"Communicate" Window: eeeeee!!!

ok this new thing is make kittens AND baby Jesus cry - and me too for that matter.

Why can we not just have:

-Chat History be a separate box like it was
-Friends list back how it was
-IM box back how it was
???

If I want fancy "communicate" window - it should be its own separate box/option shouldn't it?

Why is everything all mashed together - and so HUGE and take up half my screen???

Why??

I pretty much dread anytime I get IM notification now, and feel like crying when I have to IM someone.

So much for "optional" voice
and
WHAT is with that silly sound level toggle on the bottom of the screen that do NOT go away when you opt out of voice???

It is almost as bad as havng the "stand up" button right in the middle of you screen - really lovely for those who use posing studios to take pics for their businesses.

anything that takes up screen space gratuitously = bad bad bad!

*cries still looking for crying smiley*

I got the IM window to separate from the big, stupid communicate window. I wish to hell I remember exactly how I did it, but once I did, I was able to close the communicate window and resize the IM window back down to it's former size. Basically, I got frustrated with the huge IM/Communicate window blocking my view of the screen, so i started hitting buttons. I had the IM window up and I know it had something to do with the buttons in the upper right hand side of the window. Once it separated, I just dragged it to where I normally had it (top center) and resized it down, then closed the communicate window. It almost made things look normal. when SL froze a few minutes later, then crashed, I felt like I was back home.

No solution for chat history or friends list, but there's a link somewhere on here about how to go back to the old interface.

I wonder if I could buy a second screen, rig both of them together and run all of the chat and Hud crap on it, while I run around in SL on the other. That would be a pretty expensive solution, but some of my buddies who play a lot of online poker have multiple screens so they can play multiple tables at once...degenerates. It might be possible.

It's quite possible to run SL on a dual monitor setup...there's a thread in the Tech forum on this, I think.

I tried it last night. The wide, wide vistas were impressive! Two problems, though:

1. The distortion of objects toward the edges of the view is twice as bad as it is for a single widescreen monitor. The moon elongates until it looks like a football.

2. Your avatar is positioned at the center of the screen, so she's always right where the edges of your two monitors come together.

And finally, you can't tear off a window and drag it outside the main UI, as you are suggesting. It'd be way cool if you could, though...you could position the Communicator window, your Inventory, and all your HUDs over on the second monitor.

In the Communicate window, on the Near Me tab, click the little squares button under the X.

I agree. If I wanted to be in a traditional chatroom why would I bother with SL? This is exactly why I haven't downloaded the new viewer. Glad it's optional for now but I know that wont be for long. I hope they listen and correct this before it's required.

One of the phenomona associated with user interface design is first system bias, meaning that people often develop a preference for the first interface they've learned, and find any significant changes frustrating. This can happen even if it's clear that new users prefer the second to the first.

Now it's premature for me to say whether I think the new design is better or worse than the old one, but it seems highly likely to change anytime soon. So I suggest people think about whether their opinions are based merely on habit or because there's a concrete difference that makes something harder, more error prone, or take more steps. Give it a chance. And learn to use the tear-off IM windows (which existed in the previous version as well).

For me, I realized quickly that whenever I brought up the Friends window, I almost always would either dismiss it (if the person I wanted wasn't online) or else start an IM. And, in fact, I'd often use the groups/friends list in the IM window instead, but found it annoying because of the groups listed first. So separating out the groups and friends in what used to be the New IM tab is certainly an improvement for me. I'll withhold judgment on the changes in the friends layout, or the loss of the friends button from the bottom tool bar. For now, I'll give it a chance.

I honestly don't understand why everybody's in such a tizzy over the communication window. It's not all that difficult to minimize the window between IM's. Heck, I kinda *like* being able to use tabs within one window to toggle between my friends list and chat history. It's not unbearable.

So it's a little different. Y'all will learn to cope.

Why should we have to cope when we didn't ask for it to begin with?

I posted a hack to make the IM window small again:

/142/8f/201571/1.html

Am I the ONLY one on these forums that LIKES the communicate layout? Strange how I like the new design, from a professional designers perspective, but so many people claim to hate it.

*EDIT: ahhhh, there ARE some people on my side. I regret I didn't read all the posts before I posted. But I still think it's an overwhelming sentiment.


/shrugs

Well this is my solution to the issue - http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-1917 (namely a patch to make the Friend and Groups items, or their short cut keys, in the Edit menu open seperate windows)

and I know the other Open Sourcers such as Nicholaz Beresford are also working on alternatives.

Matthew

I liked it better when it told me when someone was typing ^^

Well, as many have said the Friends list being a vertical list makes sense if it is tall and thin. The tabbed IM windows make sense if they are short and wide.

