• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

Suggestions for Improvements to User Experience

scruffyduck

scruffyduck

Administrator
Staff member
FSDevConf team
Resource contributor
Messages
34,981
Country
unitedkingdom
OK this comes out of the thread on the rubber band, Here is the chance to tell me about the odd, idiosyncratic and downright annoying features of the ADE user interface. I can't promise to fix them all but I will promise that each new version will have some improvements in this area as opposed to functionality

CLARIFICATION
i just want to re-iterate that user experience is the term used to describe the look and feel of an application and how you interact with it. This quote comes from the Microsoft Windows Design Guide:

"The design of your software's interface, more than anything else, affects how a user experiences your product. This guide promotes good interface design and visual and functional consistency within and across Windows-based applications"

So I know sometimes it can be difficult to tell whether something is the design of the interface or whether it is a function but what I am looking for is suggestions to improve the design of the interface and how you interact with it. So consistent placement of windows and standard use of shortcuts is in but better multi edit and more compiler options is out.
 
Last edited:
Jon,

I am quite sorry that the multiple object editing has lost the "Set to first" option, e.g. I am used to setting an existing taxiway to the features that I want - width,lines,lights - then I can shift-select all of the other taxiways that I want to be the same, select Edit and I was able to just click a button "Set to first" and change them all without having to enter any values. In the new box, I now have to re-enter the width and line/light requirements. Maybe its just me but I found the old method simpler.

Ray
 
Ray. That is a fair point, but I am going to pass on it in this thread. I guess it is hard to tell what is function vs what is the user interface. I think your request is about restoring function.
 
As for the click and drag, it could stay the same with no "R-ing" before dragging. All objects remain selected after left button released, and ALL selected objects can be moved/copied/deleted TOGETHER.
For the time being, even if many are selected by R-dragging, only one can be moved/deleted (not sure which one in a hierarchy, btw.).

A nice usual variant of the classic click and drag (NW to SW drag) is the SE-NW drag which means "don't need to cover all objects to select them, touching them even by a corner is sufficient".

An other idea that came to my brilliant brains some days ago is as follows:
The LIST function has been hugely improved, be Jon praised centuries long for that, and we can now (for instance) modify series of items in a single action with the "multi-edit" feature. This is GREAT.
Now my 2 cts addtion: could we have a relative factor in addition to the discrete value? I mean: selecting N items, and in the field rotate type: +20, in order to add 20° to all headings at once, irrespective of their individual values.
Or raising all selected objects by a same amount, even if their initial height has not a same unique value. You got the idea?

That's all for tonight. ;)
 
Wouldn't it be better to have a user definable GUI?

You can please all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time ;)
 
It's feasible for keyboard shortcuts "à la Photoshop" but not for the mouse behavior, as far as I can understand...
 
This has come up before, but a "quick paste" or multi paste option would be nice. Don's taxi light are beautiful, and add some 3d to the environment, but it is slow going to paste them all along the taxiways, etc. If there were a shortcut that allowed the cursor to be placed and a keystroke to place the (last saved) object, it would sure save time c/w right-click, paste object, over and over.

Gary
 
Oh, and do not forget pilot-controlled lighting possibility for small/remote airstrips!
 
Hi Jon,
I'm not sure if this is a feature or a bug or if you've heard about it before.... whenever an update is applied to ADE it quits and I get the Windows ADE has stopped responding and has closed. Then it restarts and everything is fine. I'm guessing it's perhaps the way you've implimented the restart of ADE to install the files but I think it counts as user experience.
 
nz255 said:
Hi Jon,
I'm not sure if this is a feature or a bug or if you've heard about it before.... whenever an update is applied to ADE it quits and I get the Windows ADE has stopped responding and has closed. Then it restarts and everything is fine. I'm guessing it's perhaps the way you've implimented the restart of ADE to install the files but I think it counts as user experience.
Click to expand...

Not exactly. The updater will close ADE and then run the updates. When it finishes you get a message to say the update is done. Clicking OK on that dialog restarts ADE. If it is doing something different for you then there is something wrong. Next time you get an update could you try to remember to take a screenshot of the ADE has stopped Responding message?
 
Hi Jon,
Usually I'm really satisfied about the GUI and what it does. However, I think there are a few things that could be probably brushed up while others might be a extended functionality, some even beyond the possibilities.

