[kepler-dev] New Kepler Menus

Laura L. Downey ldowney at lternet.edu
Wed Feb 1 11:37:14 PST 2006


Excellent point Edward, if indeed animation would significantly slow things
down then we might want to consider non-animation as the default.  But if we
can do a generic highlighting of the current actor executing when a workflow
is running without a significant slowdown then I would think running with
feedback would be the preferred default.  Generally users like to know where
they are in a process if possible.

Laura L. Downey
Senior Usability Engineer
LTER Network Office
Department of Biology, MSC03 2020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM  87131-0001
505.277.3157 office
505.610.9657 mobile
505.277-2541 fax
ldowney at lternet.edu
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Edward A. Lee [mailto:eal at eecs.berkeley.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 12:18 PM
To: Matthew Brooke
Cc: Laura L. Downey; 'Kepler-Dev'
Subject: Re: [kepler-dev] New Kepler Menus


Also, animation will significantly slow down execution.
Users might conclude Kepler is too slow to use without bothering
to try turning off animation.

Edward

At 08:41 AM 2/1/2006 -0800, Matthew Brooke wrote:

>Laura L. Downey wrote:
>  > I'm proposing to make that the default
>  > (checked) option so that running with feedback is the default.
>
>There is a potential drawback to enabling the feedback by default: the
>"Run with feedback" option has a user-editable "delay time", needed to
>make the animation visible, or at least slow enough to follow by eye.
>
>Therefore, we would have to create a default value for the delay, which
>would, in turn, slow down the execution of all workflows. Probably not
>an issue with some of the simpler example WFs, but may be a problem with
>bigger/more intensive WFs, especially if users don't realize this is the
>case.
>
>m
>
>
>
>Laura L. Downey wrote:
> > Matthew has already commented on the toggling issue so there is a way to
> > turn on/off the highlighting during workflow execution.
> >
> > In terms of the phraseology, I kept "Run" in the "Run with Feedback" 
> item to
> > keep all the "run" items associated.  We have Run and Run Window and
users
> > in some of the early testing really liked the "animation" where they
could
> > see which actor was executing so I'm proposing to make that the default
> > (checked) option so that running with feedback is the default.  Because
I
> > wanted to keep the "Run" association, I suggested Run with Feedback
because
> > Run with Animation just didn't sound right to me.
> >
> > We can certainly adjust the phraseology if it proves to be problematic.
> > Although I suspect that if someone turns it off and sees they don't get
the
> > highlighting during execution they will easily understand what Run with
> > Feedback means.  The use of the term feedback may be a bit human factors
> > centric on my part since that is so often used in my field to mean
> > communicating with the user -- giving them appropriate visual and
textual
> > feedback etc. And of course feedback does mean different things in 
> different
> > contexts, just as Edward pointed out from his perspective.  But feedback
is
> > also a very general term that just means give me some indication on what
is
> > happening.
> >
> > Laura L. Downey
> > Senior Usability Engineer
> > LTER Network Office
> > Department of Biology, MSC03 2020
> > 1 University of New Mexico
> > Albuquerque, NM  87131-0001
> > 505.277.3157 office
> > 505.610.9657 mobile
> > 505.277-2541 fax
> > ldowney at lternet.edu
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Matthew Brooke [mailto:brooke at nceas.ucsb.edu]
> > Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 8:43 PM
> > To: Dan Higgins
> > Cc: Laura L. Downey; Kepler-Dev
> > Subject: Re: New Kepler Menus
> >
> >
> > Dan -
> >
> > thanks - i know about that one. Laura's redesign has a checkbox menu
> > item - click once for on; click again to toggle off - but i have not yet
> > had chance to implement it like that.
> >
> > m
> >
> >
> >
> > Dan Higgins wrote:
> >> Hi Matthew (and Laura)
> >>
> >>    In using the new Kepler menu system, I can across a problem. In the
> >> old menus (aka Ptolemy menu) there is a menu item named 'Animate
> >> Execution' under the 'Debug' menu. Immediately below the 'Animate
> >> Execution' is a 'Stop Animating' meny item.
> >>
> >>    'Animate Execution' shows when actors are executing when a workflow
> >> runs by 'hilighting' the actor for a use-set period of time (for some
> >> Directors). 'Stop Animating' turns off the animation
> >>
> >>    In the new menus, this item has apparently been replaced by the menu
> >> item 'Run with Feedback' under the 'Tools' menu. The problem is that
> >> there is no 'Stop Feedback' menu item. So once the user starts showing
> >> which icon is firing, there is no way to turn off the effect with the
> >> new menus!  Rather that having a seperate 'Stop' menu, perhaps the menu
> >> should toggle from 'Run with Feedback' to 'Stop Feedback' and back?
> >>
> >>    Incidently. in my opinion, the original menu text of 'Animate
> >> Execution' seems more descriptive than 'Run with Feedback'. Feedback
> >> seems like a term that can have many meanings and is not very helpful
to
> >> a new Kepler user.. 'Feedback' could just be some text summary at the
> >> end of workflow execution.
> >>
> >> Dan
> >>
> >
>
>--
>
>---------------------------------------------
>Matthew Brooke, Ph.D.
>Marine Sciences Research Building, Room #3407
>University of California
>Santa Barbara, CA  93106-6150
>ph: (805) 893-7108   fx: 805-893-8062
>brooke at nceas.ucsb.edu
>---------------------------------------------
>_______________________________________________
>Kepler-dev mailing list
>Kepler-dev at ecoinformatics.org
>http://mercury.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinformatics/mailman/listinfo/kepler-dev

------------
Edward A. Lee
Professor, Chair of the EE Division, Associate Chair of EECS
231 Cory Hall, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720
phone: 510-642-0253 or 510-642-0455, fax: 510-642-2845
eal at eecs.Berkeley.EDU, http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/~eal  




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