My second iteration feedback

I will start with big things:

Problem - Layout save/load system is cumbersome and not ux friendly.
Solution - Layout Tabs
Layout tabs should persist between sessions (no need to manually save every time you made a change), be a quick workspace you create yourself for various tasks.
You can rename them, better if you can assign icons to them.

Example -






Problem - Inspector UX is based around scrolling through massive amounts of components, or constant collapse / expand of said components, slowing the workflow and hindering productivity.
Solution - Component outliner mode
Component outliner as an optional mode, which snaps the list of components on the game object at the top of the inspector (and stays there when scrolling) allowing you to (multi) select components you are currently editing and isolate them. It should be a simple selection / arrangement tool.

Example -




Problem - Console is as a window is a constant pain in the UX, anywhere you dock it, it's not perfect. If you need to read something you have to either maximize the whole console (it's the quickest, however buggy way as it tends to get stuck if you do it with hotkeys), or constantly move other panels to expand it.

Solution - Integrated console
Integrated console is an optional mode for the console that allows it to be at a single place (bottom of the screen) as one liner, which can be expanded on click when you need it.
As a cherry on top would be nice to have an input field for editor commands (since it's a console after all).

Console closed -


Console after you click on it



Problem - sliders feel imprecise, and lack functional load to quickly make judgements.
Solution - Informative sliders


Such slider feels precise due to the thumb sprite, and they show functional information, about range, and mid point. Would be nice if that was configurable.



Problem - Working with massive amounts of assets with *the same name, in the same folder* can be almost impossible due to one panel Project layout not showing file extensions.
Imagine this scenario (which is so common to me it forced me to write a tool) - you are juggling same texture in different formats, say tga/png/psd/tiff, they all look the same, and are impossible to differentiate unless you click each one, look at the asset preview window, and search there for extension (if present).

Solution - show extension in project pane
I wont mock a picture to show the idea as i already implemented it here https://github.com/pointcache/unity-file-extension





Problem - No dedicated selection tool.
Solution - Dedicated selection tool. Currently unity assumes that its transform tool is a good selector in any situation, which brought many tears to my eyes at many occasions. Working with small objects, or dense prefabs with many subobjects where the transform gizmo quite literally overlaps the whole sub object making it's selection impossible. A selection tool should be present as a default, there is a reason it's present in any professional 3d package.
As a cherry on top you can add a context menu to it, that shows a list of all objects under the cursor, similar to how photoshop layers selection works.

These were the major ux points that were born through repetitive pain and tears over the years of using unity, i am pretty sure i have more i haven't recalled but these are the top list i have.

Minor issues -

* Mouse polling rate degrades editor performance when click dragging anywhere.
* Tool buttons (move/rotate) don't cancel if you click -> hold -> move mouse away -> release. It still gets pressed.

 

Major +1 from me to all your points.

 

+1

 

All good points. The component outliner is a straight upgrade.

 

Agreed, those would all be upgrades. I really like the component outliner idea. There's just one thing that I said a ton of times to them (the idea is not mine though).

They could make the "File/Edit" menu, the "Unity version/close" line and the Console and make it an all in one, therefore giving some extra vertical screen space.

 

I really don't understand how an open source Blender 2.8 Exists and nobody (except people from UX world) praise it and learn from it. There are so many things well thought out and designed correctly in Blender 2.8 from both UX and UI standpoint.

I don't get the arrogance that claims Unity workflow somehow differs from Blender, while the latter is 10 times more Complex i.e. was harder to pull out, yet it's way better. Not to mention that Unity is heading to that direction anyway (more timelines, node editors, modeling tools etc).

To be clear, there are so many things wrong with unity's UX(even with this new one coz it's actually the same as the old one) that I don't think that it's right to provide those tiny fixes (bandaids) via feedback through forums. It's not our job to provide functional prototypes because you guys are a commercial company.

Even the accent color(blue) is wrong and random. No UX science and thought behind it. An I don't accept the argument behind "Familiarity" lol, because again Blender 2.8 case destroys that argument till the end of the time.
The first Unity UI proto that was shown on ECS or GDC(not sure which one) was much more promising. But again there is no actual UX overhaul, nothing actually systematically new here. Also, it's just plain demagogy to ask people in the survey about "is new UI better than the old one?" technically yes but in reality, it's mostly the same sh*t.

