Enhanced Darkcoin Wallet UI

[MangledBlue]

In no particular order......
<seriously.... no particular order......>

At some point I'm gonna want a touch-screen option..... just say'n
(If windows can make an OS for multiple platforms look - lol - seamless - I'm sure we can do better with a single DRK-Wallet)
DRKw-qt - windows
DRKw-os - apple
DRKw-lx - linux
DRKw-an - android
DRKw-oc - open source (developer submission) - possible bounty...?
DRKw-mn - MasterNode Capable wallet - Without OR With "Partner's" locked into Contract, for a Term, when all DRK = > 1000DRK
(not available in mobile) and much later down the road............i can dream......

I'd like to see the Big Ole' DRK coin go away and have more of a watermark look, in the background so to speak.

I like the noob to nerd idea being able to switch from.... very simple > moderate info > Total Nerd Mode

Removing Recent transactions from the Overview - Like that
Making the Overview Tab very simple regardless of noob > nerd mode, only containing the Wallet Balance and very simple info
- maybe pending transactions - balance - and a DRK gif watermark

More tabs can be created to host: more detailed info....network info, coin valuation.. etc etc.

I also REALLY LIKE a small wallet with a decent font size (scalable)
If the wallet takes up more then 25% of my screen - ugh
(not an option w/ mobile of course)

We should have a very modern look - diffuse shading where appropriate, sharp edges with curvy lines - completely get away from the same-ole same-ole -QT Wallet look - 3D aspect buttons and tabs, there are ways to make it completely POP !!

We also need to keep in mind that a vast number, of diverse individuals, will be using it. It should appeal to all facets by remaining neutral in "interpretation". What I mean is, everybody that uses it should immediately say, " WHHAOOOoooooo..........." ......the first-time, each time
Should also look nearly the same across all platforms

All new symbols: Inout transactions; mining icon; confirmation dial/timer thingy; etc etc

New buttons: un/lock wallet; export with ease, input pvtkey, qr code.... etc etc

a New tiny 'CONNECTED" window/box in the top right that shows red or green when connected to the network - flashes white/blue when connecting - flashes orange/blue when disconnecting
OR - make the Borders do the same thing and forget the tiny window/box in the top right

- optional flash screen, that'd be okay......fade to white - fade to DRK - fade to DRKcoin (DRKc)

call me crazy - I'm okay - lol
Just thinking of a broader audience........
........... always (dyme)
----------------
and then I digress

 

[LonnieDRR]

Looks good. I like seeing the progress being made. I wish I knew more about the programming so i could help out.

 

[Populandum]

First off: Thank you DRKLord, this excited me!

I really agree with the first post of babygiraffe and all the posts of ScioMind.

The Overview area of the wallet needs to have as LITTLE information as possible. In this way I actually like the old QT.

I think that all the extra info should be put in their own tabs, which you can hide or unhide from the options menu.

I would really like a tab where you can enter public addresses you want to monitor. In this way I could click the monitoring tab and see all my masternode and paper wallet balances! This would be awesome!

Also import private key tab, maybe even with a way to scan your QR code with your webcam? Would be really easy to sweep paper wallets with QT then

I think that all extra-info tabs should default to hidden in order to make it easy for everyone to understand the fundamentals. Then more advanced users can enable the tabs they need in options.

 

[LittleFinger]

I like the idea of this being a project, but the original post is a step backwards in my opinion. Doesnt reflect the times.


I havent read every single comment here, but I can say that there has to be a balance between providing information and building something that is pleasing to the eye. Personally from a developers standpoint, the more info the better, even if its in a raw form, but not everyone is a developer or developer minded.

If needed, I would be more than happy to provide a small bounty for someone to create mockups that are purely design, and you guys can meet somewhere in the middle between providing information and making it visually appealing.

I would like to see a list of all masternodes, with things like earnings to date, date of that masternodes inception, etc etc. Basically just a run down of information that would already be public information. I feel like this would give others something to aspire to, in case they are thinking about providing a masternode service.

