[kepler-dev] New Kepler Menus

Bertram Ludaescher ludaesch at ucdavis.edu
Wed Feb 1 11:52:24 PST 2006


And there are more things to this highlighting of active actors -- 
e.g.  what constitutes a useful highlighting of active actors depends
on the MoC!  SDF, PN, DE, CT probably all have very different ways of
animation / activity displays.

BTW, as mentioned before, I wouldn't call this feedback ;-)

Bertram


>>> On Wed, 1 Feb 2006 12:37:14 -0700
>>> "Laura L. Downey" <ldowney at lternet.edu> wrote: 
LLD> 
LLD> Excellent point Edward, if indeed animation would significantly slow things
LLD> down then we might want to consider non-animation as the default.  But if we
LLD> can do a generic highlighting of the current actor executing when a workflow
LLD> is running without a significant slowdown then I would think running with
LLD> feedback would be the preferred default.  Generally users like to know where
LLD> they are in a process if possible.
LLD> 
LLD> Laura L. Downey
LLD> Senior Usability Engineer
LLD> LTER Network Office
LLD> Department of Biology, MSC03 2020
LLD> 1 University of New Mexico
LLD> Albuquerque, NM  87131-0001
LLD> 505.277.3157 office
LLD> 505.610.9657 mobile
LLD> 505.277-2541 fax
LLD> ldowney at lternet.edu
LLD>  
LLD> 
LLD> -----Original Message-----
LLD> From: Edward A. Lee [mailto:eal at eecs.berkeley.edu] 
LLD> Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 12:18 PM
LLD> To: Matthew Brooke
LLD> Cc: Laura L. Downey; 'Kepler-Dev'
LLD> Subject: Re: [kepler-dev] New Kepler Menus
LLD> 
LLD> 
LLD> Also, animation will significantly slow down execution.
LLD> Users might conclude Kepler is too slow to use without bothering
LLD> to try turning off animation.
LLD> 
LLD> Edward
LLD> 
LLD> At 08:41 AM 2/1/2006 -0800, Matthew Brooke wrote:
LLD> 
>> 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
LLD> users
>> > in some of the early testing really liked the "animation" where they
LLD> 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
LLD> I
>> > wanted to keep the "Run" association, I suggested Run with Feedback
LLD> 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
LLD> 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
LLD> textual
>> > feedback etc. And of course feedback does mean different things in 
>> different
>> > contexts, just as Edward pointed out from his perspective.  But feedback
LLD> is
>> > also a very general term that just means give me some indication on what
LLD> 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
LLD> 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
LLD> 
LLD> ------------
LLD> Edward A. Lee
LLD> Professor, Chair of the EE Division, Associate Chair of EECS
LLD> 231 Cory Hall, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720
LLD> phone: 510-642-0253 or 510-642-0455, fax: 510-642-2845
LLD> eal at eecs.Berkeley.EDU, http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/~eal  
LLD> 
LLD> 
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