Next-generation user interface ideas

[Jessi]

After we finish the Landsat/SRTM server and dataset infrastructure work we're doing right now, Chris and the rest of us are looking to begin an intensive effort to improve World Wind's user interface. It's become clear, for instance, that the current UI can't scale with the growing collection of WW add-ons that people are making. It doesn't handle Mars and other planetary datasets.

We would like to make it easy for people to navigate the many available World Wind layers, datasets, and add-ons, and perhaps to create bookmarks and sticky notes to help in their World Wind travels. We'd like the interface to be engaging for all audiences, with very little of a learning curve, and accessible and useful to schoolchildren as well as to researchers, scientists, and armchair travelers.

Some time ago, a forum member sent us this mockup (4.7 MB image) of what a better, more flexible World Wind interface might look like. What do you think a better World Wind interface would look like? What kinds of elements do you think it should have? What user interface elements would make World Wind more compelling, easy to navigate, and useful for you, your friends, your kids, students, etc.?

Thanks!

Jessi

[Guest]

One suggestion about layer manager- There should be a default layer manager configuration that describes which layer to show after which elevation. For example, layer should automatically be changed to Landsat 7 from Blue marble after you zoom past a certain elevetion and it should again automatically change to USGS after you zoom in further to a ceratin elevation (say after 8,000 m).

It would be very helpful for new users who don't know about layers (I have seen many people having hard time) and just want to see something while they are zooming in.

User should also be able to change this configuration.

If there is no imagery available for certain layer (for example USGS is not available for every place), it should not make the screen white rather it should simply expand the previous layer's image which would be blur but would be better than having nothing.

[aussiemac]

It would be really helpful to have an "always on top" feature for using ww in conjuction with charts and other navigation programs.

[ShockFire]

Originally posted by aussiemac@Dec 25 2004, 07:20 AM
It would be really helpful to have an "always on top" feature for using ww in conjuction with charts and other navigation programs.

Added to SourceForge:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?f...528&atid=524838

[Denis F]

First I want to congratulate the developpers of WW because this software is really astonishing and though perhaps not yet complete the interface is very simple and user-friendly ! Before I installed it I was looking desperately for a user manual, but after I tried it, I was surprised to notice that the few introduction words and the Key Chart was sufficient to understand how it was working ! That not so common Keep it that way please !

Now I suggest you to have a look at "Fly over Swiss" http://www.geonova.ch/gvista/pages/ch/GVista.htm if you don't already know it, it has some interesting navigationg features. Though it is much more limited than WW (swiss only with a poorer resolution) it has a smoother movement, the possibility to control speed with the mouse, to rotate camera (i.e. around camera position instead of "crosshair" ground position), to move verically with keyborad PageUp/Down, and a contextual menu with recording and playback possibilities. There is also a small map and a compass (too bad that it be just in the middle of the image, it would be better on the side).

In Swiss they have also online photos up to 1m resolution such as in http://tinyurl.com/6ug58 or http://www.sanday.ch, but without 3D, if it would be nice to use them in WW, if copyright permits...

[radhock]

This seems like the right spot for a couple of suggestions for 1.3 features
1. A means of showing which tile you are 'hovering' over (not loading into cache, just hovering over - see below), down to the file name, to make it easier/possible to extract chunks of cache for specific areas to pass to other users of WorldWind via CD etc - just like the Cache addon files on the server. It would also give the ability to kill off specific dud tiles, rather than via WWmud. Easier than figuring the georeferencing that must be implicit in the file names for Landsat and Terrain tiles (which I haven't sussed yet, but it would be nice to know...).
2. The ability to start up a session where you left off, rather than at 0,0, at the zoom level you left off. In other words if I'm halfway thru hauling in the back end of Venezuala and stop for a while, let me start where I left off at Angel Falls or wherever.
3. Start up with the imagery type you left off - I mostly work with pseudocolour, and would like it as default. And no, I don't have the xml etc chops to sort it out myself.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to 1.3. Keep up the good work.

Radhock, Perth WA

[ruxpin]

spiraling motion momentum (to hover over a city in circles, for example)

[5of0]

Originally posted by Jessi@Dec 22 2004, 02:23 PM
...perhaps to create bookmarks and sticky notes to help in their World Wind travels...

I really like that idea - maybe make something like (3D?) pushpins, similar to the track markers, that a user could click a button to put one at their current location, give it a name, and add it to some sort of list (like the Favorites menu in browsers - with folders and such). They would, of course, be able to turn them on and off through the layer manager, maybe individually? I really like the png for the next-gen interface, but (call me old-fashioned) I do like the feel of actually pushing in a button, not just making it blink.

[Kaleko]

Principally i like the GUI shown in the png very much.

But i think the view direction arrow (compass) on the left upper corner of the screen should be a bit more tool-like.
For example there should be buttons to set special view directions (at least N, E, S and W) to adjust the view quick and exactly.

And maybe its possible to set the camera behavior somewhere. How about toggling between a view that circles around the crosshair position on the ground (best would be if this could be additionally set to automatic and endless circling with adjustable speed) AND a view mode that lets the user set a viewpoint via crosshair somewhere on the ground (with an adjustable altitude (0-10000m?)) and lets him take a "look around" at this point without changing its position over ground (This would make it possible to take a panoramic view from Mt. Everest for example)

The pushpin and make-a-ww-link ideas i like too...




PS: Sorry for any mistakes in text, but english is not my native language...

[tian]

hi,

first of all let me congradulate your team for an exceptional piece of software. being a keen rambler* i have used your software to "pre-walk" and visualise routes.

would it be possible to add features to allow different co-ordinate systems such as the ones used in UK's OS etc..?

also would it be possible to display contour lines based on the elavation data?

thanks,
tian

* UK terminology for people who go on treks through the countryside/national parks

[Guest]

You certainly have made an exceptional program!

A feature, I at least would appreciate, is full-screen viewing (correct me if it is allready included) that allows you to look at the world undisturbed by GUI and the startmenu.

[Guest]

I also like the png image idea, but maybe for a bit more eyecandy make the boxes, such as layer manager and coordinates, have an ajustable ammount of transperancy.

[Llynix]

Originally posted by Guest@Jan 12 2005, 10:06 PM
I also like the png image idea, but maybe for a bit more eyecandy make the boxes, such as layer manager and coordinates, have an ajustable ammount of transperancy.

Quoted post

Hmm.. I'm rather the opposite. I liked most of the ideas in the png, however I thought it was too flashy. This is an educational world viewer, not a fantasy game or flight sim.

Just my two cents though.

[TomServo]

Originally posted by Llynix@Jan 12 2005, 11:30 PM
Hmm.. I'm rather the opposite. I liked most of the ideas in the png, however I thought it was too flashy. This is an educational world viewer, not a fantasy game or flight sim.

Just my two cents though.

Quoted post

Look at the kids today.. you NEED that just to keep their attention span long enough. B)

Nothing wrong about it either.. I HATE work with BMP level images.. makes it REALLY hard to make nice icons.

[radhock]

Tom Servo:
I think you're wrong: this has gone beyond just an educational item. Conceived that way, certainly, but now a data delivery medium par excellence (all developers take a bow). Way beyond just education in potential, tho the education aspect (things like Pilbara early life signs) is still crucial. It is truly a new world viewing tool, viable by itself. Impressed? Me? Never.... Yeah right.