At this point if it is a choice between the original WIP or the current wallet, I would have to choose the current wallet. Its familiar, it works, and its simple.

 

[DRKLord]

I like the idea of this being a project, but the original post is a step backwards in my opinion. Doesnt reflect the times.


I havent read every single comment here, but I can say that there has to be a balance between providing information and building something that is pleasing to the eye. Personally from a developers standpoint, the more info the better, even if its in a raw form, but not everyone is a developer or developer minded.

If needed, I would be more than happy to provide a small bounty for someone to create mockups that are purely design, and you guys can meet somewhere in the middle between providing information and making it visually appealing.

I would like to see a list of all masternodes, with things like earnings to date, date of that masternodes inception, etc etc. Basically just a run down of information that would already be public information. I feel like this would give others something to aspire to, in case they are thinking about providing a masternode service.

At this point if it is a choice between the original WIP or the current wallet, I would have to choose the current wallet. Its familiar, it works, and its simple.

Ahhh, Little Finger... how nice of you to join us, Ser! ;-)

You know that I value your opinion on this matter, especially as "Master of Coin", heheh. But keep in mind this is just a static "mock-up" or "rough draft" of the UI. This isn't going to be the new wallet UI, and isn't fully functional. It is more of a demonstration to open the discussion on what can be done with this idea...

That being said, I'm working on a more "modernized" and "clean" interface design/layout and I think vertoe is going to help me work on this. If you'd like to provide some guidance and input you can find me on Skype and we'll talk about it.

Regards,

The DRK Lord

 

[fusecavator]

I think you need to step back and consider what the average person using it really wants to know when they open it.

The 2 most important things are balance, and recent transactions.
Most users don't care about difficulty. They don't care about net hashrate. They don't care about the block reward. The don't care about the total block count. They don't care about network health beyond whether it's working or not. Many of them might not even know what those things are, and definitely don't care about them.

Recent transactions are very import to have quickly available. Often people will be expecting a payment, and want to see if it has arrived, and having a simple spot to see that is a must-have for the front page. Merging recent transactions and alerts just opens the possibility for people to miss alerts if they happen to be doing a bunch of transactions. It would be much better to have a small dedicated spot for 1 alert that no one will notice exists when there isn't an alert to show.

As for the market information, it seems a little strange to me for it to hit up exchanges for information on a privacy oriented coin, as this leaks information that you're running the wallet. It is a decent addition, but should be optional, and disabled by default. It also should be stripped down; most people only care about current price, and total value; most don't know and/or don't care about market caps, volumes, highs, and lows. Those who care will be looking at other places to see it, and it's just clutter for everyone else.

Changing the drop-down menu styling seems weird and inconsistent. You should either have everything on standard gui controls, or everything custom; not a mix of both.

 

[DRKLord]

I think you need to step back and consider what the average person using it really wants to know when they open it.
As for the market information, it seems a little strange to me for it to hit up exchanges for information on a privacy oriented coin, as this leaks information that you're running the wallet. It is a decent addition, but should be optional, and disabled by default. It also should be stripped down; most people only care about current price, and total value; most don't know and/or don't care about market caps, volumes, highs, and lows. Those who care will be looking at other places to see it, and it's just clutter for everyone else.

I agree. That's why I'm implementing it as a configurable "add-on" or "plug-in" for the wallet/client that you can opt out of or choose to use if you wish.

 

[LittleFinger]

Ahhh, Little Finger... how nice of you to join us, Ser! ;-)

You know that I value your opinion on this matter, especially as "Master of Coin", heheh. But keep in mind this is just a static "mock-up" or "rough draft" of the UI. This isn't going to be the new wallet UI, and isn't fully functional. It is more of a demonstration to open the discussion on what can be done with this idea...

That being said, I'm working on a more "modernized" and "clean" interface design/layout and I think vertoe is going to help me work on this. If you'd like to provide some guidance and input you can find me on Skype and we'll talk about it.

Regards,

The DRK Lord

You know I would help in a heartbeat I will spend some time pondering this entire project later tonight, and get back to you with any thoughts I may have.

