Here are the latest detailed layouts going into the second iteration.
The footer has been redesigned which now contains three divided sections for ideas, states and edit modes with larger font sizing. These three have been separated out in order to ensure a higher sense of awareness about these important areas. The footer also contains a bit more larger checkboxes, which will also contain subtle onmouseover states to strengthen the perception of their clickability.
An important new state has been designed for the first few seconds of a selected element. The idea is to display an arrow overlaying a newly selected element. This arrow is to emphasize to the user about the location where the next item will be drawn inside. This is an attempt at making nesting more understandable.
An “updated instances” controller is also being proposed in order to provide stronger feedback about the elements which are affected after each change on a master object. The instances inside this controller would become visible after a master object change containing multiple instances. This way users could quickly navigate through numerous updated instances and ensure that the changes are acceptable.
States and ideas controllers have also been redesigned. The “HOLD Z and X” hints have been made more visible in the footer. The state controller creates new states on the x axis, whereas the ideas controller creates new ideas on the y axis. These two axises have been made different in order to provide more subtle cues to users relying on these two similar yet different menus.
Keypress hints (CTRL+V in the bottom left), as well as onmouseover states for the toolbar are also being suggested. The text tool and form tool icons have been designed as well.
Any feedback is more than welcome. Feel free to post comments, send me alternative sketches, or if you’re really serious about jumping into detailed design, I could share the Fireworks file. Do let me know. Cheers, Jakub.
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