I don't get how or why people are so agreeable about it neither do I understand the "provide solutions or gtfo" rhetoric. "If you can't say something nice, don't say it at all" is a moronic way of approaching at things. It's not hating it's criticism.

p.s. Nothing against solutions provided by OP, those are some nice ideas. All I'm saying it's not how the UI/UX overhaul works. It's the same old flawed UX design with flatter UI and pips like OP are trying to play around it to somehow make it better.
So that's wrong, I'm not going to contribute my time or effort into something that's fundamentally wrong. Unless you want to end up with something like Maya (I can link at least 3 major UX case studies explaining why it's UX sucks and what lead to that so don't jump on me)

 

My understanding was that the current UI work being done is only an intermediate step. A more extensive UI/UX overhaul is coming further down the road, if I understood correctly...

Also, it would probably be better to outline specific issues you have with the UI as it is now. Just saying it's all bad doesn't really give them much to go on. They need to be pointed to specific areas that are a problem so they can focus on them.

Plus, it's all subjective really. Everyone has their opinion about what makes for good UI/UX. There are those that actually like everything the way it is now. The Unity guys try to please everyone at once, which is not easy / impossible. That's why threads like these are good. They let peeps at Unity know what things are important to the majority of us so they can focus more on those items and make them the best they can be.

 

I never said it's all bad. The post is right there, right away first thing you do is misinterpret my words. What is this CNN? Nobody can be in the opposite camp and say that Unity's UX sucks overall?
I said there are "so many issues". And it's demagogy to ask me to prove my point by outlining everything that's wrong with Unity's UX. And you know that. You're just trying to exploit that to win the argument before there is an argument. ANY and I mean ANY professional UX design team consisting of 3-4 professionals could outline it for them. I'm not going to outline a 20-page design document for Unity to prove my point. I'm not even going to try to prove it. I'm expressing it instead. To be the "told ya" guy in 5 years.

Anyway UX design is a profession. UI design is another profession. All I said was that this is not a new UX, it's not even a new UI it's just a "flat design" pass over it(a pretty mediocre one btw). These are facts.

And no, nobody ever said that this is an intermediate step, that's also your perspective on it. Tbh nobody does UX overhaul with intermediate(so-called Agile) steps, the ones who do it, fail miserably all the time. An overhaul is an overhaul. That's also a fact not a point of view.
And it's a classic saying that "one can't please everyone"... nobody ever said that one should try to please everyone, but that doesn't mean one should ignore UX rules, theories etc. Again Blender 2.8 vs 2.7 enough said. There are people who still love Windows XP UI/UX. They are proven to be wrong.
Also who are "those" you mentioned who like Unity's UX? Please provide data or a study where it says that the majority of Unity users like Unity's UX. Also, please provide a proof(data) that they actually understand the difference between UX and UI. Their demographics, Experience.. cuz that's how you measure "those" if you're serious about it.

p.s. no, it's not subjective, UX is a discipline based on actual proven theory and rules behind it. It's not about someone's taste. UI on the other hand sometimes might be more subjective but UI can be modified at ease, or even solution-split as custom themes, but not UX. And instead of arguing right away, cuz I assume I'm the UX designer between two us, try to agree with me for 1 month and look at it from that perspective. If that won't change your mind, at least you will have much more solid argument to prove it.

 

Solution - Layout Tabs

+1







And for the slider I would put it on the other side of the numbers, so in this case you put the values on top then I would put the indicator on the bottom so they won't overlap.

 

PendingFox, I think you'd do better by showing us where the UX and the UI have flaws. Even because the UX and the UI teams on Unity might look at this thread and say - "Hey, I didn't think of that. Might just add it as well.". I know, it's probably not happening, but it's worth a try, isn't it? You're making everyone's lives easier/better by giving Unity a chance to improve. Plus, it's free.

I'd also like to say, Unity could add a way of enabling/disabling an object through the Hierarchy tab itself. It's a pain to keep switching between the Hierarchy tab and the Inspector, especially when they're far away from each other.

