U/X: replace the red x

Official support for: bitwig.com
Post Reply New Topic
RELATED
PRODUCTS

Post

Aesthetic: can you get rid of the red x and replace with either:
1. dimming the track type..i.e. make the piano icon or wave icon dark grey, or even better..
2. since you have the orange to symbolize "enabled", such as enabled audio engine or enabled devices, i think it makes more sense to symbolize enabled tracks with their tracks's icons in orange (the piano, or the wave icon) and when they disabled their icons in grey.
Edit: and if some one decides they are fed up with orange (not me) then this orange can be changed in preferences ( to make it yellow or blue or green, etc..) while keeping the overall grey as it is now, thus maintaining the the overall theme of Bitwig Studio.

just an idea, the red x seems very odd with the rest of the U/X.
Last edited by c-wave on Thu Oct 23, 2014 7:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Post

If it's the red 'x' on the track that bothers you, pressing the orange 'x' will make it all go away. :)

In a way, its good to have a little clash, as it's more obvious that something is disabled.

Though I see that the 'x' is just placed over the top of the track icons, making it look a little odd, like it has the wrong background colour.

Post

goatgirl wrote:If it's the red 'x' on the track that bothers you, pressing the orange 'x' will make it all go away. :)

In a way, its good to have a little clash, as it's more obvious that something is disabled.

Though I see that the 'x' is just placed over the top of the track icons, making it look a little odd, like it has the wrong background colour.
:)
there you go goatgirl. I didn't mean the color red only.. the very idea of having an x instead of greying the icons collides with the rest of the user experience.. that's why I suggested other methods that conforms with the rest of the UI (and renamed the thread U/X). so, to take your idea one step ahead.. what if I want to check the type of track while its disabled.. with the x I can't even see what's below it. Sorry I keep editing: try it with ten disabled tracks ( not one ) and see if you can quickly glance the track types !

Post

So a red track icon then ? That way you can see what the track type is and also if its active or disabled.

Post

goatgirl wrote:So a red track icon then ? That way you can see what the track type is and also if its active or disabled.
No goatgirl, as I said above and in the first thread: the U/X has to be consistent so that the user don't have to guess what it means. Keep in mind that this is still 1.x.. if things keep changing "just to make them stand out" soon enough the U/X will be cluttered.
BTW, the bible on U/X is called: "Don't make me think" !! here is a link: http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-R ... b_image_bk

Cheers,
C-Wave
Last edited by c-wave on Fri Oct 24, 2014 12:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

Post

Sorry :(

Not sure about an orange track icon, as most other icons are the same off white. The orange icons tend to be buttons.

Just relying on the icon being dimmed alone may not be that obvious either. Though dimming the icon, text and having the colour removed from the volume slider too could help. That would be in keeping with the way that devices are dimmed too.

Post

goatgirl wrote:Sorry :(

..Though dimming the icon, text and having the colour removed from the volume slider too could help. That would be in keeping with the way that devices are dimmed too.
Excellent idea.

Post

Cool... maybe you should send in a FR... I'll back you up :)

Post

goatgirl wrote:Cool... maybe you should send in a FR... I'll back you up :)
I will.. Thanks.

Post

goatgirl wrote:Sorry :(

Not sure about an orange track icon, as most other icons are the same off white. The orange icons tend to be buttons.

Just relying on the icon being dimmed alone may not be that obvious either. Though dimming the icon, text and having the colour removed from the volume slider too could help. That would be in keeping with the way that devices are dimmed too.
I just noticed that (these are not bad by themselves, just inconsistent with how disabling a track works):
1. When deactivating a clip, it just dims out.. no red x. have to press the shortcut or right-click and choose option to reactivate, while on:
2. devices also dims out when deactivated , but you also get a red x, and unlike the red x on the track you can click on the red x on the deactivated device to activate it again.
So, 3 ways for visual feedback on deactivation, and 3 ways to reactivate.. not very intuitive in my opinion.
C-Wave

Post

When I "deactivate" a clip, it seems it is just muting the clip. Maybe bitwig should not call it deactivating when it's actually just muting.

Post

Ogopogo wrote:When I "deactivate" a clip, it seems it is just muting the clip. Maybe bitwig should not call it deactivating when it's actually just muting.
I understand your point of view but how should a clip behave when it is deactivated ? I see muting the clip same as deactivating it; a clip is a special case as it will consume the same CPU power whether deactivated or muted.. while on devices muting the device without deactivating it will still consume CPU power.

I also went and launched Ableton for some comparison, so the same for devices so a device's icon is colored when active and grey when not.
Edit: A track behaves the same way: so track icon is colored when active and grey when not.
Clips however stays at same color but waves inside clip disappear when deactivated.. here i like Bitiwig more.

Post

Well if clips cpu is not changing then I think it would make sense to lose the idea of "deactivating" a clip it all, there should only be muting. Deactivating is a concept we now have for preventing stuff from taking up cpu like you say so if you aren't changing that then why try to stretch that concept to clips.

But basically for intuitive use it does not make sense to give me a menu option that says "deactivate" and then all it does is mute. If it's the same thing then don't use two names for it.

Post

In the clip launcher it's even more complicate because it gives you the option to deactivate the "slot," which would indicate that something is going on with the slot rather than the clip in it, but it's still just muting the clip, and if you click on an empty slot the deactivate/activate options are greyed out.

So for this one action of muting you have three names: muting, deactivate clip, deactivate slot.

Post

Ogopogo wrote:In the clip launcher it's even more complicate because it gives you the option to deactivate the "slot," which would indicate that something is going on with the slot rather than the clip in it, but it's still just muting the clip, and if you click on an empty slot the deactivate/activate options are greyed out.

So for this one action of muting you have three names: muting, deactivate clip, deactivate slot.
All right good find, but I will take this a step further:
1. On Arranger view: Deactivate a clip should disable that clip (to save CPU power) and not mute it which is what happens now, hence the utility of having a *deactivate clip* instead of just muting the clip.
2. On Clip launcher view: deactivate the clip is also muting the clip, but in addition the clip should dim in the same way a clip dims in the Arranger view but it does not.
3. Activate/Deactivate Scene has no visual feedback whatsoever; it doesn't even dim the clips on that scene.

Post Reply

Return to “Bitwig”