GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 693840
Don't show skipped steps in wizard
Last modified: 2016-03-31 13:22:07 UTC
Although I appreciate the step-by-step nature of the wizard to configure a new VM, the whole process has a very cumbersome workflow. Please see the attached screenshots and the description in each picture. * setup-1.png: (the Create a Box page) Okay, I just selected an .iso file. I want to add more memory for the VM! I'll select Customize... * setup-2.png: (the System page) OK, so I adjust the memory for my VM. The items on the left look like I should expect a "Next/Previous" set of buttons on the top-right, but there are none. By chance I see that I can actually click on "Login", "Display", etc. And then I notice that all the options in Login/System/Display/Devices could fit in a single screen, since there is plenty of space. What do these do? [the CPU/IO/Net thingies in the bottom-left] They are always off! * setup-3.png: (the Login page) By chance I notice that I can click here [on the Login/Name label] to change my VM's name. Nothing indicates that this is a changeable parameter. * setup-4.png: (the Display page) SPICE: what does that mean? Do I care? Resize guest: what does that mean? * setup-5.png: (the Devices page) USB redirection: what does this mean? Will my mouse not work in the VM if I leave this off? ... and now that I am in the last page, how do I go back to creating my VM? Oh, you are supposed to click this! (the button on the top bar) * After clicking the button on the *top-left* to exit the Customize pages, I need to find the Create button on the *top-right* to actually create my VM. This is a lot of visual scanning, mousing around, and mental-context-switching that one needs to do.
Created attachment 236149 [details] setup-1.png
Created attachment 236150 [details] setup-2.png
Created attachment 236151 [details] setup-3.png
Created attachment 236152 [details] setup-4.png
Created attachment 236153 [details] setup-5.png
To summarize: * Before entering the Customize mode, there are unclickable items on the leftmost sidebar (which indicate steps to take), and Previous/Next buttons on the top right of the screen. * In Customize mode, the leftmost sidebar lists the various customization pages, and those items *are* clickable. There are no Previous/Next buttons on the top right. * There is a lot of wasted space in the Customize pages. Options could be explained better. * The VM's name is not in a GtkEntry, but in a clickable label, so it's not obvious that you can actually click it to change the name. * It's not obvious at all how to exit Customize mode. * Once one exits Customize mode (by clicking on the top-left of the screen), one must make the mental switch to "I'm in a paged wizard again", find the Create button in the top-right, and mouse around what seems like a lot.
Many good points here. (In reply to comment #6) > * Before entering the Customize mode, there are unclickable items on the > leftmost sidebar (which indicate steps to take), and Previous/Next buttons on > the top right of the screen. > > * In Customize mode, the leftmost sidebar lists the various customization > pages, and those items *are* clickable. There are no Previous/Next buttons on > the top right. While the mockup* had the monitor insensitive, to indicate its existence and keep the same layout of the properties page, only signifying the box isn't "alive", it might be better not to have it at all in here. While we use the sidebar for both indication and selection, I would say the selection makes that distinction clear. We could perhaps do better. * https://raw.github.com/gnome-design-team/gnome-mockups/master/boxes/boxes-install5.5.png > * There is a lot of wasted space in the Customize pages. Options could be > explained better. The layout is way too wide indeed. We need to contain the controls inside a box not unlike the previous steps of the assistant. I don't like to be descriptive on the controls though. I lean strongly towards using tighter labels + tooltips than being verbose. > * The VM's name is not in a GtkEntry, but in a clickable label, so it's not > obvious that you can actually click it to change the name. > > * It's not obvious at all how to exit Customize mode. While it is a new pattern, it is the only button on the toolbar to get back. But yea, perhaps something to test further. > * Once one exits Customize mode (by clicking on the top-left of the screen), > one must make the mental switch to "I'm in a paged wizard again", find the > Create button in the top-right, and mouse around what seems like a lot. That was the whole point of not doing this *optional* customization part of the assitant. We opted to use the same UI we have for box properties. Clearly you're not a fan, but this is "under the hood" stuff we need for edge cases. Mostly defaults should work.
