Looking for the best settings window in Instant Messenger
In the process of using instant messengers, and especially when I joined the development team of one of them, there were often disputes about how the settings window should look like, some argued that you can customize anything in Miranda, while others said that it is too complicated, cited as an example QIP, Pidgin, etc.
Now in qutIM there is a need to make a new settings dialog, so I would like to ask Habrovchan’s opinion on how the optimal settings dialog should look like.
In the original version of qutIM, which still supported only ICQ, the settings window was made in the QIP style, that is, just a list, for a one-protocol client it seemed that this would be enough, it looked very simple and understandable, as opposed to the tree used in Miranda. But in the process of developing a new 0.2 branch, new protocols, plug-ins and a whole bunch of other things appeared. As a result, at the beginning there was a selection button to which protocol these settings belong to, and ultimately it turned out almost the same tree as in Miranda, which is even worse, it turned out that the settings went to three different places and fully configure Kutim, not leaving the settings window was impossible.
Now a couple of screenshots for comparison:
You may notice that there are a lot of settings, there are no icons and even worse, the elements of the tree are beyond the fields
The option is good when there are not too many settings, otherwise the list will again be very long. Imagine what will happen to Kvip if you weigh it in the same number of plug-ins as in Miranda. Most likely it will turn out to be either a long long list, or in some points a huge number of tabs will appear ... in general there are many options, but they are not all very good.
The original version in Kutima was convenient in version 0.1, when there were profiles in the list, when the protocols were transferred there, it became not very clear and logical to configure because some of the settings were duplicated. In the end, the settings in Kutima transformed to this form.
What, in general, is repeating Miranda’s major flaws
The task of finding a new approach to the settings dialog turned out to be very difficult and led to a very heated discussion at the forum. The Linux programs were also reviewed, but there either the settings resemble Miranda or, as in Pidgin, there is only a tab bar with a minimum number of settings.
In the end, I remembered Adium, the workings of which Kutim more often used in the past.
I want to note that Adium does not immediately dump a mountain of information on a user about what can be configured in it. All settings are divided into categories and placed in the upper toolbar, if there are many settings in a category, then their list appears on the left, if there are a lot of them, then in addition to the list, a tab bar can also appear. But the most important thing is that with such a construction, it is possible to dose out only that information to the user, which is necessary for him, without forcing him to immediately search for the desired item among the hundreds.
Therefore, for Kutim, I made a sketch of the new settings dialog and added it to the 0.3 branch being developed:
and as a bonus, a screenshot of the outline that I compiled in Makosi
While this is only a very preliminary version, we need community advice on issues.
In general, I hope to help the community
PS
Also in the process of solving this problem, an alternative idea of ​​kickoff-style settings was put forward.
itmages.ru/picture.php?type=view&id=8115&key=7e4e0f
itmages.ru/picture.php?type=view&id=8116&key=c7bd1c
itmages.ru/picture.php?type=view&id=8117&key=605cdf
Now in qutIM there is a need to make a new settings dialog, so I would like to ask Habrovchan’s opinion on how the optimal settings dialog should look like.
In the original version of qutIM, which still supported only ICQ, the settings window was made in the QIP style, that is, just a list, for a one-protocol client it seemed that this would be enough, it looked very simple and understandable, as opposed to the tree used in Miranda. But in the process of developing a new 0.2 branch, new protocols, plug-ins and a whole bunch of other things appeared. As a result, at the beginning there was a selection button to which protocol these settings belong to, and ultimately it turned out almost the same tree as in Miranda, which is even worse, it turned out that the settings went to three different places and fully configure Kutim, not leaving the settings window was impossible.
Now a couple of screenshots for comparison:
You may notice that there are a lot of settings, there are no icons and even worse, the elements of the tree are beyond the fields
The option is good when there are not too many settings, otherwise the list will again be very long. Imagine what will happen to Kvip if you weigh it in the same number of plug-ins as in Miranda. Most likely it will turn out to be either a long long list, or in some points a huge number of tabs will appear ... in general there are many options, but they are not all very good.
The original version in Kutima was convenient in version 0.1, when there were profiles in the list, when the protocols were transferred there, it became not very clear and logical to configure because some of the settings were duplicated. In the end, the settings in Kutima transformed to this form.
What, in general, is repeating Miranda’s major flaws
The task of finding a new approach to the settings dialog turned out to be very difficult and led to a very heated discussion at the forum. The Linux programs were also reviewed, but there either the settings resemble Miranda or, as in Pidgin, there is only a tab bar with a minimum number of settings.
In the end, I remembered Adium, the workings of which Kutim more often used in the past.
I want to note that Adium does not immediately dump a mountain of information on a user about what can be configured in it. All settings are divided into categories and placed in the upper toolbar, if there are many settings in a category, then their list appears on the left, if there are a lot of them, then in addition to the list, a tab bar can also appear. But the most important thing is that with such a construction, it is possible to dose out only that information to the user, which is necessary for him, without forcing him to immediately search for the desired item among the hundreds.
Therefore, for Kutim, I made a sketch of the new settings dialog and added it to the 0.3 branch being developed:
and as a bonus, a screenshot of the outline that I compiled in Makosi
While this is only a very preliminary version, we need community advice on issues.
- What do you think should be the category in the upper toolbar and which of the most frequently used settings need to be put there?
- How to implement the functionality “save changes”, “cancel changes”?
- What kind of settings would look favorably on the phones?
- Other suggestions and comments
In general, I hope to help the community
PS
Also in the process of solving this problem, an alternative idea of ​​kickoff-style settings was put forward.
itmages.ru/picture.php?type=view&id=8115&key=7e4e0f
itmages.ru/picture.php?type=view&id=8116&key=c7bd1c
itmages.ru/picture.php?type=view&id=8117&key=605cdf
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/72814/
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