Considerations regarding RustGIS and a proposal for improvements

[arielsrossi]

RustGis is an excellent tool.
I believe it has the potential to become the leading open-source GIS tool, largely due to its modern interface and constant improvements.
However, with so many enhancements being introduced, the tool risks becoming confusing if there isn't a harmonization of its visual elements.
I would like to propose some interface improvements here to help RustGis continue to grow and attract more users.

Let’s start with the Home tab.

1 – The “Toolbox” should only remain in the Analyze tab.
2 – “Go To XY” should accept coordinates in Degrees Minutes and Seconds and other formats in addition to Decimal Degrees.
3 – The “Directions” button does not seem to belong to this tab. Maybe he should go to the “Analyze” tab.
4 – Next to the “Select” button there should be a “Clear selection” button to make it easier to remove the selection.
5- There is a duplication of functions with the “Go To XY” and “Locate” button. The ideal is to leave just 1: “Go To XY” and in the window that opens to insert the coordinates, enter the “Add point” option.

Tab Data

1 – The “Layer Templates” button should be moved to the “Edit” tab, as it is not possible to create a layer template without accessing the “Edit” tab; therefore, moving it there improves usability.
2 – Vector selection in this tab could be aligned with the “Select” function found on the “Home” tab. Furthermore, all selection-related functions from the “Home” tab should be moved to the “Data” tab, given that GIS analysts use these tools to work with data. The “Home” tab should contain only a “Select” button and a “Clear Select” button—aimed at providing quick access to selection—while the remaining functions should be relocated to the “Data” tab.

“Style” Tab

In this tab, it is advisable to reorder the “Visibility Range” and “Effects” groups.
The first group of buttons should be “Drawing.”
The second should be “Effects.” The “Visibility Range” group should be moved so that it sits next to “Label Range.”
The “Label Class,” “Label Range,” “Label Placement,” and “Text Symbol” groups should be placed within the “Labels” group, as they all pertain to the same subject.
The “Styles” group—which contains only the “Styles” button—should be moved into the window that appears when clicking the “Symbology” button. Notably, the “Import QGIS Style” button is already present at the bottom of that window.

Edit Tab

In this tab, the “Save” button, positioned right next to the “Edit” button, causes a lot of confusion. I have personally clicked “Save” several times, intending to save the edits made to a shapefile. Therefore, this button should save the edits—not the entire state of RustGIS. A button for saving the overall state of RustGIS should be the icon located at the top, above the tabs; alternatively, a “Save” button for that specific function could be placed at the end of the “Home” tab.
The “Snapping” feature should have a keyboard shortcut to disable it temporarily. For instance, if I am digitizing on a layer but do not want to use snapping, pressing the spacebar should disable the function for as long as the key is held down.
The “Create” button remains active even when no layer has editing enabled.
The “Editor Tools” section should include core GIS analysis tools—such as buffer, merge, intersection, clip, dissolve, and union (I am not certain of the exact names used within RustGIS, so I am using ArcMap’s terminology as a reference). Furthermore, these tools should only operate on the layer currently being edited (consistent with how it functions in ArcMap).

“Analyse” Tab

The “Georeference” button should have a different icon to better represent its function. The current one conveys the idea of locating a specific point, rather than the georeferencing of a raster.

View tab

The “Dark mode” button is in the wrong place. Perhaps placing it as a toggle (similar to those on an iPhone) in the bar above the tabs would be a better design choice.

Publish tab

The “Export Map” feature only allows for exports in .png format. It would be ideal to also allow exports as GeoPDF.
Also, within the “Output” group, the “Presentation” button overlaps with the group name.
There is another group whose name cannot even be read (located next to the “Layout” group) because the “Color Ramps” button overlaps with the group name.
The “Create Thumbnail” and “Map Thumbnail” buttons did not work.

