[EPIC] UI Improvement for OpenDigitizer

[wirew0rm]

Overview

Based on the feedback during our recent project meeting, several areas in the UI require refinements. This issue aims to capture and track these improvements for the OpenDigitizer project. They should be converted to regular issues documenting the necessary changes if the effort justifies and they are not covered by another issue (in which case the issue should be linked here).

• General Mechanics
  • After clicking the play button on the dashboard loader, the view should automatically switch back to the graph view. Switch to 'View' after loading dashboard #140
• Title-Bar and hover menus.
  • Replace the "OpenDigitizer" title with the name of the loaded dashboard. Replace OpenDigitizer title with the name of the loaded dashboard #139
  • Combine the top and bottom bars for a consolidated menu.
    • side-note: merging be bottom bar(=legend) into the title bar was discussed but dropped as the length of the legend items can vary greatly and might change dynamically.
• Charts Layout
  • Improve chart moving mechanisms. Users should be able to resize and move charts without friction.
    • status quo: only way is making an adjacent chart smaller and then resize to fill the now empty space
    • idea: provide a hover-only draggable handle similar to the remove button.
  • Revisit whitespace management between charts (low prio, input from Nuno?).
  • Investigate use of imgui docking features
• Flowgraph layouting
  • Better auto positioning of new blocks.
    • Add button for automatic layout.
  • Fix centering of flowgraph edges connecting to ports which currently are visibly off the center of the port.
  • Show only properties that are annotated as visible in the block
• Improve graph traversal in flowgraph view
  • When using the right panel arrows, the new block in focus should be highlighted in the main view.
  • Arrows on buttons do not correspond to graph directions, making the UI less intuitive. Ideas for making things more obvious:
    • show block names instead/in addition to arrows (currently shown in tooltip).
    • Sidebar should possibly be displayed at the bottom to match the flowgraph's left and right directions.
    • Pictogram of the current block can be shown for more visual cues, instead of just arrow buttons.

Further Ideas

UI related ideas that came up during the discussion but are not really necessary in the short term.

• Include an in-application tutorial explaining basic UI and processing concepts.