I think it comes down to fluidity, and putting the right information in front of eyes vs a bunch of information. Although, I havent actually sat down and mapped any thoughts out, so later tonight when I get some spare time, I will def be thinking it over.

 

[jimbit]

imho, the official qt should be as simple as possible...... only enough to serve the functions necessary. third party wallets can get as fancy as they want..

the only thing wrong with the current qt is that darksend is checked by default, i think it should be off by default.

 

[daaarkcoins]

i think it should be off by default.

Nope, it shouldn't. It has to be used by as many transactions as possible to work properly. Actually there shouldn't be a way to send non-darksend transactions to improve privacy.


Regarding the wallet: I don't think hashrate, trading data et cetera should be part of the wallet. People who need that data know where to get it. All it does is bloat the wallet. Showing the block height is totally useless.
There should be a switch for plain/advanced interface or an extra tab for trading / miining info

 

[ScioMind]

imho, the official qt should be as simple as possible...... only enough to serve the functions necessary. third party wallets can get as fancy as they want..

the only thing wrong with the current qt is that darksend is checked by default, i think it should be off by default.

Like daaarkcoins, I disagree with this. Every transaction should be completely anonymous...after all, this is DARKcoin. I think the only reason there ever was a checkbox in the first place was because Darksend was a new/experimental feature. Ultimately it won't be new or experimental...and should ALWAYS be used.

 

[jimbit]

Like daaarkcoins, I disagree with this. Every transaction should be completely anonymous...after all, this is DARKcoin. I think the only reason there ever was a checkbox in the first place was because Darksend was a new/experimental feature. Ultimately it won't be new or experimental...and should ALWAYS be used.

fair argument.. my statement stems from the current behavior and I get an error everytime I send coin.

 

[DRKLord]

Was there ever a formal decision made on the official logos for Darksend and Dark Gravity Well? If so, could anyone point me to the graphics? I think it'd be cool to display them in the load/splash-screen of the wallet.

 

[ScioMind]

Was there ever a formal decision made on the official logos for Darksend and Dark Gravity Well? If so, could anyone point me to the graphics? I think it'd be cool to display them in the load/splash-screen of the wallet.

I agree, although it would nice if there were a way of disabling the display of the load/splash screen. Not a big deal though!

 

[darklord1981]

View attachment 190

The DRK Lord

Personally I love this, the exchange concept could be a very useful feature, especially if it was decentralised and anonymous, but, but how would it be implemented?

It's one hell of a mission to implement, then you have need to store multiple currencies within the Darkcoin wallet. Eg. you cannot exchange with bitcoin unless it's also in the wallet.

 

[LittleFinger]

I think that some of the users have hit the nail on the head in my opinion. DRKLord, Im betting that the conclusion you will ultimately end up at, is that the official wallet needs to be as simple and bulletproof as possible, showing only the features that 98% of the population would care about.

If it were me, I would at most, bring a design update to the wallet. Maybe a flat ui style and then I would start working on a 3rd party solution that includes all the widgets and gadgets. You are probably in the best position a person can be to ensure the official wallet is simple and rock solid, with an advanced wallet option, because you would be working on both if that is how you approach it.

Obviously DRK is a much different coin than most, and has features that will need to be represented in the official wallet, but I wouldnt jam pack it with a bunch of other stuff.

 

[aadje93]

Looks very very very nice man. I Realy like the idea of the network statistics.

this truly shows darkcoin is a unique coin. Even litecoin is a bitcoin clone, but darkcoin is showing its different (same as darksend)

Thanks for your work. would like to see the download soon

adriaan

 

[DRKLord]

After listening to everyone's suggestions, I totally re-thought the entire design and came up with a new look...

Keep in mind this is just "programmer art"... temporary artwork used as a place-holder until a more skilled artist can do a proper design for a release quality version. But hopefully this will give you an idea of what I now have in mind.

NOTE: This is NOT a finished product and the actual wallet update released will NOT actually look like this. This is a mock-up / concept design!

