From kde-devel  Thu Jul 14 05:30:45 2011
From: Akarsh Simha <akarshsimha () gmail ! com>
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2011 05:30:45 +0000
To: kde-devel
Subject: Re: How do I design this interface?
Message-Id: <20110714053045.GB3656 () ThinK9>
X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-devel&m=131066904218771

On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 09:04:44PM +0200, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On Monday, July 11, 2011 01:24:50 Akarsh Simha wrote:
> > "What's interesting" box, that would programmatically generate a list
> > of interesting objects that are visible from your location tonight
> > (taking into account a bunch of parameters including your equipment,
> > location, light pollution levels, level of experience), and give you
> > ample information on those objects in a side-bar. For instance, to the
> > beginner, it would tell him what planets are visible in the sky
> > presently. It's hard to explain in words, so here's an ugly mockup:
> > http://i.imgur.com/YkGY4.png
> 
> very nice idea indeed..
> 
> anyways.. under the assumption that a person is going to only read one of 
> those at a time, it may make sense to show less information in that side panel 
> than more. what might be very neat is a timeline-based set of actions, much as 
> you have there (now, 3 hours from now, etc.) that just lists the names and 
> perhaps the type of object (galaxy, planet, star). 
> 
> as a user i could then select on those items and it would center the star map 
> on it, highligh it in some way and show me an informational box pointing to it 
> with both the information and actions in it. that way one can quickly jump 
> from item to item and see where it is on the map.

Thanks for the suggestions, Aaron. Yes, that sounds better to me. That
combines two problems into one -- I was also considering showing
contextual information depending on what object was centered in the
star map. But that was stupid -- you might as well show bare minimum
information in the side panel ["Cetus A (M 77) -- Galaxy in Cetus
(visible now)"] and provide all other information depending on what's
centered.

> this would also allow you to cut down your actions: slew map would go away, 
> and the redundant "on <name of object>" would also go away.

ACK.

> just my 0.02 ... i look forward to seeing this in kstars :)

Thanks, that was helpful. Me too.

Regards
Akarsh
 
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