Mini project 2023: Improving Single-Window GUI user experience

Title:	Improving Single-Window GUI user experience
Student Name:	Linda Kladivova
Organization:	​OSGeo - Open Source Geospatial Foundation
Mentor Name:	Anna Petrasova, Martin Landa, Vaclav Petras
GitHub Repository:	​view repository
Budget:	1000 € (via GRASS GIS ​Student Grants)

Abstract

The project builds on the discussion with users and the usability testing of a new and old GUI, which took place in April 2022. The proposed work can be divided into two main topics - the reorganization of the Console pane and the implementation of the ability to undock a map window. Additionally, the project plans to address the topic of saving Single-Window GUI layouts to workspaces.

Goal

The core part of the work will be devoted to reorganizing the Console pane and implementing the ability to undock a map window. The first topic lies in ensuring a better visual separation of Console output and Command prompt functionality. Today, it is not clear which buttons belong to the Command prompt and which to the Output window. Moreover, in the Single-Window GUI layout, the widget with buttons managing the Command prompt is partly hidden after the GRASS launch. The graphical proposal for separating Console output and Command prompt functionality is included in ​https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/issues/2585 . Besides visual separation, accessing the command history with the Log File button is not intuitive and will be replaced by a button for simply exporting the entire command history.

Based on the results from usability testing, undocking and docking map windows is also essential functionality for users. This project aims to add a button to the map display toolbar enabling undock and dock map display windows. Adding this functionality will allow users to achieve a similar layout as in Multi-Window GUI if desired.

The last topic develops the idea that users should be able to save user-defined layouts in a Single-Window GUI within the workspace. This functionality is the first step for managing user-defined layouts in GRASS.

Timeline

Time Period	Milestones
	Tasks	Status
November 21 - November 25 Week 1	Reorganization of Console pane	TBD
November 28 - December 2 Week 2

December 5 - December 9 Week 3

December 12 - December 16 Week 4

December 19 - December 23 Week 5

January 2 - January 6 Week 6

January 9 - January 13 Week 7

January 16 - January 20 Week 8

Weekly reports