Other considerations

Regarding “Symbology,” there should be symbol templates for different vector types. I noted the absence of a symbology option that links the line (outline) and the fill, ensuring they share the same color.
Under “Effects,” it would be useful to include a “blind” (shutter/swipe) or blinking/flicker option to reveal what lies beneath a layer or raster.
As this is a GIS system, the lack of support for various coordinate systems and their projections could be a limiting factor; adding more coordinate systems is essential.
It would also be highly beneficial to include a processing mask option, allowing operations to be restricted to a specific area.
Another necessary feature is the creation of a “geodatabase” specifically for RustGIS.

[Mavrick-F]

Thanks for going through every tab so carefully, @arielsrossi. This is the kind of review we've been hoping for.

We started on this in #862 (How should the ribbon be organised?) and wrote down what each tab is for and how to decide where a control goes (Ribbon guidelines), and agreed to rework the tabs one at a time. So far only Home (#932) and a new Labeling tab (#935) are done. Your screenshots are from 0.4, which came out just before that work, so Toolbox is already off Home, Go To XY and Locate are now one menu, and the label groups have moved off Style.

The other tabs (Data, Style, Edit, Analyze, View, Publish) are still open, and we'd love help with them. Your notes on Data, Style and Edit are a good place to start. If you want to take one, post a proposal for that tab in #862 or open an issue, the way Home and Labeling were done. The standard is to weigh a proposal by walking through a few everyday tasks and counting clicks and tab switches, so it helps to consider which tasks you do most.

A few quick answers in the meantime:

• Clear selection is already next to Select. It's greyed out until something is selected.
• Edit › Save saves the project, and your edits are stored there. RustGIS doesn't write edits back to the shapefile yet; that's on the roadmap, starting with GeoPackage and PostGIS. Until then, export the layer to get a file with your edits. You're right that the button is confusing.
• Geodatabase: GeoPackage fills that role. It's an open standard single-file database format that holds many layers and tables. Getting on my soapbox for a minute: Locking in users with a custom snowflake format is for corporations pursuing monopolies, not open source.

The non-ribbon points (degrees-minutes-seconds in Go To XY, holding a key to turn off snapping, GeoPDF, a processing mask, linking outline and fill colour, and the overlapping Publish labels and thumbnail buttons) would each be easier to track as separate issues.

[arielsrossi]

I created a single, comprehensive post rather than several separate ones, to make it easier for RustGIS contributors to read and access the information.
It is worth considering how a feature is organized based on the number of clicks required to access it.
In some cases, it is not possible to maintain or reduce the number of clicks needed to reach a feature while simultaneously striving for a more harmonized interface.
Grouping items by similarity generally moves toward optimization, but there will be instances where this is not feasible.

I mentioned creating a geodatabase for RustGIS — not in the sense of something proprietary, but rather something optimized for Rust and GIS.

You mentioned that when we select something, a deselect button appears next to it. However, if you look at the screenshot, you can see that this button is not there. To remove the selection, I have to navigate to the "Data" tab and click the "Clear" button. However, this same button could be added below the "Select" option on the "Home" tab.

There is a "Clear Selection" option in the bottom bar of RustGIS, but it is in a very hidden location.
Placing the "Clear Selection" button below the "Select" option would be more efficient.

[deniial00]

First off all: THANKS for the feedback. I am currently working on the Data Tab and your feedback will influence this rework!
On clearing the selection - this button clears the selection:

On the "Clear selection" in the bottom bar: I just tested it - it feels really weird since the location of the button changes when the cursor moves off the map since the WGS84 coordinates are omitted. I am unsure how to handle this - do you have a suggestion?

[flight1973]

On "Go To XY" taking DMS and other formats: the search box already does. You can type decimal degrees, degrees, minutes and seconds (40°42'46"N 74°0'21"W), or a UTM or MGRS reference there.

The By Coordinates… dialog (Home › Navigate › Locate) still takes decimal longitude and latitude only. I'll make it take the same forms as the search box.