[Zope-dev] New UI for 2.3

[Brian Lloyd]

> I think the new UI for 2.3 is great improvement over 2.2.
> 
> I'm already finding the sorted tables of folder contents
useful, and 
> having the add new items select at the top saves time.
> 
> 
> However, I do not like the 3-frame interface. I feel that
the top frame 
> is wasted space. The Zope logo and "Logged in as username
| Logout" 
> could as easily go at the bottom of the tree-view frame on
the left. 
> This would leave extra screen space for doing work.
> 
> I realize that I can make the frame smaller by dragging it
with my 
> mouse. I do a lot of TTW development, and I think I might
find that 
> cumbersome, so I guess I'll be hacking the top frame out
of my 
> management interface :-)

Are you guys working on 486's with 13in. monitors at 640x480
or 
something? :^)

Seriously - Zope has been criticized for a very long time
for
being, ah, aesthetically challenged :) It is a valid
criticism 
- we have been (and quite honestly, will continue to be)
more 
concerned with function over form. But is it really so bad
to 
make a 32 pixel-high concession to a small pittance of
branding? 

I know that "branding" isn't important for those who are
already 
believers, but Zope has grown enough that its reasonable to
put 
some effort into "first impression factor". It doesn't help
the 
community for reviews to come out that waste words on the 
visual appeal shortcomings of the UI and totally miss the 
point. A better first impression is a Good Thing.

The top frame is also a place where we might want to put
more
"placeless" operations like logout in the future. You can
only 
jam so much into the tree pane without it looking very much 
like way too much is being jammed into the tree pane :)
FWIW,
one of the things we may put there later is a way to do
"browser 
preferences" via cookies to control things like default text 
area sizes. That could also have a "hide top frame" option
for 
those who really can't spare the 32px. :^)



Brian Lloyd        brian@digicool.com
Software Engineer  540.371.6909
Digital Creations  www.digicool.com