| [orion-dev] page anatomy/header layout for 0.4 |
I previously posted [1] about some work I had begun on trying to reorganize our page elements/header into something that works better. The first step was to document what we had done originally and solicit input on the various page elements that we need. Thanks to those who commented in bugs or on the wiki.
Since then, we've seen some new style pages with vertical "sections" vs. the outliner/auxiliary panes that we had in navigator, editor. (For example, Anton's preferences prototype, Szymon's repo page). I wanted to make sure these elements were represented in the taxonomy, and wireframed so that we understand how the various layouts and pages are related.
So...today I've started to do some wireframes of the page anatomy given all the elements we wish to represent. [2]
The basic strategy is to split the current header into two parts, so that we have a true "top down," "global to local" visual progression.
- the top is a static/global part that you could easily hide without losing in-page function.
- the middle is a task+resource part that lets you operate on your task and visit other functionality that is more closely related to your current work
- underneath is the toolbar area, but we now acknowledge that each auxiliary pane should have its own toolbar
- when there are vertical sections, there is no global toolbar, just local section headers with tools
- this opens the door for "parameter collectors" to belong to the section toolbar rather than always up top
So far, this seems to hold up to most examples I've seen and cleans up the overcrowded header issues without using significantly more pixels.
I'm very interested in comments via bugzilla. [3]
PLEASE REALIZE that the wireframes are purposefully low tech and unstyled. Just because something is in a box in the wireframe doesn't mean it will literally have a border around it. I am intentionally trying to get agreement on the anatomy/elements on a page before getting too involved in the styling.
I hope to write a coherent blog post about all this tomorrow. The wiki page in [2] is a bit too historical in nature for anyone outside of the project.
thanks,
susan
[1] http://dev.eclipse.org/mhonarc/lists/orion-dev/msg01019.html
[2] http://wiki.eclipse.org/Orion/Page_Layout#Proposed_Layout
[3] https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=349634