UX meeting agenda 22 June 2016

[stevencl]

• Tab context menu actions to open a new tab Tab context menu actions to open a new tab #7890 - @isidorn
• Double click on empty header area should open a new tab Double click on empty header area should open a new tab #7889 - @isidorn
• Multiple integrated terminal UX Multiple integrated terminal UX #7732 - @Tyriar
• Reconsider using the term "editor" for files and views on files Reconsider using the term "editor" for files and views on files #7903 - @gregvanl

[isidorn]

ping @Microsoft/vscode so interested people can join

[bpasero]

From me:

• View Menu : UX Ideas View Menu : UX Ideas #7700
• Cmd + number should focus editor at index and not focus groups or split Cmd + number should focus editor at index and not focus groups or split #7647

We should also discuss progress on:

• Find widget does not blend well when tabs enabled Find widget does not blend well when tabs enabled #7649
• Wrong input box color in dark theme Wrong input box color in dark theme #7648

[Tyriar]

Additional:

• Close panel 'x' button should be a minimize button '_' Close panel 'x' button should be a minimize button '_' #7932
• @gregvanl is wanting to do an early preview of terminal docs, this will be blocked until new terminal and close terminal buttons are determined (assuming a simple dropdown is going in for June).

[dbaeumer]

I can't join however if you have time: do we need to have a global progress indication in the workbench. I am working on a builder for TS and want to report progress. I started to have my own TS specific status bar item, however if we have more builders then we will end up with quite some status items to show progress.

[Tyriar]

Multiple terminals discussion

• Tabs
  • Tabs would be more useful if there were notifications on the tabs
  • They take up a lot of space and have a heavy feel
• Dropdowns
  • Let's keep it consistent for now with the output panel
  • Adding numbers to the dropdown makes it easier to orient yourself
• Making the terminal view more flexible
  • Open the terminal as an editor tab?
    • This could make things very messy
    • No longer a way to consistently pull up the central terminal panel as you can now
  • Make panels more flexible? Allow multiple panels to be displayed at once #7161
    • Adding the ability to position panels like VS could make vscode feel more heavy
    • There are 4 panels now and more will likely be added, it's becoming more difficult to know what's going on in the hidden ones
• Add telemetry to create new terminal instance Add telemetry to create new terminal instance #8011

Decision

Go with the current panel model approach and dropdown for now, add some telemetry to gauge usage.

[stevencl]

There are notes summarising what we discussed in all of the issues listed above.

In addition, we agreed that the UX team should start an exploration on overhauling panels and viewlets. We need to avoid simply adding bloat, but we also need to consider how best to accommodate new panels such as the terminal, error list etc.