Melda GUI improvements

[DarkStar]

^^^
You mean the Device (Active Presets) names on the left? They are hard-coded, so beyond my control. Originally, different colours were used for different classes of presets, but I cannot recall what they are.

How about (as a Feature Suggestion)?

[wilx]

I don't think any colour should be used there - as it doesn't communicate anything. If the colour was to distinguish classes of presets like you said, then it could be beneficial to use two or three colours there, but otherwise it adds unnecessary noise.

Colour, contrast, text, positioning should all be used to communicate design in the most efficient and effective way. All macro controls should look similar, all module titles should look similar, all preset buttons should look similar etc. So it makes sense to have all the presets monochrome, saving colour for the more important visual elements like knobs, modulation, module separation etc.

[wilx]

This is how I'd treat the presets, to make them less distracting, plus reducing unnecessary contrast on the knobs and making the module text clearer & reducing the brightness of the analysis windows.

[spencerlee]

Hey DarkStar
Just finishing off a Mastering Console in MXXX1 I would love to try Circonium on this. Its a huge plugin that currently is black and white. But could do with Circonium colored lines.
Spencer

[nonstatic]

This is how I'd treat the presets, to make them less distracting, plus reducing unnecessary contrast on the knobs and making the module text clearer & reducing the brightness of the analysis windows.

I personally prefer wilx's approach. But given that v13 was all about GUI revamp, we aren't likely to see any major changes anytime soon. But one can dream

[ozonepaul]

This is how I'd treat the presets, to make them less distracting, plus reducing unnecessary contrast on the knobs and making the module text clearer & reducing the brightness of the analysis windows.

I personally prefer wilx's approach. ...

Even though I'm accustomed to the Melda GUI visual/functional inefficiencies I do agree with you guys that with a little bit of care and GUI user experience design knowledge it could be much much better. I also really like wilx's constructive attitude. For example the use of capital letters and the central positioning of the module names (GLOBALS, TRANSFORMER, PITCH) on wilx's design makes a lot of sense, and this is not a question of taste. It's a question of understanding the importance of functionality/usability/accessibility and desirability provided during the interaction with a Melda product. I 100% agree with wilx: with the help of a good user experience GUI designer, the recent v13 design could be improved a lot with only a few well-considered tweaks.

[allende]

I never understood why people think Valhalla plugins look good. To me they look like they were designed in Microsoft Paint. They even look a bit cluttered with all the white text all over the place and I'm not a fan of the rounded panels. Usable for sure, but that's only because the plugins are relatively simple, imagine if they made a 3 oscillator synthesizer with bunch of filters, envelopes and modulation capabilities with that design, it would look like a mess.



There's definitely room for improvement in Melda GUI (and it has improved a lot), but I would never say it's ugly or messy, I think the Neon GUI is very usable and I even liked the old Titanium GUI. I think most people who don't use Melda plugins don't quite understand that the GUI can never be like in U-he or Softube plugins with all the custom macro modules/easy presets and other features.



I think the only things better in OP's examples are the consistent color palette and that everything is aligned and organized well. But unlike Melda plugins, none of those let you customize the GUI, not to mention the ability for users to create their own macro preset designs. Maybe if you added more "design only" -building blocks for macro controls? Like empty spaces, dividers, custom text (maybe even images) so it's easier to align all the knobs and boxes and make everything look symmetrical.

I don't know maybe all the GUI options in melda plugins are actually a limiting factor? You can make some pretty slick designs in MSF using different panel and display boxes (hope to get even more options later) with the Neon GUI, but when you switch to another GUI template it won't look good anymore.

I also agree that the EasyPresets/MacroPresets/Devices list should be one color only, just a regular preset list preferably grayscale, and I think MSF devices list should be identical to EasyPresets in other plugins. Also make the text align left instead of center, looks more professional and easier to read.

[RobinWood]

But unlike Melda plugins, none of those let you customize the GUI, not to mention the ability for users to create their own macro preset designs.

With other plugins users don't need to create their own styles to get at a usable starting point. It's nice you can style everything, but as soon as there is a need for it for the majority of users, it's simply bad. And I think it's a bit lazy too to say "hey we don't care about it just create your own".

