completely clear what those checkboxes do. I would move that group of checkboxes to the top and do something like

Code: Select all

Show: [x] CPU monitor
      [x] Memory monitor
      [x] Swap monitor

3. As the posters above, I don't like the "Enabled" label for a checkbox (even if it complies with the HIG). Furthermore, it seems even more confusing if you get more options if you uncheck a checkbox, I'm pretty sure it's usually the other way around.

How about moving the colors setting to a different page, have a "[x] Use custom colors" (or something like that) checkbox at the top, and always show the color options, just disable them when the custom colors checkbox is unchecked. The only problem is that you would show color settings for monitors that may not be enabled - don't know if it would be best to hide those settings, show a note, or something else.
4. You didn't show the color settings so maybe this is already fixed, but in you previous screenshots the color selectors look like some custom widgets. I hope the new Settings dialog is using pushbuttons, similar to the Colors module in System Settings.

Hans wrote:2. Showing/hiding the different monitors is probably the most important setting, and currently it's not completely clear what those checkboxes do. I would move that group of checkboxes to the top and do something like

Code: Select all

Show: [x] CPU monitor
      [x] Memory monitor
      [x] Swap monitor

Yes, that sounds good, too!

3. As the posters above, I don't like the "Enabled" label for a checkbox (even if it complies with the HIG). Furthermore, it seems even more confusing if you get more options if you uncheck a checkbox, I'm pretty sure it's usually the other way around.

How about moving the colors setting to a different page, have a "[x] Use custom colors" (or something like that) checkbox at the top, and always show the color options, just disable them when the custom colors checkbox is unchecked. The only problem is that you would show color settings for monitors that may not be enabled - don't know if it would be best to hide those settings, show a note, or something else.

Another advantage of this would be that the form wouldn't get longer or shorter if monitors are enabled or diasbled.

4. You didn't show the color settings so maybe this is already fixed, but in you previous screenshots the color selectors look like some custom widgets. I hope the new Settings dialog is using pushbuttons, similar to the Colors module in System Settings.

The buttons used there are what the proposed color selector buttons for the next iteration of System Settings look like. So currently this dialog is inconsistent with System Settings because it's ahead of its time.

Nuc!eoN wrote:You did it like this:

Use theme colors: [x] Enabled

Now I'm not sure if I maybe missed something in this conversation, but for me the "Enabled" label is completely redundand since the checkbox already clearly indicates that it's going to be an enable/disable action. So I'd simply recommend:

[x] Use theme colors

Yeah. The "Enabled"-string is actually an "if everything else fails"-approach in https://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Usability/HIG/Form_Label_Alignment#Checkboxes

I should probably use the second approach:

2. Make the checkboxes span the two columns, but keep them at the bottom of the form:

The problem is that the other checkboxes work more like a GroupBox because they include color pickers as demonstrated in earlier screenshots. So I should put the "Use theme colors"-checkbox below everything else. But somehow it feels awkward because unchecking it opens up the color pickers above.



What do you think? Is this the best approach?

I think ideally I should use approach 1

1. Group checkboxes together in the widget column and add a label describing the group in the label column:

Then everything aligns correctly, but I would need to come up with more settings so that I could assign a group for the checkboxes.

So much trouble for one checkbox I have been toying around with the idea to have an "Apply theme colors"-button which assigns the current theme colors to the color pickers. This would get rid of the checkbox and enable the user to fine tune the colors after getting sensible defaults from the plasma theme. The problem is that if the user changes the plasma theme then the colors doesn't change with it.

I was slow to write my response so you already seem to have solved my problem

I'll test Hans' and colomar's suggestions tonight. They will probably make the settings window much better.

colomar wrote:

4. You didn't show the color settings so maybe this is already fixed, but in you previous screenshots the color selectors look like some custom widgets. I hope the new Settings dialog is using pushbuttons, similar to the Colors module in System Settings.

The buttons used there are what the proposed color selector buttons for the next iteration of System Settings look like. So currently this dialog is inconsistent with System Settings because it's ahead of its time.

Oh. They don't look "pushable" to me, more like labels, so I hope that gets improved - but that's for another topic.

Thank you for working so hard on this myrjola! I know many users who just want a simple system monitor sitting in their panel, this widget will give them exactly what they want.

Hans wrote:How about moving the colors setting to a different page, have a "[x] Use custom colors" (or something like that) checkbox at the top, and always show the color options, just disable them when the custom colors checkbox is unchecked. The only problem is that you would show color settings for monitors that may not be enabled - don't know if it would be best to hide those settings, show a note, or something else.

Well the common approach is to simply grey out settings when they are disabled/when changing them has no actual effect.

I second like the idea of having this stuff in a second page, since one shouldn't mix design with "functionality". This should really be seperated.

Great input here!

Hans wrote:Thank you for working so hard on this myrjola! I know many users who just want a simple system monitor sitting in their panel, this widget will give them exactly what they want.

Thanks Hans! I'm very glad to be able to contribute to my favorite DE. The VDG has been very helpful in shaping this plasmoid. I have learnt so much in the process.

Hans wrote:Oh. They don't look "pushable" to me, more like labels, so I hope that gets improved - but that's for another topic.

Those color pickers are going to change, david_edmundson is working on a themeable color picker for us developers to use.

myrjola wrote:

Hans wrote:Oh. They don't look "pushable" to me, more like labels, so I hope that gets improved - but that's for another topic.

Those color pickers are going to change, david_edmundson is working on a themeable color picker for us developers to use.

The pushbuttons from Plasma 4 times didn't look nice (especially when you have lots of them on one page) but yes, the suggested design for the new ones currently lacks a push affordance. A mouseover effect could help there.

Tadaa!

I think the general settings improved greatly from your feedback:


Color settings with manual colors enabled and disabled:



I think that a checked checkbox should enable the color pickers, hence the inversion from "Use theme colors" to "Set colors manually".

I'm not entirely satisfied with "Set colors manually". "User defined colors" sounds also very technical. Any suggestions?

Wow, that indeed does look a lot better!
One might say "Why do you put so much effort into a config dialog?", but it's these things which influence the impression of "polish". Only software which makes sure that every detail receives enough attention appears "professional".
Another example of how the VDG can collaborate to turn something good into something great.

I need to aggree with colomar, it looks really great now!
This forum/community is indeed the piece that previously has been missing in comparison to commercial products - those raw diamonds finally get their polish, making them truly professional and mature enough for the consumer!

Also great respect towards myrjola for his patience and commitment

PS: don't forget to put the double dot behind "Update Interval" so that we can truly enjoy this rare moment of perfectness

Ah and before I forget, I'd still like to throw in one last (already previously mentioned) suggestion in:

kver wrote:If I could throw in one suggestion - and I don't know how practical it is - but with the circular plasmoids would it be possible to have the blank area at the top, and the filled areas at the bottom? That way you can get an idea of the overall % used at-a-glance by seeing how 'filled' the widgets are.

So exactly like in kver's mockups, I'd also like to keep the empty space at the top and the filled one at the bottom. Apart from being quite practical (as kver already stated), I really love that analogy to water and air in a glass tube^^



What do the others think? Anything against it?