The ver 1.0 Hook dialog gives focal position to the verbs (at top) and moves the links themselves into relative background at the bottom.
I find this works OK for the pedagogic focus of initial use and setup, but becomes a cognitive drag in real use, when one wants to see the links at a glance, but the eyes fall first on the the menu of mechanics.
(and at least 3 redundant down-arrow taps are added to the keyboard costs, to get past the options to the links)
Perhaps an inversion of the dialog, with links at top and verbal menu below ? (the link panel might need to scroll, to keep the mechanics menu still in view if links grow numerous).
(and possibly simpler/quieter section titles, like Links and Options, and a little less marketing pizzazz, with the big Hook logo (now in super-focus, more strident than the data) quietly put aside for real work ?)
I’ve always felt the menu was too big and bulky. I would rather see a menu that drops down from the menu bar – e.g., two alternating “pages”, one for Access and one for Create:
Many thanks for the feedback. We agree with it. The window currently takes up too much room, and the commands take up too much space for users who understand how Hook works.
background: These issues were on my mind for over a year. One of the reasons for the current design was to make it as obvious as possible, during the early phase of Hook being released to the public, how items are linked – how content gets into the Hook window. That’s also why we currently have these “loud” section headers.
With respect to the focus: before public beta, the focus was on the first linked item if there was one. But this caused the focus to be in different initial positions, which is to be avoided in UI design.
There are several other constraints that apply to the design of this window, such as to keep menu items in a consistent position – the current design achieves that, but there are other layouts that do the same.
We currently expect to address all these issues: to make the window more compact; to make the CREATE AND LINK commands less prominent; and to provide a consistent way to ensure the focus is on info-access as opposed to creation and update of information items. There are also several upcoming new features that impact on the UI.
We are listening to all the feedback as we tweak the product and its road map.
Said issues are a priority for us. We definitely expect it to be done this year, and the sooner the better.
