Suggestion of a more intuitive UI design

[Larifari77]

I like and use JOSM a lot. After some time I understood the concept of use interaction. But I have experienced that many new users don't take the time to understand it and avoid using JOSM and contributing to OpenStreetMaps. And this is very sad as we really need more contributors.

Nowdays, most users expect a user interface that can be learned fast and intuitively, having fun with it. The simplest way to achive this is to apply their know-how from drawing applications they already know (MS-Office, OpenOffice, etc.). This should be easy, as OSM editing a sort of drawing and adding attributes.

The basic scheme could work as follows.

(0. Default edit mode is 'selection' (s)

1. Select a concrete object, you want to draw (Supermarket, Footway, Building, etc.), being a Node/Way with a minimum of essential keys set to represent something. Details are added later.
2. Draw the object. After finishing, the 'selection' mode is active again.
3. Edit additional properties of the object (by right-click or long-click, and/or in a dock widget as it is already implemented in JOSM). An appropirate dialog for intuitive editing can be determined by the already existing keys and values.

Generally, the context-menu is expected to edit attributes of the items below the curser (instead of using is to toggle global settings)

I really apreciate your work and I enjoy JOSM a lot. But it would be great if we could make it easyer for new users. 'We' means, that I would also work (discuss, code) for this aims, if you agree to theese needs.

Regards,
Larifari

[bastiK]

Replying to Larifari77:

I like and use JOSM a lot. After some time I understood the concept of use interaction. But I have experienced that many new users don't take the time to understand it and avoid using JOSM and contributing to OpenStreetMaps. And this is very sad as we really need more contributors.

I think most new users are trying PL 2 first, unless there is a JOSM user guiding them. So we can get away with being a bit more technical. :)

Nowdays, most users expect a user interface that can be learned fast and intuitively, having fun with it. The simplest way to achive this is to apply their know-how from drawing applications they already know (MS-Office, OpenOffice, etc.). This should be easy, as OSM editing a sort of drawing and adding attributes.

Totally agree, JOSM should be more intuitive and there is a lot of potential for improvement.

The basic scheme could work as follows.

(0. Default edit mode is 'selection' (s)

1. Select a concrete object, you want to draw (Supermarket, Footway, Building, etc.), being a Node/Way with a minimum of essential keys set to represent something. Details are added later.
2. Draw the object. After finishing, the 'selection' mode is active again.
3. Edit additional properties of the object (by right-click or long-click, and/or in a dock widget as it is already implemented in JOSM). An appropirate dialog for intuitive editing can be determined by the already existing keys and values.

It's a bit too vague for me, sounds like an advanced preset mode.

Generally, the context-menu is expected to edit attributes of the items below the curser (instead of using is to toggle global settings)

Let's compare it to Inkscape: There you can right click an object and select Fill and Stroke. This brings up a dock widget where you can edit the object properties. An alternative way (the JOSM way) would be to click Object > Fill and Stroke..., then left click the object, to select it.

I really apreciate your work and I enjoy JOSM a lot. But it would be great if we could make it easyer for new users. 'We' means, that I would also work (discuss, code) for this aims, if you agree to theese needs.

Great, I think it's good to have a vision, but small achievable steps would be better to really get something done. Obviously actual code is much more appreciated around here, than plain ideas, but if you can present a detailed and sound ui concept with fake screenshots, etc. your chances increase that someone implements this, or something similar.

[simon04]

Replying to Larifari77:

Generally, the context-menu is expected to edit attributes of the items below the curser (instead of using is to toggle global settings)

You made a good point here. Showing a sensible context-menu when right-clicking on objects could be a benefit. It remains to be discussed which entries to show there …

[akks]

I suggested a patch for MapFrame in #7450 that allow creation of components on top of MapView. We can put temporary docked widgets with some properties or controls there (after discussion, of course).