Collapsible Groups

For target practice, here is a screenshot of collapsible groups using several different Qt styles:

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Comments

Dear Tim:
Okay after having looked at the collapsible groups for a bit... they look too much like the other buttons (Cut plane for instance). Could the collapsible groups have a slightly different look from the buttons? Not sure what that would be...raise style?... color? slightly smaller (vertically)? Not sure...

• Bnwylie 17:41, 27 Jul 2006 (EDT)

There is a problem with layout margins. The right side of the group of widgets goes right to the edge. There should be some margin to help the user. (Don't forget the style guide for object inspector panels).

With the current colapsible group, it is difficult to tell what is in the group. The mechanism worked in designer because it looked like a tree view. The indent was sufficient to form the group. That doesn't work as well with a bunch of widgets. I liked the previous collapsible group that was based on the group box. It gave a clear indication of what was in the group. It was also familiar to users. Even the expand/collapse button was somewhat familiar. It was similar to a window's minimize/maximize button. I think a slightly more descriptive icon is needed for the button. The icon could have a group box behind the arrow, which could be expanded or collapsed based on the state.

--Mark Richardson 18:51, 27 Jul 2006 (EDT)

Windows Xp has a nice collapsible group that I noticed the other day. They have a version that is distinguished by color. The group was a lighter blue than the panel background. This wouldn't work very well in our grey panels. They have another one that used the same color background with an outline. We should probably follow this design for our collapsible groups. With our grey background we can use a dark grey line to draw around the group and title box. We would need a button in the left of the title box to open and close the group. Xp's button looks nice and would be familiar to users.

--Mark Richardson 12:52, 16 Aug 2006 (EDT)