(In reply to comment #7) > > While the mockup* had the monitor insensitive, to indicate its existence and > keep the same layout of the properties page, only signifying the box isn't > "alive", it might be better not to have it at all in here. > > While we use the sidebar for both indication and selection, I would say the > selection makes that distinction clear. We could perhaps do better. I think the sidebar is fine for showing a multi-step wizard, *but*: 1. You start the create-a-box process with "Introduction" highlighted in the sidebar, and an introductory text in the middle. (BTW, it took me a while to realize that the "hologram" graphic was not torn/broken due to a drawing bug; it actually looks like that on purpose. Maybe we could lose the torn appearance and just make it look more "interlaced"?) 2. You hit Continue and, predictably enough, the sidebar advances to "Source Selection". I select my source. 3. The sidebar automatically advances through "Preparation" and "Setup" *really quickly*, and stops at "Review", where it actually lets me do something. I think "Preparation" and "Setup" could be removed. If Boxes needs to do something between "Source Selection" and "Review", it can show a "please wait" intermediate screen. Having "Preparation"/"Setup" is a bit confusing since I can never manually go to them. Then I hit Customize while in the Review page, and the sidebar changes its purpose. It doesn't even start with the *first* of its selectable items selected; it starts with the second one, like this: Login [System] Display Devices I found out by chance that you can actually click on those items; they don't even prelight to show an affordance. When I go to Customize, I would expect the big area on the right of the sidebar to become the Customization section. Make the widgets compact and they can all fit in one page, or put some notebook tabs or something if they don't fit. It could present all the options there are right now like this: Name: [openSUSE 12.2 ] (an obviously editable GtkEntry) Memory: [------o--------------] Disk size: [------o--------------] [ ] Share clipboard [ ] Make the window resizable [ ] Make USB devices available The other three things in the various pages are things I cannot change, and I'm not sure if the fact that they are selectable makes them useful: Virtualizer: qemu+unix:///session URI: spice://localhost?port=0; Protocol: SPICE ("wtf do I do with those strings?") :) > > * It's not obvious at all how to exit Customize mode. > > While it is a new pattern, it is the only button on the toolbar to get back. > But yea, perhaps something to test further. It *may* work better if the drilldown were indicated by the whole contents of the Boxes window sliding to the left every time you take a step. Right now each step has a cross-fade into the next, so it doesn't feel like you are going in any particular direction. If they slid to the left, I may be inclined to look for something looking like a left-hand arrow to go back. Or on thinking about this twice, the Review page that has the Customize button is pretty empty itself. It only contains Will create a new box with the following properties: System: openSUSE 12.2 Memory: 1.0 GiB Disk: 20 GiB maximum [Customize...] all surrounded by a huge amount of whitespace. You could get rid of "Customize" altogether and make the Review page contain all the options in a compact arragement like what I scribbled above. > That was the whole point of not doing this *optional* customization part of the > assitant. We opted to use the same UI we have for box properties. Clearly > you're not a fan, but this is "under the hood" stuff we need for edge cases. > Mostly defaults should work. Is one able to change those parameters once the VM is created, maybe even while it is running? An indication that that is possible (or not) would be more reassuring. Right now I don't know if I'll be able to change anything afterwards, so for safety I feel compelled to go into Customize to see if anything will bite me in the ass later :)
(In reply to comment #8) > (In reply to comment #7) > > 3. The sidebar automatically advances through "Preparation" and "Setup" *really > quickly*, and stops at "Review", where it actually lets me do something. > > I think "Preparation" and "Setup" could be removed. If Boxes needs to do > something between "Source Selection" and "Review", it can show a "please wait" > intermediate screen. Having "Preparation"/"Setup" is a bit confusing since I > can never manually go to them. I take it that you are basing this entirely on your experience with an OS for which we don't support express installation cause on setup you get options to configure your install. Currently only Fedora, Windows XP and Windows 7 are supported. For rest, we just skip this step. Perhaps we shouldn't show the page (in the sidebar) at all when its not relevant? About Preparation step, that can go quickly if things it does happen very quickly. Now it even does driver download which can potentially take a while and we should be showing progress bar for that and all info we already have gathered (OS logo, name etc). If you choose a media from the media menu all 'preparation' has already been done so in that case preparation is guaranteed to go very fast. So perhaps for this step as well, we can hide the page if preparation is not needed?
As per comment#9.
Yeah, hide them if they are not needed. Or show a little "Not needed for this OS" label below them once Boxes learns about the system I'll be installing. (All SLED or openSUSE, BTW.)
Federico, Could you please divide this into individual bugs?
Yes, will do. I hope you don't mind it if the UI has changed since this bug was filed; I haven't kept up to 3.10.
Filed these bugs: Bug 720786 - "Customize" looks like a wizard, but acts differently. Bug 720788 - VM name label is editable, but doesn't look editable. Bug 720792 - It is not clear what some toggles do. Bug 720793 - Customize mode could make better use of space.
(In reply to comment #11) > Yeah, hide them if they are not needed. Unfortunately there could be ISOs that Boxes doesn't know about and user can then use 'Select a file' or 'Enter URL' options to use them. Since we can't assume anything about those ISOs, I don't think this is a good idea. > Or show a little "Not needed for this > OS" label below them once Boxes learns about the system I'll be installing. I don't think there is any need for that. I don't think it annoys users that we skip the setup.