Here are my thoughts on some goals for the OpenCPN user interface (UI) of the future.
1. Use an evolutionary approach, no drastic changes to the
current UI.
2. Keep general UI style similar between touch screen and mouse.
3. Where possible, have equivalent functionality between touch and mouse. I know that it's hard to pinch with a mouse.
4. You can’t be all things to all people on all systems. What we need are some open ended tools that we can use to
mold OpenCPN to our individual, personality and system, needs.
The following are some ideas that I think may be useful:
1. Make both actions of the
single screen touch (single click) optional, the a. center screen and b. negate auto follow. This has already been discussed – Touch users have a hard time selecting an
AIS target.
2. Make context menus editable. As an example, when creating routes, using my tablet, I would like to be able to zoom in and out. I would like to add this to the chart context menu. I don’t use scale in/out so would deselect this. I don’t know if pinch would even work in route mode, but if so, “pinch” users might want neither and could reduce clutter.
3. One or more button(s) that can be set to represent one or more key presses or touches (except perhaps pinch). This will allow touch users to easily use shortcuts and function keys.
4. This is more or less an alternative to 3. A button to bring up a editable menu of shortcuts and Fn keys. a) Some soft keyboards don’t have the function keys (like mine) and b) even if the soft kbd has them they become “not so short” cuts for the touch user.
I realize that this is not an exhaustive list and there may be good reasons for not doing any or all of them
Discuss.