D@sher Prototype - An adaptive, hierarchical radial menu.

[Slegarthoth]

Or perhaps the program can learn the operator's habits and always group things closest that he uses most? Then you could save profiles for each program he uses.

I am thinking not in terms of games here, but as a command system to replace short cut keys for pen driven interfaces.

[Slegarthoth]

Oh wait a sec... I just read your comment about learning. :)

Have you thought about making this open source? You could put it on Linux and you'd get teams of people working on it. :)

[Slegarthoth]

This looks incredible. When I see things like this, I feel like we are moving into a future stranger than anyone can imagine.

[KawazoeJapan]

This is very interesting, but It would be more natural to use with a mouse if you just stick with a point and click approach. The "Stir" approach is better for joysticks. The mouse is way more precise so you can use the space gained when getting in a sub menu more easily.

Try it that way, the more you're pointing close to the side of the circle, the deeper you are in sub menus.

[JunkerJames]

Thank you for an awesome comment!

I actually experimented with both ways. In the way you suggest, the mouse feels like a "magnifying glass". Unfortunately, it means that when you point quite far out, the very hierarchically deep arcs start to feel "slippery". Get deep enough & one pixel's movement can result in moving across several arcs at once!

Thus, the "travelling" approach is what I went for, BUT, it's absolutely possible to create a hybrid, where travel AND magnification are used.

[KawazoeJapan]

I see your point. It is indeed an issue that would need to be resolved.

[Slegarthoth]

So what is happening with this project? I followed your links and the comments stopped back in 2008.

From what I can tell, you have built a tree like structure to house your information. Is that right? I wonder if it is possible, instead of using a tree structure, to have nothing but probabilities of different types of things being found close to each other and thence visible to the operator?

[JunkerJames]

Thanks for the interest!

As it is, it's not very good code in of itself - really just prototype, rapid development stuff, so I don't think it'd be worth releasing.

The backend is not something I worked on very hard. I was more trying to figure out how to make the interface work in a nice way. Definitely worth talking to the university project which inspired this (in the side bar) about the predictive engine.

I had to stop because I got a job in the games industry.

[C418]

<3<3

[exender99]

omg my eyes are bleeding!

[JunkerJames]

stick 'em in saltwater.

[exender99]

Ahh, much better thanks. Here's the thing though, although this looks very cool, it's a radial menu with many nested layers of navigation. It's extremely hard conceptually for a layman user to know where to go and keep track of where they've been. I"m sure it's probably pretty fast to use once you've played with it a while, but it doesn't present players with a clear layout of their navigation hierarchy on the surface, so despite looking good...

[exender99]

as a user interface it it might not be ideal to navigate that many layers of selection options.

[JunkerJames]

Yep, you're right. Any interfaces have some learning curve. This is a prototype, and I'll be working on making it easier to get for the first timer.

Here's my thing though: do you think you could maybe put that kind of constructive feedback down before, rather than after, your equally well thought through put down? That'd be better.

[exender99]

As a user interface designer, first impression reactions provide you a mighty service. Valuable feedback is not always communicated in a way one would like. You dealt fairly with something you probably thought was a troll post and got something you hopefully perceived worthwhile out of it. I'd say that initial post was just as valuable in its way though. Two Cents. Good luck with your endeavor!

[traceur9]

I would say your first post was useless, but "E" for effort. Anyway, it was a cool interface, just doesn't seem very intuitive... I can't wait to see the improvements. (Just my perspective)

[PsychicTeeth]

that's looking hot man!

[stiggah]

Pretty cool!