UX meeting agenda July 13, 2016

[bgashler1]

Agenda:

TABS

• Showing local commands Local commands for editors need to be visible with Tabs enabled #8779 Editor actions are hard to discover when tabs are enabled #7666 @alexandrudima
• Quick Open no longer mouse accessible [Regression 1.3] Command palette no longer mouse-accessible #8913

Should we move things to August milestone? Perhaps #7987 tab overflow cut

OTHER

• Focusing panels like viewlets Panels should toggle focus between editor and panel just like other views #7540 - @sandy081 @isidorn
• REVIEW FEEDBACK: CJK strings difficult to read on standard definition monitors due to font weight and size Several CJK strings on the UI are very difficult to read on standard definition monitors due to font weight and size #8653 - @Tyriar
• Quick Open launched editors should stay open Show quick open results as preview while navigating through them #8939
• Discuss switching to auto save enabled by default with guidance to opt out. Opt out requires support to programmatically change settings which will not be available for July. @bpasero

[bgashler1]

Notes

Showing local commands

We will put local commands back where they used to be before we introduced tabs. But we don’t want to mix group-level and editor-level commands in the same area. Thus a few things need to change:

• Since the command for split editor can be interpreted as either a group-level or an editor-level command, it makes sense for us to leave that with the editor-level commands.
• For now, we’ll leave “Close All” inside the overflow ellipses menu, because it’s likely a highly used command.
• We would like to remove the “Show all editors in group” button, since it’s a group-level command, it’s problematic to do so. A significant number of users appear to be using this feature more than once a per day recently, both on insiders and on stable. Therefore, it’s difficult to outright remove it without further understanding why they’re using it. Are they just exploring the new UI we introduced, or are they dependent on this feature for their workflow?

Possible solutions

(NOTE: We are still deciding on a solution for this button)

1. Try removing the button for insiders as a test. As a precaution, use a flag that can be turned off, in case users experience trouble. Listen for feedback. Hypothesis: users are not dependent on the functionality but were just exploring the UI.

2. Put tab overflow list and “Close All” in overflow context menu. See picture below.

Another advantage of this is that the menu appears next to where it was clicked, unlike before, making selecting a hidden tab much simpler. This is also similar to how Sublime handles it.

Alternatively, we could use a chevron icon, similar to other editors (if we’re worried about the use of ellipses in this manner). A possible disadvantage is if users were filtering through the list by typing when the command palette was previously used, as the context menu would not have this ability. However, being that this command was accessed via the mouse, it's possible filtering via typing was seldom used.

3. Keep it in a group-level commands section. Make the split and “show all editors in group” in a group-level command section that is separate from the editor-level commands. (Our team has reservations about this).

4. Paint some kind of interactive affordance over the cutoff sides when overflowing When clicked this could open the command (i.e. show all open editors in the group within the command palette).

Quick Open no longer mouse accessible

We will add this functionality back for tabs-disabled, as it was before tabs were introduced.

CJK support

We will remove all bold font-weight from the CJK characters as a first step.

This occurs in only a few places. This should solve the issue for many people. It’s possible those with lower-dpi monitors or other factors (potentially operating systems with different fonts or font-rendering algorithms) will need us to take an additional step. We can make this initial change on Insiders build and leave the issue open for further feedback. We then can take further action, if needed from there.

Other...

Postponed Discussions…

• Focusing panels like viewlets Panels should toggle focus between editor and panel just like other views #7540. Waiting until @sandy081 can join.

To be discussed offline

• Quick Open launched editors should stay open Show quick open results as preview while navigating through them #8939
• Discuss switching to auto save enabled by default with guidance to opt out.

[sandy081]

Hi Brad,

I closed the issue #7540 for toggling focus between panel and editors. With introducing new command for focusing panels It brings behavior closer to our views.

Thanks
Sandeep