A good example of this in action can be found at http://www.seal-cove.com/chatterbox/

There is also a more philosophical issue behind the new UI, namely that for me the SL viewer as a whole is the communication media - the raison d'etre of SL is that it is an immersive communication medium and that all components of the enviroment (visual, audio, spatial, etc) are equally important integrated components of that communication.

The new UI seems very much driven by the idea of "lets create a skype like application within the SL viewer" and as a result it starts segragating these different components components of communication and breaks the unity between them; worse it enforces this seperation onto the user rather than providing an experience where the user moves naturally between them without even noticing - and for me, that goes against the entire philosophy behind virtual 3D environments.

And that is fundamentally, why I think the new UI has had such a negative reaction. There are some nice features in there, such as the ability to see the list of all people involved in a group IM session, but the fundamental motivation and philosophy behind the new UI is wrong (IMHO).

Matthew

Well the issue is, for me at least, that I have a screen setup that i've used since I started SL, my chat history in a window down on the lower left, my IM windows (note plural) open on the upper left. I have a steady stream of information coming at me from the chat window, who's leaving and entering my sim, what rental boxes are due for rental, and many other object IM notifications. I spend a lot of time in IM helping customers. It's just unrealistic to expect me to either A) ignore all the chat going on while I am in IM, or B, break off chat history and have a completely huge IM window I can't slim down. Now that i've found a way to slim down the IM window (/142/8f/201571/1.html) I am relatively happy. Perhaps people who don't have a lot going on would be happy with the new layout. I have too much multitasking going on NOT to have multiple windows open, and I can't afford to take up 2/3 of my screen with it.

Now I do have to say I like the little chat input bar on the History window. So it's not a total negative.

I don't understand the hassle...you can tear off whatever windows you want--this at least solves one of your problems.

You can't tear off the Friends list or Groups list - hence my patch to open these as seperate windows via the edit menu.

Matthew

You can tear off individual IM windows, but not the (for lack of a better term) Master IM window. Each time a new IM comes in, it's back to the Communicate window. So there's little choice but to keep that window open.

Most of us AREN'T profession artiste' types. We look at some of the crap that rolls out of marketing departments and art schools and cringe.

I flat out won't use it, period, end of sentence. Another online game that knew best tried this a while back, all sorts of unwanted and unnecessary changes (you might have heard of the SWG-NGE revision?) I complained as did others, got ignored, left and never looked back. No game is WORTH subjecting yourself to a constant irritation and as much as I care for SL, I won't deal with this interface day in and day out.

I'm in the 'love it' camp.

I build non-stop all day. Instead of chat history and im windows and edit screens, I can keep the one window up in the corner and flip tabs as needed.

If I really need the near me out sep, I can. I have one place to go to see who is online and handle all the friends list tasks quickly and easily.

The new interface simplifies my life and takes up *less* real estate on my screen for the same functionality. I used the First Look client as much as possible simply to have access to the new interface.

I will also point out that I generally *hate* change to the tools I use.

Char
Char

I'll bet every single person who "loves" the new Communicate tool is someone who haalways runs SL in at least a 1024 x 768 window, or full-screen on a large monitor. Try running SL in an 800 x 600 window, and then tell me how much you love losing 50% or more of your vision every time that damned Chatterbox opens!

I've happily gone back to the former SL Client, and have accellerated my plans to buy a completely new system, with at least a 19" monitor and a freakishly over-powered video card, just so I'll still be able to use SL once they force this on us as the only available Client.

Hmmm...yes there is a lot of bad design--just go to China Town in Manhattan some day...or you could just walk around the grid sometime. I, however, am a good designer in my humble opinion (and fellow design-head friends' opinions). Regardless what you seem to perceive, there are a large number of GREAT designers in RL and in SL...and you can bet LL has a lot of GREAT designers, coders, and thinkers involved. Look what they've done so far to the SL universe...I think they've pleased a lot of folks. There is nothing "bad designy" about the new patch...and if you for some reason have to belittle my opinion because I DID go to school for design, that's your choice...I can only tell you what I've learned, and what I perceive.

And quite honestly, by your attitude, I don't think we'd miss your company if you left. Sorry.

See, there really WAS some good that came out of this patch--you upgraded. Now you can be in the NOW, not the THEN.



Also, what in the name of Sam Elliot are you doing in 800 * 600 still? Are you on a 486?

Amen to that. If you're playing in that LOW of a resolution, you seriously need to upgrade your system or get a bigger monitor. You can get a 19" LCD monitor off of newegg.com for like $150.

Mike is right. All us who didn't study art, graphic design, computer programming, business management,electronic engineering, nuclear physics, quantum mechanics, and the writings of Nitzshe should get the Hell out of Second Life. How dare we impose ourselves on the virtual elite. And let's not even mention people who may actually *gasp* do physical work for a living.

OMG *falls over laughing*