User Interface

[mcrossley]

Hi Hans, your site is looking good, I'd make one v. small usability suggestion, the cursor should change to a "hand" when above the clickable sub-menus as well as the main menu items.

[HansR]

Thanks! And yes, and also change colour when hovering. You're right.
I looked at it quickly but could not find it. Have to look a bit deeper into bootstrap I guess.

[HansR]

I did some research, but the menu of Bootstrap normally require clicking for the drop down so I had that already solved to get a hover dropdown. Experimenting with an original Bootstrap menu did not give a shadow and a pointer on the dropdowns. Normally that depends on the fact that it points to a link. But that is not the case here: it is a <span> with a javascript call and so: nothing happens. Even if you make it an empty link, the link takes precedence. So in short: it's not a quick fix. Seems like Bootstrap has some issue here, this will take some time. Thought I could do that lightning fast, but no. But I do want a menu within the Bootstrap framework.

[kocher]

Greetings Hans

Here is my page:

http://kocher.es/cumulusMX/FWI/

I propose to consider the following suggestions regarding the interface, in the sense of trying to improve the screen vision, especially at night:

- Try to highlight the menu, since it is (I think) hardly visible (change the font color?).

- Consider darkening the white glow of the screen a little; I present you an example of a page (weewx) that has a switch, at the top right, to choose a white or black background; It can also be automated taking into account day or night time:

      http://kocher.es/weewx/

     https://github.com/poblabs/weewx-belchertown

I do not know if these proposals are feasible or not, but I assure you that I make them with the best intention.

[HansR]

@kocher:
Thanks for the link.
You are right about the colour aspects of the user interface. I am thinking about the colours. The site as you see now has my personal colour preference. I will make a possibility to change those colour settings. Maybe I will provide two or three examples, but not too many as colour is a very personal thing and it is not my speciality. So making it configurable is the most important. The colouring of the menu can then be done by the user. The background colour now is white so that should be a setting too.

There is no such thing as a skin in the design of CumulusUtils, so don't expect something sophisticated, but yes, there are some improvements to be made.
Thanks

[water01]

Just looking at the sites Hans and as an oldie I find it rather disconcerting that the mouse pointer doesn't change to a hand or the item changes to a selected background when the mouse is run over a menu item . Difficult to see what you have selected.

Minor thing but it makes it more useable.

[HansR]

@water01: yes. I explained that above in my reply to Mark. Problem is I work with <span> iso <a> in the menu. The mmenu is not standard Bootstrap, but if I use a standard menu behaviour is the same. It's simple standard behaviour which works on a link, not on <span>. Is on the list of course.

[freddie]

@water01: yes. I explained that above in my reply to Mark. Problem is I work with <span> iso <a> in the menu. The mmenu is not standard Bootstrap, but if I use a standard menu behaviour is the same. It's simple standard behaviour which works on a link, not on <span>. Is on the list of course.

You can use css to change the cursor, no?

[HansR]

@freddie:
Yes, but there were some more things I wanted to research.

But before it becomes a real issue, I'll have it done with the next release.
I may be that I get stuck with the default bootstrap4 behaviour of clickable dropdowns (not on hover) but that's not too heavy.

[mcrossley]

Talking about the menus I noticed using a mobile device that there is no indication when you have "touched" a sub menu.

For example the graph type, as the graph is off the bottom of the screen you cannot see it change, and the menu does not close either. I was tapping away for a while before I realised it had actually done anything.

Mobile touch support is a whole other area of fun I found unless your library supports it directly.

[HansR]

Talking about the menus I noticed using a mobile device that there is no indication when you have "touched" a sub menu.

For example the graph type, as the graph is off the bottom of the screen you cannot see it change, and the menu does not close either. I was tapping away for a while before I realised it had actually done anything.

Mobile touch support is a whole other area of fun I found unless your library supports it directly.

Don't worry guys, I had already noticed there were things wrong with the menu. One of the main reasons being that I designed one myself because the standard Bootstrap 4 behaviour is not a drop down on hover but on click. I did not want to so I did some other things which did not work out. Now I am halfway and have no menu at all on the phone.

So, no worry, i'll get you a nice menu if bootstrap likes to cooperate. I stay as close to the defaults as possible. That's the whole point.
And responsive it must be.

Don't start chasing me.

[mcrossley]

Not hassling you Hans, just making you aware of an issue I hadn't seen before because I'd been using a laptop.

[HansR]

OK
Anyway, the first draft of the new menu is online at my site. Any comment is allowed

I may change some colouring of the letters, but I like it as is. And yes, it's responsive. Only when seen on a phone, the reportview is at the bottom while the menu is at the top. That's a nuisance because if you want to change anything it would be a report. On the other hand: who is going to check the reports on a phone

[kocher]

It seems to me that you have achieved a good result; perhaps at night it is somewhat difficult to see (little contrast between the font of the letter and the background; if I already know that it became fashionable and, therefore, there are pages on the Internet that I cannot see and I directly escape from them without waste of time)

[sutne]

I have set Solar and UV to False in the ini-file, but still I have a Sun-box in the Dashboard.
I am not really complaining about that, because now it is 12 boxes which makes it look nice. Reducing it to 11 would not.

Then I will put out a question: For us that do not have Solar, could we have something else in that box?
Any suggestions?

Another minor thing: on the iPad the Status is centered, should have been next to the Led.