Hey, I hope it's the right forum here, as this is more of a design choice than programming question: I am working on a windowing gui library somewhat like unreal tournaments uwindows: ClickMe, ClickMeToo But for some weeks now I simply can't decide how to launch these windows.. These are the thoughts I had, and why I didn't want them: 1. Top style startmenu like ut did: ClickMe Denied because: Feels slow to work with, you have to navigate through the menu before opening a window. 2. Somewhat like the source engine does it, just clickable text on the background: ClickMe Denied because: when you have multiple windows open, you'll need to move them to the side or close them in order to open a new one. 3. Like a desktop, having Shortcuts(icons and text) on the background.. Denied because: same as above. 4. ObjectDock kinda launcher: ClickMe, ClickMeToo First thought was, that it would be fast to work with, but you'd have to create intuitive icons for every window you want to launch. a sidedock is probably better than top/bottom, because most of the time you have more width to spare than height, especially on widescreen monitors. But I haven't yet figured a way to make it look nice and fitting to the design I already have. I've searched deviantart and google images for dozens of hours now, but I couldn't see any alternatives.. So any ideas would be appreciated.

I think you need to better explain your question, or give more details about what it is you're navigating. How many windows are we talking about? How many sub-windows? Etc. Without this info we'll have no idea how to help with your design interface.

I was trying to come up with an answer to your question but then I noticed that it's hard to even put your post into the form of a question.

Actually, the only time you used a question mark was in your title and that was just (design?) which really isn't a question. =P

If you want an answer you're going to have to ask a question instead of making statements.

Statement: "I can't decide how to launch these windows."

Question: "How should I launch these windows?"

Help us out here, we can't read your mind. =P

Well The question is:
What would be the best way for the end-user to launch those windows ?
I've given a few examples of how other games did it, but I would like to see other possibilities, if there are any.

I can't really say how many windows there are going to be, as I don't know yet..
There will at least be a handful of windows, but it could be a lot more, so it the launch-thingy should not be limited to 5 windows.
Subwindows don't matter, since they are not launched directly, but via other windows..

You could go with a combo of things for maximum efficiency and ease of use...

What about an object dock with icons that also have text under them? If you don't feel like making icons you could just have a text list such as the source engine.

Once the user has clicked on an icon or an item in the list, it would open up a tabbed window, with the highlighted tab being whatever item was selected.

So using the source gui as an example. You'd have

Find Servers
Create Server
Report Bug
Video Stress Test
Options
Quit

in either an objectdock icon list or just a text list just like source.

Then if the user clicks on say... Report Bug, it will open up one tabbed window and that tab would be the Report Bug tab. However the user could also click the other tabs which would let them navigate directly to those windows. The tabs would be identical to the main gui list, so it would be like

Find Servers | Create Server | Report Bug | Video Stress Test | Options | Quit

This would allow the user to select exactly what they want to see when the program opens, and then be able to select any other menu with one mouse click on a tab. That would save them from closing/opening multiple windows.

Quote: Once the user has clicked on an icon or an item in the list, it would open up a tabbed window, with the highlighted tab being whatever item was selected.
...

I don't like that idea, since firstly, it would counter the feature of having multiple windows available.
And secondly, because that would mean there would be a design dilemma, when a window has tabs for itself.
(for example the options window has tabs for Video, Sound, Controlls, ...)

Quote: You could go with a combo of things for maximum efficiency and ease of use...

What about an object dock with icons that also have text under them? If you don't feel like making icons you could just have a text list such as the source engine.

That is indeed something to consider.. or maybe instead of showing text directly, it could be displayed as tool-tip when hovering.

Another combo idea: The ut startmenu thing with some shortcut icons..
either have a predefined set of shortcuts included, or drag & drop your most
important menu items to the top-bar to have a shortcut icon there.

Quote: Original post by TTK-Bandit
I don't like that idea, since firstly, it would counter the feature of having multiple windows available.
And secondly, because that would mean there would be a design dilemma, when a window has tabs for itself.
(for example the options window has tabs for Video, Sound, Controlls, ...)

If you're already dead set on having certain features, you really shouldn't be asking anyone for design advice unless you make that stuff clear ahead of time.

Why do you need multiple windows? Is it going to be necessary for the user to look at several different windows at once? If not, I don't see the purpose. Other than the fact that you just want to have multiple windows... which isn't really a great reason to add it into the design. (especially if it's going to make it harder to navigate)

Why does each category need it's own set of tabs? If you're really wanting to make things simple for people, you want to minimize clicking through many things to get to one window. Why not just make the window larger and include squared off areas for the Video, Sound and Controls. That way they are all on one window. What's the use of breaking them down into their own tabbed window? It's easy enough to separate them in one.

The only issue would be if one section has far too much stuff to include in a window with other things... like maybe your controls panel is a huge list of control settings. Well then maybe you should take that out of the "Options" category all together and give it it's own category as "Controls".

Just something to think about. You should keep an open mind about this if you're indeed looking for help. Closing off ideas because they don't mesh well with things you've already decided on will lead to a creativity block.

what exactly are you complaining about ?
You offered a few ideas, and I accepted one.
Well granted, silly me forgot to say thanks.. so:
Thanks for the help :)

Not complaining. I thought you were arguing the idea because you already wanted to implement multiple windows and tabbed windows. Maybe I just misunderstood. Didn't really need the thanks, but thanks. Heheh. =P