[drats_users] [D-RATS] #25: Re-introduce Stations Tab

[Nate Duehr]

For those of us not using the mapping at all (sorry!) option 2 seems  
more intuitive.

--
Nate Duehr
Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 13, 2009, at 14:57, Dan Smith <dsmith at danplanet.com> wrote:

>> Versions 0.2 had a Stations Tab that would display a list of
>> stations received through D-RATS and indicate how long ago they
>> were last seen.
>
> I've been dancing around this for a while and I think it deserves some
> discussion to make sure it's done properly.
>
> I want to avoid adding a top-level stations tab that becomes a
> catch-all for remote operations.  Once we started holding actual
> performance-based training sessions here locally, it became quickly
> apparent that people do not think of going to the stations tab when
> they want to request a file or message.  Rather, they go to the file
> menu or forms tab and look around.  The 0.2.x placement made sense to
> me initially because I was going to request an object from a
> particular station, but I've seen enough people struggle with it in
> real use that I think it's the wrong way to represent those actions in
> the UI.
>
> Given the above, I think that dedicating a top-level tab to a simple
> list of stations and when they were last seen would be a little
> overkill.  Would you agree?
>
> I thought about integrating it into the Events tab somehow, but I
> think that would get too confusing and be similarly unintuitive.
>
> Some options are:
>
> 1. Try to integrate that into the map display.  This would mean that
>   stations in the list at the bottom of the map would have a "last
>   seen" column.  I don't really like this because lately people have
>   a lot of other stuff on their map which may leave a bunch of
>   instances of "Never" all over the place.
>
> 2. Add a "Stations" side-bar to the main window that can be hidden, if
>   desired.  This would likely show just the callsign with info if you
>   hover the mouse pointer over a station.  Perhaps a shortened
>   time-since string like "KK7DS (18 min)" or something would be
>   appropriate.
>
> I *think* that option #2 above would be my preference, but I'm not
> completely sure.  Should I work up a faked screenshot of it for
> comments and discussion?
>
> -- 
> Dan Smith
> dsmith#danplanet.com, s/#/@/
> www.danplanet.com
> KK7DS
> _______________________________________________
> drats_users mailing list
> drats_users at lists.danplanet.com
> http://lists.danplanet.com/mailman/listinfo/drats_users