Hi,
I went over the OSX HIG but couldn't come up with a good solution for
my input needs, so decided to ask the many experienced developers in
here...
In my app, the document window diplays a large canvas-type view in
which various graphical objects are manipulated by the user. Each one
of these objects represents sound events which are rendered by my
synthesis engine. I set up a box with several text fields in which the
user is supposed to insert parameteres for the selected object. In the
bottom of the view there is a segmented control with buttons
corresponding to each one of these parameters. For each available
parameter, there are two input modes: the user can either insert a
single value in the text field or click one of the buttons in the
segmented control which opens a hidden view for graphically editing a
vector of values for the corresponding parameter. The editing works
great, and some nice touches of animation reinforce the idea of which
object is selected, but...
When sound is rendered, only the last set mode (and corresponding
data) is used for each parameter, but handling the user side of the
deal is still pretty confusing to me. My main problem is how to switch
between one mode and the other? I mean, I can code it in several ways,
but just can't decide which one would be more adequate in terms of
making a good use of cocoa controls and comunicating these states more
effectively.
- My first attempt was having a pair of radio buttons for each
parameter and disabling the oposite mode when either one was selected,
but that made the interface way too crowded...
- Then I thought of a disclosure button to the side of each text
field, to emphasize the idea that the graphical input mode would be an
extra, more complex way of inserting data; but that still doesn't feel
right.
- A third idea was to hide the text input field if the corresponing
button was pressed, but then I couldn't find a user intuitive way to
switch back to the text input. I am basically trying to keep the
interface clean and only show stuff to the user if asked for.
Another issue is how to deal with the disabled input? . For example,
when the user chooses to open the graphical view so he/she can build a
dynamic curve for a certain parameter, should I just disable the text-
field? Should I empty the field then disable it? Should I keep the old
value around in case the user decides to change modes again? (I am not
talking about undo yet...) How about the other way around? if the user
spends a long time editing a vector for use in a parameter and then
decides to change modes, should I keep all that (possibly large) data
set around just in case? (Should this just be handled in an Undo?)
Sorry for so many questions. I would appreciate any suggestions.
Carlos.
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