UI inconsistency

Postings relating to old VirtualBox pre-releases
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JEBjames
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UI inconsistency

Post by JEBjames »

I kicked the tires with 5.2.0 beta 1 under Windows 10 Pro. I have an automated Ubuntu installer iso I made. Booted it up in a new VM and a few minutes later the whole OS was installed with my custom app selection, Tweaks, and the guest additions installed. Everything worked.

Oracle VirtualBox is one of my most favorite software programs. What follows is a critique of the GUI, with what is clearly labeled as a BETA.

Okay...so there's a little black downward pointing triangle beside "Machine Tools" and "Global Tools". Okay...great, so those are drop down menus. So I click the down triangle beside "Machine Tools" and a drop down appears. Okay, there's only two options, but I got this.

So I select "Snapshots" from the machine tools menu. And it opens snapshots. But I also have a new button at the top that says "Snapshots"? So I go back and select "Details" from the drop down menu. Now I have another button at the top that says "Details"? Clicking between the two acts like tabs and switches back and forth. Okay, so it's now a tabbed interface? But there's an X ... so it's not really a fixed tab because I could click (or mis-click) and remove the "tab" button?

So I select Snapshots again. Comfortable in knowing that at least I can fall back and use the the File menu to select Network Manger if I need it right?

So I select File->Host Network manager...and nothing happens. Because something in the "machine tools" menu is open, nothing related to Global tools works from the File menu?

Okay, so this time I accidentally clicked the main "Global Tools" part (not the down triangle part) and a "Welcome to virtualbox" screen with some text about the Media and network manager is here... I didn't really read it, just skimmed it (like most people) and then clicked "Host Network manager" in the middle of the screen which took me to that option...so now we have yet another way to go to the sub-options. At this point I decided I wanted to go back and read the whole text...so I clicked the "button" part of the Global tools (not the down triangle part)...but this now does nothing. To get back to that intro text page I have to "x" and close out the sub-menu tabs/buttons. Then go back and click the button part of "Global Tools" again.

In my opinion, the UI design here is needlessly complicated/inconsistent for basically 2 x 2 options.

Otherwise...Beta 1 seems pretty solid.

James
socratis
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Re: UI inconsistency

Post by socratis »

I'm sort of with you on this one. It doesn't seem to have a lot of logical connections.
  • The details and snapshots are per VM. And you select a VM on the left and you have the "specifics" on the right; Details and Snapshots. As in ... currently? Why is the new scheme better than the current one?
  • The HostOnly networks is on the Global Tools. Why not the NATservice as well? Why not keep it in the Preferences, since the Preferences is "sort of" globally applied settings? What's the improvement? Why does it have to appear in the same place as the per VM specifics? Why do I have VM1 selected and I see the global settings? Why if I have VM2 selected I see the same global settings in the VM-specifics area?
  • Why have two/three different ways to access the same thing? Are they going to be slowly phased out? If so, shouldn't they be phased out before the beta?
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Dsen
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Re: UI inconsistency

Post by Dsen »

Hey guys,
There are three main ideas behind the new Tools stuff:
1. The possibility to open every tool window/dialog as _embedded_ widget (good for touch interfaces).
2. The separate management for machine tools and global tools, to make sure people know that Virtual Media Manager for example is not for currently selected VM but for VBox in general.
3. The possibility to open/close/reorder tools in any layout user wish. You say there are just two of them per each group, but if there will be 5-10 per each group in next release that means something?
Overall idea is an investment into highly configurable touch-screen interface in the next major release, not everything can be done instantly.
Dsen
Oracle Corporation
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Re: UI inconsistency

Post by Dsen »

socratis wrote: [*]The details and snapshots are per VM. And you select a VM on the left and you have the "specifics" on the right; Details and Snapshots. As in ... currently? Why is the new scheme better than the current one?
It's not a new scheme, it's an improvement allowing to open/close unwanted tools. Not every user wish to have them all. As I mentioned above, now there are just two of them, there will be more. It's written in the tools description widget actually.
socratis wrote: [*]The HostOnly networks is on the Global Tools. Why not the NATservice as well? Why not keep it in the Preferences, since the Preferences is "sort of" globally applied settings? What's the improvement?
That was a common decision inside our project. Our network developers convinced me that Host Network management is different from the NAT networks because they are not purely a VBox entities but rather a host system related stuff which VBox allows to access.
socratis wrote: Why does it have to appear in the same place as the per VM specifics? Why do I have VM1 selected and I see the global settings? Why if I have VM2 selected I see the same global settings in the VM-specifics area?
Not sure I got what you mean, are you sure it's on the screen with VM specifics? It's on the global tools pane which is separate screen without other machine tools.
socratis wrote: [*]Why have two/three different ways to access the same thing? Are they going to be slowly phased out? If so, shouldn't they be phased out before the beta?
It's just another way of configuring interface for per-user needs. Nobody forces you to use it if you do not want. Each tool can be opened from the menu or by shortcut, and if you have some tool opened in the embedded way, you will not be able to invoke it as separate dialog until you close the embedded first.
ant
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Re: UI inconsistency

Post by ant »

Ditto on these issues. Its new icons are too big as well. :(
chinhodado
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Re: UI inconsistency

Post by chinhodado »

I just installed the latest version of VirtualBox and the new UI is so bad and unintuitive that I need to go here and vent. Why isn't the snapshot "tab" shown by default and instead hidden behind the "Machine Tools" drop down? Why are there option to close these tabs, especially the Details tab when you never want to close them anyway? (seriously, when do you NOT want to see a VM's detail when you click on it on the left panel?) Why are words underlined in the "Welcome to VirtualBox" and look ugly as hell? Why do you even need a "Global Tools" button when it can simply be a menu just like everything else?
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