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Tim Cook says Apple “will do more in the pro area”
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[Walter Soyka] “a paragon of design, a triumph of simplicity, clarity and consistency. “
Sigh. Et tu, Walter? ????
Seriously, though, not a paragon or a triumph, and certainly not without its flaws and foibles. Just so much better than Premiere.
FWIW, I agree with much of the criticism of the new look. Some really good choices, and some real head smackers. The guy in charge of key framing must have been doing some really dank drugs.
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You identified so many issues so impressively well that I momentarily forgot that you’d missed some.
One of these is something you can’t see from the original screen grab, but which I’ve highlighted here:
If you click in a number field, an ugly, clunky blue rectangle appears, which remains even when you move the slider or scrub the number field for a different parameter. There is of course no logic to this and I would suggest there is no good reason for the rectangle highlighter at all. Just more random “design” seemingly hurled at the UI without thought or oversight.
You also rightly point out very serious issues with the layout. I would add these points.
If you are going to do away with the concept of a “ruler” to define both the default position and the end stops of the slider, why would you make the slider range colour (a very dark grey on a very dark grey) virtually impossible to read?
And then why would you overlook one of the easiest ways of making the left-hand end stop more obvious, namely the justification of the legends? The left justification of the legends leaves a random gaping space before the left end stop (arbitrarily dictated by the length of the word or words) which is not only ugly but also deeply unhelpful.
A very simple solution would have been to right-justify the legends, which would have given a very clear reference point for the left end stop.
One of the nasty limitations of the FCP X Inspector is that it is fixed width, so you can’t open out the panel to create wider sliders with finer granularity. And this fixed width is very narrow indeed.
That being the case, the design of the sliders here does everything it can to minimise the length of travel – an ultimate act of perversity.
My rough calculations on a 1920×1200 monitor tell me that 133 pixels are given over to the legends (and left hand margin); there are 93 pixels for the keyframe functions and right hand margin/scrollbar, 77 pixels for the number fields, and a mere 92 pixels for the sliders themselves.
This is almost unimaginably stupid. Less than 25% of the width of the panel is actually dedicated to the sliders!
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If they can’t be bothered to sweat the small stuff … well, you fill in the rest.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Simon Ubsdell] “If you click in a number field, an ugly, clunky blue rectangle appears, which remains even when you move the slider or scrub the number field for a different parameter. There is of course no logic to this and I would suggest there is no good reason for the rectangle highlighter at all. Just more random “design” seemingly hurled at the UI without thought or oversight.”
The blue field has the purpose of directing keyboard input. Even if you scrub some other field your keyboard input is directed to the blue rectangle and you know it since it’s highlighted.
Seems you sometimes write ‘hurled without thought or oversight’.
Please no fake news here at the cow!
🙂. . .
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[Gregor Queck] “The blue field has the purpose of directing keyboard input. Even if you scrub some other field your keyboard input is directed to the blue rectangle and you know it since it’s highlighted. “
I’m sorry but this makes no sense at all to me. You’\re going to have to explain in more detail.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
Just try:
° click on ‘Scale X’ , you get the blue rectangle.
° mouse over ‘Scale Y’, change the values by click-drag (without release). The blue rectangle stays at ‘Scale X’ .
° type on your keyboard some number.
° the input goes to the blue rectangle, no matter what field you just changed by mouse/trackpad.
° you can move the blue rectangle by tab/shift-tab and so the focus of your keyboard input.
° if you had no BlueRec®, you didn’t know where your keyboard input would go….. see, some logic here……:)
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[Gregor Queck] “° the input goes to the blue rectangle, no matter what field you just changed by mouse/trackpad.”
This seems to me to be the very essence of bad design.
Which is why I called attention to it in the first place.
But if it makes sense to you, I will scrub it from my list.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
It’s the sibling of the white point/ YellowRec® in the timeline. If you select a clip in the timeline you change its values in the inspector, no matter where your playhead is. If you don’t select/deselect a clip, your inspector shows ever-changing values, depending on the clip/white point under your playhead…
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I’m trying hard and I’d like nothing better than to say that I see what you mean, but I can’t see any practical application for this that would justify the prima facie confusion.
Call me old school but for me confusion has no place in effective UI design.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki -
[Simon Ubsdell] “If you click in a number field, an ugly, clunky blue rectangle appears, which remains even when you move the slider or scrub the number field for a different parameter. There is of course no logic to this and I would suggest there is no good reason for the rectangle highlighter at all. Just more random “design” seemingly hurled at the UI without thought or oversight.”
Uh… as to this specifically, the blue box, denotes that the field has becomes “active” and a mouse or trackpad scroll up or down increments or diminishes the value smoothly.
I use this ALL THE TIME in moving things and setting values.
Just sayin’
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Bill Davis] “Uh… as to this specifically, the blue box, denotes that the field has becomes “active” and a mouse or trackpad scroll up or down increments or diminishes the value smoothly. “
No, Bill, sorry. It’s not that I am in any doubt as to what the blue box “does”.
If you go back and read my original comment, it is to do with the confusion in its implementation – and the sheer inelegance of it to boot.
Simon Ubsdell
tokyo productions
hawaiki
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