So far I've loved all of the suggestions that have been made and hope to hear a lot more! I've already decided to incorporate some of your suggestions into the final design specification, such as:

• Overview page will be clean, simple and clutter-free
• Wallet will have a "simple" display mode and an "advanced user" or "nerd-mode" display mode
• Loading / splash-screen will be made optional, perhaps with a -suppress_splash command line option
• Wallet will be more configurable and customizable to suit your personal preferences
• Wallet will display detailed information about your masternodes and their status, earnings, etc
• Wallet files and private keys can be password-protected at startup
• Will be working on an auto-update feature, with security a prime consideration

Hope everyone else is excited as I am to have a much more attractive, functional and versatile wallet platform for our coin and I'm still open to hearing your suggestions! I will do my best to hear every voice and serve our community.

Regards,

The DRK Lord

 

[DRKLord]

It looks a lot less ugly without the "filler content" in the Overview tab page... I think the "frame" of the design/layout itself doesn't look so bad!

What do you say?

-- The DRK Lord --

 

[LittleFinger]

DRKLord, I love you to death man, but no way lol.

Have someone create a design for you, even if it includes things that arent part of the wallet, this way you can see the elements.

Take these pics for an example that I just downloaded. (They have nothing to do with wallets but shows how someone can create an element palate for you to work from)



This way you can work on the backend, and then incorporate the front end once you are done test. If you put the word out and asked for help, Im sure someone would spend a day creating an element design that you can work from.

Please understand, whether I am correct or wrong, its just coming from a good place. I dont mean to sh*t on your designs. Also, I am just talking about the design aspect, Im sure the features discussion would be better served by you and others.

 

[ubunthero]

I think the only problem in the last design is the thème, I think everything should be flat without gradients

 

[DeathRay1977]

Let's not get too hung up on what it looks like. To me, usability is more important. I would like to see the number of masternodes connected in the network info section. Also make it easier to use Darksend. A lot of less technical users don't need to know about selecting inputs when doing a darksend. Maybe have an expert view and simple view for the UI? To widen the appeal and use of Darkcoin, it needs to be usable by your granny

 

[raze]

This is what happens when I'm suffering from insomnia. LOL

 

[daaarkcoins]

That looks extremely awesome, raze!

Edit: You guys may wanna check out the -splash=0 command line switch or put splash=0 in your config.

 

[LittleFinger]

This is what happens when I'm suffering from insomnia. LOL

Yeeeah boi!!

Now thats a lot closer to the times. (By "The Times" I mean that alot of apps and programs have adapted to show pertinent information, and we are at a time where "intuitiveness" has increased. Thanks to products like tablets and smart phones, where devs had to learn to adapt to only having so much surface area.)

DeathRay1977 I wasnt just trying to focus on design, so much as voicing my opinion in the hopes we could bring it out of 2002. I too would like it to display masternode information, also to make darksend easier to use. Nail on head in my opinion.

DRKLord, I wasnt trying to insult you in the least. I think that you know what my intentions were. With the adoption of smartphones, we have entered the era of user intuitiveness by being forced to adopt to smaller screens. This includes bigger buttons, and displaying only the important information. Maximizing space and creating navigation is easy to interpret.

raze I would switch the announcements with the balance, and give the announcments less space. Its important but if a user needs to see it, maybe it could expand a bit. Or even place announcements above transactions and leave the top left for balance, and the bottom left for other features related to sending. As far as I can tell, Sending coins doesnt need its own page/window. if you look at the current qt, its basically one big empty page.

 

[Enzwell]

This is what happens when I'm suffering from insomnia. LOL

Meh.
(Actually, not bad Raze, good job, but still... you're thinking to hard. And you might be insulting people in the future, who have less than 1 DRK. Don't make the characters smaller after the decimal point. (?) There are too few Darkcoins!)
"Balance" should be above "Announcements" (what's most important thing for most people? Unfortunately, MONEY!! So, the next thing should probably be DRK/USD and DRK/BTC current values, not the "news", that's still a crypto-geek thing, most people don't care about that!),
and there should be *ZERO* graphics-transparency in the interface (that uses up to much processing power, esp. on a phone), and of course, hue is too much like NXT (as always, to me), go more blue! And use the coin graphic, people seem to like it, and it's much cooler than just the logo-D, (I heretofore release my coin graphics as CC-BY-ND, if that's what you're worried about).
...
Not that this tweak is anywhere near perfect.. but here's a couple ideas...