The easiest one (and I'm not sure whether other user are thinking the same way): For me it's not logical that the functions "Change Airport Altitude" and "Move Airport" are in the "Tools"-menu, while "Rotate Airport" just exists in the context menu. Thinking back to a former thread answering my question about offsets I experienced while rotating a airport I guess it might have to do with the context of the centre of rotation. Independent from where the topic is placed I would like for the rotation function the choice to define the centre (default might be the last cursor position if it remains in the context menu OR, if it would be shifted to the tools menu, the ARP).

If ever possible, I would like to see the borders of airport backgrounds and probably other selectable objects as they are designed by Microsoft when calling a stock airport, even if I would not be able to edit them directly. Okay, I can circumvent it, but it's a bit cumbersome see-sawing between the applications (if MS didn't help by drawing a fence around the field :rolleyes:).

Rather a extension: It would be sometimes helpful not only to copy and paste elements as shown below (and there are lots of others) even between different airports but to rotate them when being selected. I think it should be similar like rotating airports (I'm even not dreaming about a multiple selection :duck:).

upload_2014-10-18_13-55-32.png
Example 2:
upload_2014-10-18_14-3-52.png
 
Thanks Axel - they are very well articulated suggestions.
 
scruffyduck said:
Not exactly. The updater will close ADE and then run the updates. When it finishes you get a message to say the update is done. Clicking OK on that dialog restarts ADE. If it is doing something different for you then there is something wrong. Next time you get an update could you try to remember to take a screenshot of the ADE has stopped Responding message?
Click to expand...

Jon, this is happening with me too, on Windows 8.1. It is the stupid OS saying it is something wrong when it isn't. Nothing wrong with ADE. But I wish I knew a way to stop windows doing this blunder again and again.
 
Hmmm - I don't have Windows 8 and I will probably give up computer when Windows 7 can no longer be obtained.
 
I have Windows 8.1 and I haven't experienced any problems with the updater for ADE,... granted though, I haven't stepped up to obtain 1.65 as of yet. Saying that,.. I didn't have problems with previous Updater...and Jon,... concerning Windows 7,... I think you will have sometime before it goes out of fashion,... (unlike the next to be phased out, Vista, like XP ). ;)
 
It's hard to think of much that is desparately needing attention as ADE is very well done, but here's a few ideas I came up with.

Selection rectangle matching rotation angle of viewport instead of 0 degree orientation.

Moving selected objects currently requires the R key to be maintained, but should be once items are selected, dragging or clicking on an item in that selection continues all items selected to maintain selection without having to keep the R key down (holding ALT and R and using mousewheel gets cumbersome). Clicking off the selected objects would clear the selection allowing for single item selection.
Currently: R and drag box around items to be selected. Continue to hold R while clicking and dragging the selected items to move them. Clicking without R even on item already selected deselects all others.
Proposed: R and drag box around items to be selected. Clicking on selected item allows interaction without the R key. Clicking off any item not selected deselects all items or selects the object previously unselected.

Multi-Edit of images to change image quality of several images at once. Width/Height/Scale would still have to be one-by-one, but allowing us to turn down all images at once and select several images and increase the quality would be useful to me.

Docking/Undocking of toolbars to re-arrange interface to best optimize viewport (or move the toolbars onto a second monitor)
Fullscreen viewport option

Make line widths/vertex sizes consistent when zooming in/out (zooming in makes lines bigger, out = smaller). Currently they maintain their size until you use the Z/Shift+Z

Hide/Unhide Images/Helpers/Aprons in VIEW dropdown menu option (and any other viewable object types that are differentiated in the LIST menu but not already in the VIEW dropdown).

Image Add dialog, find text file of same file name as selected image and enable a checkbox if the text file contains the SBuilder TIF Lat/Lon data. Maybe change the checkbox for the lat/lon boxes to a radio button and add a radio button for using the info from the associated text file and another radio button for neither option.
ASCII-Art below:
[ ] [...]
( ) NONE
( ) Import Text File
( ) Manual Lat/Lon Entry
Northeast [ ][ ]
Southwest [ ][ ]
[Cancel][Save]
Using the NONE option disables the NE/SW lat/lon boxes. Using the IMPORT TEXT FILE option disables the NE/SW lat/lon boxes but also reads the lats/lons from the text file. Using the MANUAL LAT/LON ENTRY option enables the boxes and input validation code. When the image is selected, the text file is searched for in the same directory. If found, it is parsed to see if the data is valid, and if passes validation, would enable the IMPORT TEXT FILE option. If the file is not found or is invalid, the IMPORT TEXT FILE option would be disabled.

Hope this might be what you're looking for.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top