What is the point of moving the view mode from the header ? If you use a mouse/pen to interact with the interface you will be moving it up and down the screen like a yo yo.
What is the point of splitting the properties panel buttons into two ? If you want to switch between render and material settings you either need two separate panels open or have additional button pressing to change the window type then select the section you want.
It also looks like the object properties are part of the 3d view window ? Not as flexible if you have large/multi monitor setup
Why are the buttons at the top of the interface all blue ? Does that mean they are all selected ?
You have ‘Solid’ and ‘Shading Options’ on the header ? Are they different things ?
Note these comments are really to highlight that people are different and what may seem a great idea for one may not be great for another. If you want a change then you should be able to justify why that change is for the better, what are the pros / cons. Change for change sake is just lazy thinking.
The screenshots in the proposal might look fancy, but I don’t think they’re practical when it comes to functionality. Not to mention, it sacrifices blender’s UI flexibility. One would no longer be able to change any editor into any editor, for example. You are limited to just the tab options in the editor space.
We almost have a perfect and easy ui, however the ui isnt task oriented and that is the importent thing.
Blender forces you to use shortcuts or do 4 thing at the same time.
Split windows not that splitting windows is a bad thing but it takes a lot of time joining …splitting.there should be a one click solution in most cases.Layout tabs
One example where Blenders ui forces you to use shortcuts or dig deeper in the ui to find the tools is the toolbar.Which one do you prefer.
As for having the Mode menu up there, I don’t think it would be any further than having it down where it sits now. Same yo-yo.
Workflow buttons blue, yes, they are all selected. Unchecking one would hide from the interface all button/settings relative to that area of work. It’s a method to show/hide big parts of the interface to quickly remove clutter, or to simplify UI for students/kids/newcomers. A feature that is getting demanded (see also Blender 1O1 project).
I hope to have answered all your questions but please you and others keep’em coming, they help to discuss, correct, re-target ideas…
EDIT:
this is how Blender could look maximizing the 3d view:
keep in mind that I made this mockup with the will to keep the UI elements as they are now (icons, checkboxes, etc), just re-shuffling them, resorting, and rearranging commands. Maybe it is not doable just with python, but i think it can be a “low hanging fruit” bunch of ideas for UI team.
you’re right, it looks bad indeed. A floating button looks better, so how do you suggest to show the expand button for T&N panel? Floating arrow? Little plus button as it is now? Another alternative would be to Join the two as in here
and then take advantage of the horizontal space needed putting there scene info like Camera, active objects, units, etc… That would mean having two headers though.
The Tools and Create toolbar are redundant and un-nessesary, has any one ever purposely translated using the tool bar, it is ridiculous, you use the buttons at the bottom of the 3dview or short keys. I like the Idea of popups, set your options and move on, no need to have them open at all times. The blender UI seems unwieldy and overly verbose, buttons should be context sensitive. Once you know the shortcuts much of these issues go away!
Blender’s UI is FINE. The ONLY problematic thing is that it is somewhat cluttered, and some particular functions and settings are hidden. Fixing this does not require a complete UI overhaul. All we need is a basic and extremely limited cleanup.
Current trouble spots are the toolbar in the 3D view, and specific things, like mesh editing tools, and persistent popup menus for some things.
The properties window is absolutely perfect in every way. There could be some “slight” consolidation in a couple of the different subsections, but don’t touch my properties. Have you used another piece of 3D software before? Go open up Maya. STARK contrast in overall usability, general crap, etc.
In relation to Love’s posts, I’m not sure why someone wouldn’t want to use the shortcuts (i.e. would want to work slower) but I agree that it’s a handicap in Blender if you don’t know them. That said, the current Blender UI doesn’t do a good enough job of advertising shortcuts and weaning new users off button/UI dependent workflows.
As it stands, tooltips only list top-level shortcuts for tools and operators. However, the real power behind Blender’s shortcut system lies in its ability to string two or more keystrokes together. E.g. just like Z becomes muscle memory for Wireframe toggling, W > E becomes muscle memory for Bridge, W > R becomes Remove Doubles, Ctrl E > A is Mark Seams, etc.
With this methodology, most of the (T) toolbar becomes obsolete and the keyboard can still effectively access most operations. This is an important thing, since as Ton has acknowledged, there “are no empty keys anymore”. It’s true, but mostly irrelevant as long as intelligent, shortcut-accessible menus are maintained (or even better, customizable) and single-operation/button oriented workflows are avoided. With that in mind, Blender should really tell users how to access all operators faster, especially nested ones.
See, I didn’t know that most of these two-key shortcuts existed. I think I even suggested at one point that Blender have menus that use two-key shortcuts like this as that was one of the UI features I found handy with C4D that would port over to Blender’s UI well (so well, it seems, it already exists).
We don’t need drastic overhauls to Blender’s UI. We need the features that already exist to be more easily found by users. If the tooltips showed these kinds of shortcut combinations, it would be greatly helpful to noobs like me.
Really good write-up. I agree with most everything except with the assumption that separating selection/action mouse functionality is a net loss, after factoring in industry convention. To be clear, I’m not partial to RB select or LB select, and I wouldn’t mind if the 3D cursor lost its top-level mouse click priority. It makes no difference to me, I can easily relearn something like that.
What I cannot tollerate is losing hours of work to an errant mesh edit which goes undetected until later stages of the pipeline, especially during crunch… Sure, as colleagues (who make the same mistakes) have mentioned, it’s just user error. But then again, so is closing your .blend without creating a (F)ake user for an orphaned data block or even accidentally closing a file back before the save prompt. Yes, it was ultimately our keystroke or mouseclick which did the damage, but some conventions simply need done away with, even if experience users are all used to them.
I developed an add-on that lets your override any shortcut to work with a custom command line. Idk if that would solve the issue of shortcuts and having buttons everywhere when I can integrate a dynamic pie menu.
Preview:
My dynamic pie menu concept example:
Navigate through settings and modal popups.
I tried this ‘Content Follow opening Direction’ option, though, i guess because I keep the 3d view headers on top of the windows, the menus get all reversed, absurd.
