Lo Zeno
January 5th, 2024, 13:44
I don't know how many users actually use the Minimize window function, I suspect VERY FEW because every single player I had did not realise it's there until I pointed out that it's accessible by right-clicking some windows (not even EVERY window, which I think should be the first thing to change) instead of being where every other user interface places it (a button near a corner of the window, close to the "Close window" button), but I use it a fair bit since my screen tends to become cluttered very often, with pictures, maps, character sheets, reference manual pages, etc and the hotkey bar is not always the best way to quickly access something (the hotkey slots of the multiple alt-ctrl-shift combinations are not visible normally, until I press the correct combination, and I often want to have the windows I need quick access to visible, to know where they are).
The Minimize window/Minimize container button is convenient, but has certain... drawbacks that I feel can be (relatively) easily fixed and would improve usability of FGU substantially. I'm talking mostly about user experience and reducing the learning curve a bit, because the feature would become more self-discoverable.
For example, moving the Minimize action from the right-click round menu to a button on the corner of the container, like every other user interface does. Windows, Mac, KDE and Gnome and XFCE and Mate on Linux, they all have the three typical actions of Close, Minimize and Maximize on one of the top corners of their windows; FGU already places the Close action on the corner, and the Maximize action as well (for images), so the fact that Minimize is so different to reach is likely the reason why lots of users don't even know they can do it.
Another point that could be improved is the look and feel of the "bubbles": when minimized, a container turns to a bubble with a white border and a white picture inside it. The colour of these bubbles makes it so that often if you (for example) minimize a character sheet and you have a map expanded to the background of FGU, it's hard to see where in that space did the bubble materialise: especially when using official WOTC D&D map, the colour of the map on the background can make the white bubble hard to spot, in particular if there are already three or four other bubbles around and you can't figure out quickly where the new one appeared. Moreover, there's no animation for the minimize action: the reason why most modern OSes add an animation of the window shrinking to the taskbar (for windows) or the dock (for mac) is not just for eye candy, it's to help the user notice where is the window "going to" after it's minimized. FGU doesn't have that, and on top of that it doesn't even have a thing like the taskbar/dock or a dedicated space for minimised containers so if a user has a monitor that's bigger than a 24 inches 1080p one and has moved the bubbles around a bit, it becomes a bit of a treasure hunt to figure out where did a window that was re-maximized and minimized again go.
One effective improvement would be if there was a dedicated area for the bubbles to appear to each time we minimize something: I know the answer is "it's not that simple", especially because screen estate is precious and taking away some even for something like a simil-dock could reduce it too much, but if for example the bubbles appeared always to the right side of the dice row? That would be predictable, consistent, (relatively) easy to spot. Even better, if the icons were not white bubbles that referenced only the type of window, but used something that could reference the SPECIFIC item minimized, it could make them not just more visible but immediately distinguishable between each other: what I mean is that characters all have that helmet icon images have the same icon that looks like a max with an "X marks the spot" thing on it; I know it can't be done for all windows, but characters and NPCs could use the portrait image as icon, images could have a miniature version of the image itself as icon, and reference manuals could use the same cover image used in the Modules window. Just as an example.
The FGU user manual mentions the action of minimizing a window barely, in passing, inside the Basic Actions page, at the end of the Windows paragraph (https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/996640055/Basic+Actions#Windows): it's not even its own bullet point like Moving, Sizing, Scrolling, Closing, it's a footnote inside the Closing, so if a user is scrolling through the page to find out what they can do with a window they have a fairly good chance of missing it.
Now let me make one thing clear: I am in no way expecting these changes, nor demanding anything. I don't even know if it's a functionality that is actually used or desired by other users, but I do use it and I'd personally love to see it made more consistent and improved so I want to generate discussion for it. I'm sure there's better alternatives than the one I suggested for icons appearing to the side of the dice row.
EDIT: Just in case I'm not the only one, I've added an item to the wishlist here: http://fgapp.idea.informer.com/proj/fgapp?ia=142114
The Minimize window/Minimize container button is convenient, but has certain... drawbacks that I feel can be (relatively) easily fixed and would improve usability of FGU substantially. I'm talking mostly about user experience and reducing the learning curve a bit, because the feature would become more self-discoverable.
For example, moving the Minimize action from the right-click round menu to a button on the corner of the container, like every other user interface does. Windows, Mac, KDE and Gnome and XFCE and Mate on Linux, they all have the three typical actions of Close, Minimize and Maximize on one of the top corners of their windows; FGU already places the Close action on the corner, and the Maximize action as well (for images), so the fact that Minimize is so different to reach is likely the reason why lots of users don't even know they can do it.
Another point that could be improved is the look and feel of the "bubbles": when minimized, a container turns to a bubble with a white border and a white picture inside it. The colour of these bubbles makes it so that often if you (for example) minimize a character sheet and you have a map expanded to the background of FGU, it's hard to see where in that space did the bubble materialise: especially when using official WOTC D&D map, the colour of the map on the background can make the white bubble hard to spot, in particular if there are already three or four other bubbles around and you can't figure out quickly where the new one appeared. Moreover, there's no animation for the minimize action: the reason why most modern OSes add an animation of the window shrinking to the taskbar (for windows) or the dock (for mac) is not just for eye candy, it's to help the user notice where is the window "going to" after it's minimized. FGU doesn't have that, and on top of that it doesn't even have a thing like the taskbar/dock or a dedicated space for minimised containers so if a user has a monitor that's bigger than a 24 inches 1080p one and has moved the bubbles around a bit, it becomes a bit of a treasure hunt to figure out where did a window that was re-maximized and minimized again go.
One effective improvement would be if there was a dedicated area for the bubbles to appear to each time we minimize something: I know the answer is "it's not that simple", especially because screen estate is precious and taking away some even for something like a simil-dock could reduce it too much, but if for example the bubbles appeared always to the right side of the dice row? That would be predictable, consistent, (relatively) easy to spot. Even better, if the icons were not white bubbles that referenced only the type of window, but used something that could reference the SPECIFIC item minimized, it could make them not just more visible but immediately distinguishable between each other: what I mean is that characters all have that helmet icon images have the same icon that looks like a max with an "X marks the spot" thing on it; I know it can't be done for all windows, but characters and NPCs could use the portrait image as icon, images could have a miniature version of the image itself as icon, and reference manuals could use the same cover image used in the Modules window. Just as an example.
The FGU user manual mentions the action of minimizing a window barely, in passing, inside the Basic Actions page, at the end of the Windows paragraph (https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/996640055/Basic+Actions#Windows): it's not even its own bullet point like Moving, Sizing, Scrolling, Closing, it's a footnote inside the Closing, so if a user is scrolling through the page to find out what they can do with a window they have a fairly good chance of missing it.
Now let me make one thing clear: I am in no way expecting these changes, nor demanding anything. I don't even know if it's a functionality that is actually used or desired by other users, but I do use it and I'd personally love to see it made more consistent and improved so I want to generate discussion for it. I'm sure there's better alternatives than the one I suggested for icons appearing to the side of the dice row.
EDIT: Just in case I'm not the only one, I've added an item to the wishlist here: http://fgapp.idea.informer.com/proj/fgapp?ia=142114