That's an opinion of mine, but it would be a nice addition. They could make it so that the GameObject/Prefab icons at the Hierarchy work as an enabled/disabled switch. It'd make work just that much faster.

 

+1 on layout tabs.

I think I am moaning about that feature since I tried UE4.

But I think that Unity have to make tabs similar to UE4 top-hierarchy tabs, not actual layout tabs.

Let me explain. With 2018.3 they shipped Nested Prefabs, and I think it would be cool to actually pin any window (Shader Graph, Prefab Editor, Animator) as the top tab. So it won't be so clunky. We still will have a main tab with scene view and other stuff (project files, inspector, console), and we will have a possibility to clean our workspace.

 

By the way in the 2019 you can assign shortcuts to layouts, I use this to quickly switch between layouts

 

that is indeed a good thing, however i doubt it can be useful when everyone has to memorize binds, plus when (like in my case) most of the kb is already bound to editor commands and scripts, would be hard to find free keys.

 

This is what I had sent to them as feedback :

Feel free to add/advise. Was considering making mockups in Photoshop but I'll leave that for later

• Add Discord chat to Help
• X to close tabs instead of right click (on hover of that tab)
• Bold selected section in Inspector
• Space bar key to open context menu on click in window (Right-click)
• On hover of variables like Clipping Planes, decrease and increase arrows to appear and allow for ease of changing values
• Rounded edges for value boxes
• Hand and transformation tools and the rest of them can be placed vertically in Scene view on the left-most side.
• Bring Unity title/File name/Minimize/Maximize/Close down to same level as Main Menu to save vertical space
• Move Main Menu to where Transform tools were
• Underline first letter of every dropdown box option to indicate shortcut by pressing that key
• Lots of vertical space that can be used(Allowing for more options in Inspector to be seen)
• About Unity -> Credits should be scrollable
• Asset Store should be beside Collab (Store Conversion rates will increase for sure)
• Buttons like 2D, Audio toggle
• Unity logo shifted to left of 'File'
• Tooltips for everything else E.g. Transform -> Tooltip to remind about simple arithmetic operations like 150 * 23 , 583 + 938
• Tooltip with low delay for Play button with <CHANGES MADE IN PLAY MODE WILL NOT BE SAVED>
  
  Last resort(Build Unity in Electron ;P)(Look at Figma, enabling both web and offline use)(Adoption will sky-rocket)

 

Layout tabs ( buttons )

Ok I really wanted to have buttons to switch between layouts, and with the help of free assets I could make this:

I will share in another video how I did it.

It works with unity 2018.3
In 2019 there are some changes that broke it, but I'm pretty sure those can be fixed

 

I actually made a post about this a while ago, right here
https://forum.unity.com/threads/better-containerwindows.571861/

I'm all in favor of things like this. Blender 2.8 has what is essentially what is proposed here as Layout Tabs, and I love it for Blender, but for Unity I still think it would work better the way UE4 does. I feel it even more so as all the new features and workflows come into the mix.

 

Well, it could be an optional editor setting. Personally, I don't have strong feelings about it. It's not something so critical in workflow that it needs to be done in less clicks, so I'm quite happy with being able to right-click to close it. It's intuitive enough for any user, I guess, as the first thing you do when you realize the interface doesn't activelly show you something you can do to it is right-click it to see what else you can.

 

You can use middle mouse button to close.

 

Oh yeah, I was sure I forgot about something.

 

How did you add those buttons next to the play buttons?

 

Its a combination of these tools

Toolbar extender
https://github.com/marijnz/unity-toolbar-extender

Layout exporter
https://unitylist.com/p/hfu/Unity-Layout-Exporter

I modified toolbar extender buttons to load a layout when pressed.
string path = Path.Combine(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), "Assets/Editor/Layouts/Layout1.wlt");
EditorUtility.LoadWindowLayout(path);

Its working under 2018.4 but I did not get it working in 2019 yet.

 

Layout tabs. Or something like it. Please Different tasks need different layouts to maximize efficiency, and the current way is too cumbersome.

 

We might be getting this at some point. There was a Hackweek project that focused on exactly this.

Video demonstrating it - https://twitter.com/willgoldstone/status/1145695562156716033