Remove redundant "Save" button from "Appearance"

[Volodymyr-13]

This should be updated in real-time while I change it: color, opacity, width.

Also, "Appearance" could be just: "Style" or "Look" or "View"

[nevvkid]

@vcoppe I would love to work on design tasks like this. I am not sure if removing the save button is the best solution we can get. Maybe a totally different pattern would actually be better.

Thinking about use cases like:

• You want to alter multiple tracks, segements or waypoints at the same time
• You want to be quick changing these appearance or info

@Volodymyr-13 Are you familiar with MapOut for iOS? I think the user interface i quite nice in many dimensions.

So one thing that would help me personally is to have a color palette i can choose from. That color palette should be optimized so the contrast to the background is good.

Here are the colors in MapOuts palette:

If you have multiple tracks / segements in the same color and or overlapping something else which could be considered is adding a boundary to the displayed track / segment like here in komoots tour discovery:

On hover these boundaries disappear and the choosen track / segment gets in focus:

Also it makes a big difference if you only work with one track that has one segment. And you don't have the "vertical file list" visible. So maybe a solution could be:

1. No "vertical file list" visible - focus on fast and easy workflow. Appearance can be changed by choosing a color from one of 12/24 colors > similar to in MapOut. Don't show / require a save button here - do changes instantly. What is your opinion on opacity and width in that scenario? Right now you need to click on appearance for every track. Maybe the panel could stay open if you click on another track while its open? Give it an X icon to close instead of "save"? (rn: you can also open the panel multiple times at once:

The image below is from felt.com

2. The scenario with the vertical file list is different. As there can me multiple tracks too but also these tracks can contain segements and / or waypoints > which you can not see in the the "simple view". Here the Appearance panel actually should be part of the vertical side panel. And be maybe on the bottom? So you click on the track, segment or waypoint on the top and edit on the botton (master / detail).

In the current implementation the panel covers the file list and as well the color picker covers the appearance panel with the save button.

If the "edit" box becomes part of the vertical panel it could also have tabs - similar to photoshop / illustrator with the tabs "Info" and "Appearance", i could maybe see other features later > for waypoints > Icons!.

That's it for now. ;)

Cheers, J

[Volodymyr-13]

In this case, when I just select a color for a single track or change it other properties, I want to see changes immediately.
clicking Save button is just so AWKWARD, it’s like dummy windows UI/UX design approach(Ok, Cancel, Apply, Save or so)

For other cases - I don’t know since I’m not familiar with them, like vertical view.. or so, but anyway adding additional click is really redundant.

[SVNKoch]

Maybe a compromise would be that all changes apply live, so you can actually see how they would look like. But instead of the save button, there is an "Apply" button to actually save/apply those chagnes. Otherwise they get discarded again.

[Volodymyr-13]

For discard you just have Undo, thats it. No need any buttons for all these.. remove that clutter

[SVNKoch]

I don't like the undo approach, because:
I have a red line segment.
I open the appearance editor
make line thinner
more transparent
change to blue
make it even thinner
change to green

now I press undo. Will I get a blue transparent line (storing each little slider / colour adjustment in the undo stack) or will I get the original red line (storing appearance adjustments as one element on the stack)?
Without a apply/save button I would choose the first option. With such a button the second option.
Personally I'm more of a fan of the apply button.

[Volodymyr-13]

Good UI/UX should track any user change. Check editor like Sketch, they know UI/UX and doing everything right.
But here I see a loot of bad UI/UX. Just statement, and I want to help to improve it..

[nevvkid]

@Volodymyr-13 for a one person project gpx.studio is very impressive. No reason to say something like "i see a loot of bad UI/UX". Design decisions aren't binary 0 or 1. And sometimes changing something because the solution seems to be simple - actually breaks a lot of other interactions.

I think we should try to keep our feedback positive and have constructive criticism if so... I will try to do the same. Even if it is hard if you are excited about something ;)