[kepler-dev] Icons in the *DataSource actors

Bertram Ludaescher ludaesch at ucdavis.edu
Mon Jan 9 14:16:10 PST 2006


Dan: 
I agree.

Laura, isn't "blinking" right out of the design hall of shame ;-)

Bertram

>>> On Mon, 09 Jan 2006 14:09:36 -0800
>>> Dan Higgins <higgins at nceas.ucsb.edu> wrote: 
DH> 
DH> Laura,
DH>     I am not sure that 'blinking' is a good idea. You know that any 
DH> blinking on a web page is 'hated' by many people. We already have 
DH> workflows with 10 data sources. They take a long time to finish 
DH> downloading. Having 10 blinking icons would be very distracting.
DH> 
DH> Dan
DH> 
DH> ---
DH> 
DH> Laura L. Downey wrote:
DH> 
>> Ah okay, now I understand what you meant about the states changing.  I
>> haven't seen the "error" condition so don't know what that looks like.  But
>> my natural assumption would have been red would indicate an error condition
>> and currently red just indicates "getting data but not done."
>> 
>> The easiest and quickest solution might be to just "blink" the data source
>> icon (the manilla folder) until the data was downloaded then it becomes
>> solid and non-blinking upon completion of data downloading.  And if an error
>> occurred we could superimpose an X or some other simple sign on top of a
>> non-blinking data source -- I wouldn't want to obscure the label though so
>> the user could still see what the name of the data set/file was they were
>> unsuccessful at retrieving.
>> 
>> This solution could work in either option of the current design where data
>> is downloaded when it is dragged from the left pane or if we go with the
>> option of data not downloading until the workflow executes, the same
>> blinking could apply.  The highlighting of which actor the workflow is
>> currently executing could still be shown with the blinking orange highlight.
>> In the case of the datasource and the highlight both blinking they would
>> just need to be in sync so as not to create some crazy alternate blinking
>> that would bother people.
>> 
>> 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 phone
>> 505.277-2541 fax
>> ldowney at lternet.edu
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Matthew Brooke [mailto:brooke at nceas.ucsb.edu] 
>> Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 2:41 PM
>> To: Laura L. Downey
>> Cc: 'Kevin Ruland'; 'Kepler-Dev'
>> Subject: Re: [kepler-dev] Icons in the *DataSource actors
>> 
>> 
>> Laura (also Kevin & Dan) -
>> 
>> Sorry - the states that I know about are 'busy' (currently red), 'ready' 
>> (currently yellow) and 'error' (currently pink). Not sure if there are 
>> any more.
>> 
>> I also think I recall seeing a discussion on IRC or by email about 
>> having the datasources *not* get their data before the workflow is run - 
>> was that conversation between Dan and Kevin? Can either of you guys 
>> summarize what you decided?
>> 
>> m
>> 
>> 
>> Laura L. Downey wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>> Before I make a recommendation I'd like to understand what "states" these
>>> icons have to display?
>>> 
>>> And it does seem a bit unusual to me to have processes doing something
>>> 
>>> 
>> when
>> 
>> 
>>> the user hasn't instructed the workflow to execute.  But I'm not familiar
>>> with these specific actors or the specific workflow you are referencing.
>>> 
>>> Is it some kind of polling thing?
>>> 
>>> On a general note, I pretty much agree with Matthew's suggestion of having
>>> the icons fit in with the general scheme then doing something else to
>>> indicate state changes (highlighting, superimposing, putting some symbol
>>> above or below that indicates state change etc.)  There are a variety of
>>> ways we might do this.
>>> 
>>> 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 phone
>>> 505.277-2541 fax
>>> ldowney at lternet.edu
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: kepler-dev-bounces at ecoinformatics.org
>>> [mailto:kepler-dev-bounces at ecoinformatics.org] On Behalf Of Matthew Brooke
>>> Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 2:16 PM
>>> To: Kevin Ruland; kepler-dev at ecoinformatics.org
>>> Subject: Re: [kepler-dev] Icons in the *DataSource actors
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Kevin -
>>> 
>>> I'd noticed (and ignored ;-) the eml200datasource actor; I agree with 
>>> you that it's not visually compatible with the new icon scheme, and had 
>>> meant to discuss it with Laura.
>>> 
>>> I'm wondering if a better way to do this would be to use an assigned 
>>> icon that doesn't change, but then the actor superimpose something on 
>>> top of it that gives the user some feedback on status/progress (instead 
>>> of switching out the entire icon or changing its color).
>>> 
>>> This way, the background icon would always "fit" with the color scheme, 
>>> and if the icons change in future, we probably won't need to change 
>>> anything specifically for these actors, since they are superimposing 
>>> their "status message" on top of the icon.
>>> 
>>> Laura - do you have any comments?
>>> 
>>> m
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Kevin Ruland wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> Matthew, et al
>>>> 
>>>> Both Eml200DataSource and DarwinCoreDataSource actors have hard coded 
>>>> icons.  They are not exactly using the same code but it looks like one 
>>>> was cribbed from the other.  They set the folder shape, then make calls 
>>>> to control color/text changes to indicate state.
>>>> 
>>>> Since the icon system is/has gone through a major overhaul, I would like 
>>>> to discuss how we can get compatible icons for these actors.  I think it 
>>>> is still good for them to be able to control some indication of state 
>>>> since they do perform background tasks even when the workflow is not 
>>>> running.
>>>> 
>>>> BTW - by "compatible" I mean in the visual sense.  These icons are very 
>>>> boxy and the colors are much too vibrant -- they would look horrible 
>>>> with the new icons.
>>>> 
>>>> Kevin
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>      
>>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
DH> 
DH> 
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