Cut & Paste 2
Saturday, January 9th, 2010
Pauric just shared an updated PDF sketch for the clipboard interaction. Thought I’d share it publicly. It contains some new drag and drop interactions for pasting as instance and master. Also supports different item types such as pages, objects and form elements. Awesome work! Will comment on it below.
Posted in Sketches & Scenarios, with the following tags: ui_clipboard, by Jakub | 4 Comments »
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
Leave a Reply
Hey Pauric. Here are my thoughts:
1. On the clipboard I'm wondering if we can group the two items (instances and master) together into something like "object", as an object is always copied and the user has the option to paste it as a new master or instance at all times (there is no differentiation of how an item was copied only pasted).
2. To the point above, perhaps we can keep the colour coding (orange blue on the paste as instance and paste as master).
3. I like the default paste interaction as an instance.
4. I like the feedback of orange and blue after a paste.
5. I am wondering if the drag item over "paste type button" might cause some accidental or unintentional selections of the paste type. Thinking if also to have a default paste on drag (or use the selected state of the paste as buttons during a drop) to determine what to paste as.
6. Thinking. Should we perhaps have some sort of indicator which items will be automatically removed from the clipboard on the next copy action. Assuming we want to have a limited number of copied items in the clipboard at a given time, we could then automatically remove items (from the bottom + some other visual cue)?
Looking good.
Perhaps we could do the next iteration in Fireworks as a detailed mockup?
Jakub
So, relating to point one, I think I've thrown you a red herring with the image in the pdf. The top two items in the clipboard list are an Instance and a Master both with a label 'Box'.
They are not a master-instance pair, they are two unrelated items. Although I was lazy with my copy-paste when creating the mockup, user's could have similar labels on their form elements or objects.
You state "(there is no differentiation of how an item was copied only pasted)" True, I had some thinking on letting the user know the true 'source' of what they were pasting but in the end, it doesnt really matter. So, I'm now inclined to do away with blue/orange shading in the clipboard… your thoughts?
2) you mean the buttons? certainly
3)check
4)check
5)Accidental yes. Learnable, yes. Correctable – just press C again and hold it over the correct action.
Personally, I really like the idea of just pressing C, dragging and item (pausing to pick up the action) and then dropping it in place.
This can compliment the more traditional click to select and item, click the action then position. I would say that if it's low development cost then put it in and have it as an 'undocumented' power user feature.
6)I can put a label near the last item in the list to that effect. However, my thinking is that the last item in the list is the least used, no longer important if we make the list 9 items (following the 7 +/- 2 rule) and therefor is not needed anymore.
Detailed mockup on the way once we clear up my confusion on point one.
Cheers!
/pauric
Hey Pauric,
1. I'd say since each object copied already contains both instance and master properties, my vote is for taking the colour out.
2. Yup. Referring to the buttons.
5. Let's try doing it. Perhaps what we need is a prototype to get a better sense of how this really feels. And of course the idea of allowing the paste selection in two ways is a good thing.
6. Agreed. Could be a label or a "fading out" cue of the whole box? Or a dotted line with a label? The idea would be to show a learnable cue as to what might eventually be removed on the next copy action (if of course the list is full).
As to the detailed visuals, as I mentioned in my previous email, I still need to figure out how to go about doing it in this public context. I do believe it might be a good idea to have the "final" file in one format (currently its a Fireworks PNG). So if you want, I could take care of it.
Cool? :)
Jakub
goody gum drops, I shall proceed.
On the toolkchain issue. There is _no_ problem for me to work on 'fireworks' png. I just prefer to work in a fully fledged vector environment up until the last moment (I know fireworks handles vector but it's awkward imho) so If you send me whatever styles you have in mind I'll start heading in that direction. Whatever we decide it cant hurt for me to be aware of the visual look you have in mind.
I'll also have a think about how to collaborate on visuals, interesting challenge!