Besides that to me it's not only about the color palettes (which are pretty strange most of the time) but more of the wasted screen space, distorted controls (like when resizing and the edit field of becomes 1000px wide with a 20px text in it), grouping, useful hidden parameters vs. overwhelming upfront params, stacked popups and whatsoever. One can simply feel it's generic build block ui technology like frames & css in webdesign.

I wouldn't consider the OPs new designs as the holy grail, but they're more useful & pleasant than any other design imo.

[wilx]

Thanks for the contributions all! And yeah - don't treat my mockups as anything other than a rough illustration. I'm not saying it should like like that - I'm just demonstrating how much more professional and intuitive things would look if there was no unnecessary detail/contrast on knobs, module titles were more distinct and prominent (and centred) and there was better and less fatiguing use of colour.

Some good points made in addition to my stuff too. Ta!

[allende]

With other plugins users don't need to create their own styles to get at a usable starting point. It's nice you can style everything, but as soon as there is a need for it for the majority of users, it's simply bad. And I think it's a bit lazy too to say "hey we don't care about it just create your own".

Besides that to me it's not only about the color palettes (which are pretty strange most of the time) but more of the wasted screen space, distorted controls (like when resizing and the edit field of becomes 1000px wide with a 20px text in it), grouping, useful hidden parameters vs. overwhelming upfront params, stacked popups and whatsoever. One can simply feel it's generic build block ui technology like frames & css in webdesign.

I wouldn't consider the OPs new designs as the holy grail, but they're more useful & pleasant than any other design imo.

I do agree with most what you said, and I did say "Maybe all the GUI options are actually a limiting factor". But do you think the problem is more in the arrangement of things than the actual graphics and such? When working with MSF, There's not enough options design wise to arrange things so that it's all neat and symmetrical. If I try to do something like in OP's example, it looks like this:



When I want it to look like this:


There's a lot of inconsistency in the design, when the font is in capital letters and when it's not, when elements get vertically aligned top and when center. This all leads to empty gaps and spaces. Would love more tools to be able to customize the design as much as possible. Things like options to glue panels together and stretch them out if needed, able to change the location of each element via xy coordinate or something. I guess my suggestions are more MSF based, but since all the plugins share the same framework, these changes should also give tools for, whoever designs the rest of the plugin GUIs, to make everything clear and symmetrical.

[jmg8]

The first MP in each group will affect the panels width and height compared to other panels. Look for the check boxes "Resizable X" and "Resizable Y" in the MP setting window.

[allende]

The first MP in each group will affect the panels width and height compared to other panels. Look for the check boxes "Resizable X" and "Resizable Y" in the MP setting window.

That helps a bit:


In this case it seems the problem is more of the xy pad being fixed in size, either it's too big or too small:


It's better but there's still a lot of unused space and the panel borders don't match. I would love to at least have a vertical spacer (the regular spacer works great horizontally) and/or perhaps ability to type in width and height values for components. Smaller space between panels would also look better (maybe even just a 1px black border), or perhaps all this could be customizable.

But don't get me wrong, I'm in love with MSF and Melda-plugins in general. The fact we can even do this much designing with MSF is just absolutely amazing!

[rlared]

I care about GUI's but I think Melda's GUIs are fine. They're not the most beautiful plugins in the world but I appreciate that they all share the same framework, so once you get familiar with one then using others is easy. They are designed for power and efficiency.

I suggest people who have an issue with the GUI go try using linux and try some linux plugins. . . then when you come back to Melda it will seem like a work of art

[MeldaProduction]

I care about GUI's but I think Melda's GUIs are fine. They're not the most beautiful plugins in the world but I appreciate that they all share the same framework, so once you get familiar with one then using others is easy. They are designed for power and efficiency.

I suggest people who have an issue with the GUI go try using linux and try some linux plugins. . . then when you come back to Melda it will seem like a work of art

Thank you!

Btw. new knobs for next update. DarkStar doesn't like them, yet, but he will

[wilx]

I suggest people who have an issue with the GUI go try using linux and try some linux plugins. . . then when you come back to Melda it will seem like a work of art

I don't think crappy Linux plugins should be the quality bar here - industry standard stuff like Logic's plugins, soundtoys, u-he etc should.

Sounds like there's a fair bit of agreement in general on stuff like removing unnecessary contrast, better titles/labels for modules etc. Consensus!

Btw. new knobs for next update. DarkStar doesn't like them, yet, but he will