Anyway, there's my obnoxious opinion!

 

[Enzwell]

Damned Photoshop layers!
There was suposed to be a "NEWS" text/tab between the "Backup Wallet" and "Basic/Advanced" tabs.

 

[LittleFinger]

Meh.
(Actually, not bad Raze, good job, but still... you're thinking to hard. And you might be insulting people in the future, who have less than 1 DRK. Don't make the characters smaller after the decimal point. (?) There are too few Darkcoins!)
"Balance" should be above "Announcements" (what's most important thing for most people? Unfortunately, MONEY!! So, the next thing should probably be DRK/USD and DRK/BTC current values, not the "news", that's still a crypto-geek thing, most people don't care about that!),
and there should be *ZERO* graphics-transparency in the interface (that uses up to much processing power, esp. on a phone), and of course, hue is too much like NXT (as always, to me), go more blue! And use the coin graphic, people seem to like it, and it's much cooler than just the logo-D, (I heretofore release my coin graphics as CC-BY-ND, if that's what you're worried about).
...
Not that this tweak is anywhere near perfect.. but here's a couple ideas...

Anyway, there's my obnoxious opinion!

Im not sure thats better, not that my opinion matters.

Also, how much processing power do image transparencies actually require? lol It seems to me the numbers after the decimal can easily be made bigger (dynamic) if the person has less than a full DRK. It looks better with the numbers after the character smaller, when there is at least a full DRK in the wallet, to me at least.

Im pretty sure any phone app is going to use a different source entirely, even if it is a windows phone. I agree the blue should be just a hair darker, not much at all though.

Let me open up my image editing program and see if I cant whip something up using his original file. I think raze is on to something.

 

[TanteStefana]

After listening to everyone's suggestions, I totally re-thought the entire design and came up with a new look...

Keep in mind this is just "programmer art"... temporary artwork used as a place-holder until a more skilled artist can do a proper design for a release quality version. But hopefully this will give you an idea of what I now have in mind.

View attachment 194

NOTE: This is NOT a finished product and the actual wallet update released will NOT actually look like this. This is a mock-up / concept design!

So far I've loved all of the suggestions that have been made and hope to hear a lot more! I've already decided to incorporate some of your suggestions into the final design specification, such as:

• Overview page will be clean, simple and clutter-free
• Wallet will have a "simple" display mode and an "advanced user" or "nerd-mode" display mode
• Loading / splash-screen will be made optional, perhaps with a -suppress_splash command line option
• Wallet will be more configurable and customizable to suit your personal preferences
• Wallet will display detailed information about your masternodes and their status, earnings, etc
• Wallet files and private keys can be password-protected at startup
• Will be working on an auto-update feature, with security a prime consideration

Hope everyone else is excited as I am to have a much more attractive, functional and versatile wallet platform for our coin and I'm still open to hearing your suggestions! I will do my best to hear every voice and serve our community.

Regards,

The DRK Lord

I like this. It has everything anyone would want but displays the most needed stuff on first tab. I don't think you need the latest transaction details in two places though, just on the upper right. The news and alerts should just be that, no transaction details. I know nothing of graphic design, so I suppose it could be improved via layout and font, but for me this would be perfect ;P

Just a note, I have always hated having the blues of the website and the blues of the coin together. They clash in my eyes, sorry!

 

[TsuyokuNaritai]

Personally I love it, but if it's intended for a broad audience, the key screens that an entry-level user will need to use should be as simple as possible.

We also need to get the opinions of the less technical, not-particularly-darkcoiny end of the intended audience. We might be surprised what they might find confusing or overwhelming.