As I've
previously commented, there's been a
competition about redesigning the Second Life interface that is, in fact still running at the moment.
I was too busy, or perhaps too lazy, to actually enter, but I've had a think about what I'd like.
First up, almost inevitably is to redesign the menus. I'm not going to go into a huge amount of details about that at the moment, it could become a major essay very, very quickly.
Suffice it to say I'd have File, Edit, Help: that's a fairly standard set. File would have uploading and saving stuff, relogging and quitting but lose snapshots, movies etc. Edit would have undo, copy, paste etc. but lose all the stuff about attachments, clothes etc. Help would more or less stay as it is.
Then I'd have some new Menus.
I'd have a social menu that would have gestures, chat, IM, friends, groups etc. and the take snapshots etc. (because you probably take them to share after all).
I'd have an avatar menu, with all the attach, detach, clothes, profile etc. This would also have rebake textures.
World more or less as is, but with find in it and without the stuff that's mentioned elsewhere. I'd hack out the extra layer for "environment settings" and move them all straight into their own boxed section of the world menu.
Tools would lose Stop All Animations and Release Keys to Avatar and Bug Reporting to Help, but stay as is.
Region/Estate would become a separate menu that only appears if you're an estate manager for the region you're in.
The advanced menu would more or less disappear, but a lot of the tools in there that power users use would get added to the bottom of other menus as necessary if you choose the "advanced" option in preferences (now in File btw). Many of the other things in Advanced (disable camera constraints, go afk etc.) would become preferences on their own tab too.
There's more to be done there, but you can sort of see the broad outline of where I'm going.
The thing I would do that is not there at the moment, is add two elements about menus and buttons:
- A key-binding tool. Each menu item would be able to be bound to your own keystrokes, or left unbound. I'd keep, more or less, the current set (Cntl-I for inventory, Cntl-Shift-I for IM rather than cntl-T would be a change). This would be a massive nuisance for mentors, but there would be a default set that you then change if you must. It would be accessed via advanced options, probably in tools.
- A button binder tool: Every menu item would have a "create button" option (this would probably check to show you've got a button already out there). Clicking create button creates a button on the screen, right slap bang in the middle. There would be a button editor element here which would start "on" when you create a new button so you can move the button where you like. You want to use the sides of your screen for buttons, no problem. You want to use the top and bottom, no problem. You want hot corners with various clusters that suit you, no problem. You never use the build button, remembering Cntl-4 (or Cntl-B if you bind it that way) no problem, don't have a build button. The button editor would let you do some more things:
- You could make a "background" so like we currently have buttons on a grey background (or silver) you can create that around your cluster of buttons.
- You could edit the button - this would include uploading your own images, colouring the button and text as you choose, and editing the text. Want a red "INV" button for your inventory? No problem.
Does this give us more functionality? No, not yet. Second Life has a shed load of functionality already, for a lot of users the problem is accessing it, not that Second Life won't let them do it.
I'd be tempted to add some more bits:
- Photoshop lets you dock palettes, create your own tabbed palettes etc. Second Life should too. You should also be able to remove bits. This would give people like me that love it, a separate friends menu still for example. When building and scripting, I often flick between several tabs on the edit floater. I'd like to be able to tear them off and dot them around the screen. You don't want this? No worries, it's an option, not a necessity.
- Display options for IMs. Most IM clients I've seen use tabs across for different IMs, so keep that (although make it easy to tear them off, which we already have and I'm sure some people use). But the presentation is... dull. Let us skin that. Provide us with some common skins. I like black backgrounds and two-tone green writing, or green backgrounds and black writing. They both hurt some people. But you like the iChat look, well make that available (I'm gradually falling for it on the iPhone for SMS conversations I must admit). You want screaming red and teal on an orange background? OK, you can do that.
- Add in an option to set your font. The "SL font" isn't unpleasant, but working with dyslexic learners I quickly learnt there's no such thing as an ideal font. Some like clean, sans-serif fonts, others prefer serif fonts. Some like wide fonts, some like narrow fonts and so on. Like a lot of mac users I have a lot of fonts (about 1,000 at the last count) and whilst some of them are no good for Second Life, it should be my choice.
The whole point of this is to put options in the hands of each resident. My "perfect" interface probably looks nothing like yours. The colours, labels, fonts, positions and everything else are changeable to suit you.
I'm not abandoning the ideas from those who did enter the contest either. I'd lift Damien's idea of separate button sets or themes. I'll extend it and nick the rest from Apple and their spaces idea. I don't use spaces on my Mac, I'll admit, but the ability to define basically any number of skins that I want, brilliant. I'll have building, scripting, texturing, shopping, socialising etc. themes, all available at the click of a button or two.
Inventory needs a rebuild, and I'm just going to steal Jacek's idea as it currently sits there. It might not be the ultimate solution, but it's certainly a big step in the right direction. The yowling masses might moan that favourites will change - well kiddies, I think we're mostly grown ups here. If you change your favourites, change them. Make it easy to do. Apple's sidebar on finder windows is a miracle of ease of use, but that might be too much to aspire to just yet. But a simple right click item on folders to mark/unmark is easy enough. Don't like the idea because you're too lazy to keep it up to date? No problem, don't use it.
