Better indication when an action is selected

[jfirebaugh]

Sometimes users select actions from the radial menu without noticing (#1731). The visual indication of selecting an action should be more prominent.

Possibilities:

• Blink the menu item a couple times
• Animated transitions for the change
• Others?

[lsces]

Now that I know what cased the problem, I've been looking at the process, and I still don't see how I would have activated it. I do wonder if I've hit the q on the keyboard, but blinking the menu item is not going to do anything. If you hover over and click the action happens.

I'm still finding this pallet thing fundamentally wrong. It is sitting on top of the exact place I am working and when I'm tidying up, having selected an object, it may well be where I want to add or move a node. Certainly tidying up the buildings at Weston it was just here I wanted to be. Please can we have an option that it's simply a floating tool bar we can move around. Then one can leave it in a suitable position to one side and one is not nearly so concerned with accidentally clicking a button when the mouse 'slips' from the select position.
Of cause returning what I will call proper full colour icons with a proper colour change when you hover over a button would be belt and braces. I'd add that as an 'other' option! I will be looking to replace the monochrome icon set with 'archaic' but much more informative colour icons if I am going to use use id. The colour grouping of icons is an essential part of the map and replacing them with black and white 'bubbles' which don't even display the right symbol just adds to the poor readability on id. Take a look at http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/52.11023/-2.07533 and explain how id is easier to work with than P2 ... in particular the many empty bubbles.

[brycenesbitt]

I went and hit a few buttons at random and pressed SAVE in iD. It said something like:

  48 Modified
  Vertex Other(46)
  area Day Use Parking
  vertex Other(2)
  2 deleted
  point Point(2)

Now that really does not nail it. First, why does a beginner editor use an mathematical term like "vertex"? How about saying what actions lead to those node changes? It could look a little like the undo buffer comments just sorted by object:

  area Day Use Parking 
      Made circular
      Deleted two nodes
      Moved by 3 miles
  river Merced River
      Moved by 525 miles
  (Total of 2 lines moved, 3 attributes added, over a span of 4000 square miles)

While this does not address the usability issues of the radial menu, or the highly prominent trash can icon, it might help compensate. By listing the SAVE actions as the user executed them, hopefully it will be easier for new users to check they are saving what they meant to save.

[jfirebaugh]

Good ideas, can you capture those in a separate ticket?

[lsces]

Not sure if the change id had done to my data would have been discernible from a better description? The nodes had changed, but the node numbers hadn't, only the extra two had been added so the way looked correct as text when looking at history.. It was not until the points are plotted that the movement was shown. But I am still not seeing how I created it. If I do the same operations to create it it sticks out like a sore thumb and because everything is alien to my method of working I was taking notice of everything. It's probably just a rogue hick-up that nobody else will hit, but the various issues created here are certainly very relevant since id is now the default.

[tyrasd]

But I am still not seeing how I created it.

If I had to guess, I'd say that you probably clicked on a building, but bug #1693 caused the background landuse polygon to be selected. You could than have used the rectify tool and the action was falsely applied to the landuse polygon instead of the building. As the borders of the landuse polygon weren't visible to you, you didn't notice. See also #1702.

I don't think that the proposed UI changes (blink the menu item / animated transitions) would provide any help in this case.

[lsces]

Martin Raifer wrote:

But I am still not seeing how I created it.

If I has to guess, I'd say that you probably clicked on a building, but bug
#1693 #1693 caused the background landuse
polygon to be selected. You could have than used the rectify tool and the action
was applied to the landuse polygon instead of the building. As the borders of
the landuse polygon weren't visible to you, you didn't notice. See also #1702
#1702.

I don't remember using the rectify at all. I was trying to work out how it would
have been activated at all, but those bugs would provide an explanation on how I
missed it.

I don't think that the proposed UI changes (blink the menu item / animated
transitions) would provide any help in this case.

Personally I expect the button I'm hovering over to highlight clearly before I
click it, and that is not happening on id. The pigging pop-up help also
distracts you focus as well! ( Is there a switch to kill that? ) I can
understand a new user clicking something accidentally with all the activity
going on around the mouse pointer ... too much

A lot of the time I'm working via remote access to third party sites, where a
delay in actions is to be expected. Not a normal situation for mappers, but
similar to a slow computer which some areas of the world will be reliant on.
Animations in this case are even more intrusive and should be avoided. Don't
assume because your set-up works nicely that everybody else will have the same
experience.

Lester Caine - G8HFL

Contact - http://lsces.co.uk/wiki/?page=contact
L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://lsces.co.uk
EnquirySolve - http://enquirysolve.com/
Model Engineers Digital Workshop - http://medw.co.uk
Rainbow Digital Media - http://rainbowdigitalmedia.co.uk

[brycenesbitt]

Separated "save confirmation" out to ticket #1735, @jfirebaugh

[bhousel]

Closing.. Flash messages were added in #3753