Dev:Ref/Outdated/Proposals/UI/Info Architecture

As part of a project for 2.37, I (DeveloperWikiMattEbb), William Reynish, Jason Saunders, Emilie McDavid and Chris Burt are looking at finally implementing an updated and redesigned buttons window layout.

Rationale and Objectives

• Background info about the 'why' and 'how' of this project

Information Architecture Outlines

As an initial stage, we are working on creating information architecture guidelines and structure, which can then be realised in more specific and concrete graphical layout proposals and code. Done so far are:

• Initial general information design guidelines

Proposed IA designs:

• Scene/Render buttons
• Object buttons
• Shading/Material buttons

Work in progress:

• Edit buttons (Mesh)
• Edit buttons|(NURBS Surface)
• Edit buttons (Text)
• Edit buttons (Camera)
• Edit buttons (Meta)

• Shading/World buttons
• Shading/Texture buttons
• Shading/Lamps buttons

• Dynamics buttons
• Particles buttons

• Scene/Sound buttons

Design Proposals

Once IA Outlines have been created, graphical layouts can now be proposed and coded. Designs done so far:

• Object Buttons Design
• Scene/Render Buttons Design
• Scene/Sound Buttons Design
• Shading/Material buttons Design
• Shading/Texture buttons Design
• Edit Buttons Design

Interface Controls

A re-organisation of the buttons layout is a perfect time to analyse and reconsider the design of the UI controls themselves, with the feedback and experience of the last year, since Blender 2.30. A proposal for updated UI controls design to be updated jointly with the buttons layout has been written:

• UI controls design

UI Guidelines

Also with the re-organization of the buttons, rules and guidelines are defined to keep consistency within the program, and also to assist coders who add new buttons to the interface.

Rules/Guidelines established so far:

• Button Auto-Alignment Guidelines
• Dependencies Within Panels and Windows
• Layout Guidelines

uilogo