I would like to share with you some hints about the improvements i’m doing in the UI to lower the learning curve and avoiding all these repeated questions about usage.
The idea is having contextual help in 2 levels:
Left Side Panel Extended Info
When scrolling a menu, extended info is shown in the left side panel, including text and icon. Something like this:
I know you love it
Contextual Help Button
You can push the “HELP” button and (if available) a help screen will be open with the details. HTML 4.0 is used for the contents. Sorry but i couldn’t find a HTML5 renderer for tkinter.
Something like this:
For V5, bold+ALT is used as “HELP button”. For the rest, we must decide.
Yes, it is for sure. But it’s not deployed in all views. Currently is deployed, as proof of concept, in:
Mixer Help => Help screen by pushing bold+ALT in V5 & MiniV2
Chain menu (V5 & MiniV2) => Side panel extended info
I hope to extend to the rest of views, but it will take a while to have it totally deployed.
BTW …
We would need volunteers for designing / preparing the side panel icons. They must be plain monochrome icons. 300x300 PNG, white over transparent background.
Volunteers for creating the HTML help screens are also welcome. You can take the mixer’s help as example, but we should discuss the priority list and also implement a mechanism for having different versions for the 3 interfaces: V5, V4 and touch.
Be aware it’s not HTML5 but old HTML 4, and it doesn’t support 100% of CSS syntax, just a subset. Anyway, it’s more than enough for our needs.
Hmm. call me stupid, but I can not make the Mixer Help show up. I get the purple keys blinking if i push alt bold enough pushing Mixer bold+ALT gives Levels and purple keys…
The chain menu side panel texts are showing.
My 2ct: I think the gui is nice and clean as-is. Putting up those help-texts wil just be a lot of work and have only a short-time benefit during the learning phase, after which they just clutter the gui. Time is better invested in the Wiki.
If you have a V5, it should work by simply pushing “bold ALT”. If it doesn’t work, please, send me a screenshot of your webconf’s wiring layout showing the ALT button configuration. Perhaps it didn’t get updated.
I quite agree, but this “short-time learning phase” generate a lot of repeated questions in the forum, what consumes time and resources from the community and developers and generates frustration in the newcomers, so i decided to implement this with the hope of lowering the learning curve and reducing the posts related to basic usage questions. Also, the first experience will be improved and the icons makes the look & feel more pleasant, what is good for enrolling new users in our crew.
Deploying of all this will be progressive and selective, prioritizing the most important views or those generating more questions and doubts.
Anyway, it’s not so much work. I implemented it in a way that is easy enough. The most time consuming process is preparing the nice icons, but we would use generic icons for most options.
It does move the help files under specific version and branch controlled repositories which is probably rather easier to maintain than a seperate wiki, and we can probably automate a lot of the wiki under such conditions. Running v4 & v5 from a documentation point of view has been difficult so having one canonical source for docs is, to me, a step in the right direction which partially helps to resolve the perennial problem in fast moving code.
I agree that this may well be a tool of benefit to new starters, but it is useful, especially in fast changing environments to have an easily accessible help source, especially with a device where one of the design objectives is the removal of the attached PC, which would in most cases be the go to sources for docs. Perhaps it could be another GUI flag where the functionality could be turned off for those that so want, but could be re-enabled if there was some consultation needed for insight?
Having spent some time fielding questions on the forum, the same issues do raise their head for beginners, because we seem to sit at a cross roads between several different communities and motivations.
I’ve tended to put my docs into systems I’ve written in a similar fashion but on occasion been pushed by house style into confluence or one of it’s close adversaries, so it’s refreshing to be in an environment wheres such issues can be discussed.
I think the up.down arrows should scroll the HTML help pages. You should also be able to drag on a touchscreen and exit (it is missing the topbar - maybe we should always show that?).
I agree with @wyleu. (I know - it is rare!!!) Having user docs within the system, associated directly with that version can help with change control. I suspect we may need to maintiain external docs but hopefully we can consolidate them so that there is a single source that feeds both. The wiki has been a pragmatic solution but is suboptimal.
Anorther alternative could be providing the docs with Zynthian web server. Finally, network / web / vnc access is mostly used for seting up the working environment.
But for sure à contextual help system is even better. to @jofemodo
I’ve tried that in the Wiring tab, but if I set Switch-5 ALT Push to Help, then the Helpscreen shows, I can exit by selecting another screen, but not toggle ALT any more.
Setting instead Switch-2 ALT Bold to Help, opens a partial black help text, scrollable with Knob 4, exit only with selecting another screen.
Thinking of this from a newbie point of view (I’m good at playing stupid), I’d be too much fussled by this procedure.
Anyway, as long as Help Text on the side panel can be deactivated, I’d have nothing against it. Otherwise there will be some wipeout script necessary. to run after each update.
What about making the Native Gui screen visible (and usable) on such a keypress? That would be a huge impovement, as it would not be necessary to fussle around with a tablet or phone and the dreadful Wi-Fi to adjust a single parameter?
Ediths addition: Defining Switch-2 ALT Bold to Help would womehow break the flow, as it is not possible to reach Levels with a Bold click and without double click when in ALT mode. Bold is useable while not in ALT mode, double click not necessary. Another complexity buildup!
Beginners Mode would probably put this on one of the S1-4 buttons for v4, but quite how to do this for ancient history is difficult to consider. You are basically in encoder dancing territory.
Could admin be the next write up?
Can’t wait to see the icons…
Do they have to be able to make sounds as well, for visually impaired users. ?
A week to agree the need, a day to implement, just over a month to discuss the efficacy of the icon…
It could be. It’s trivial. But i wanted to have a “help on help” screen, with the global conventions for the help. It’s for that i didn’t make it a toggle.
In V4/V5 using back is the obvious way to exit from the help, but we still have to think about the touch workflow for help.
We could show topbar. This can be helpful because the status, main DPM, etc. remain visible so the user has some info about what is going on whilst they read the help.
Designing a good set of icons wont be an easy task. But i’m super happy with the main/chain menu set. It was easier than expected and there are 2 icons i specially love:
to 
by this procedure.
to run after each update.
