Terrain - Buttons Instead of Dropdown Menu

[Monkey Frog Studio]

For the terrain editor, I think it would be nicer and faster to work with if we had a set of buttons for sculpt, paint, smooth, flatten, and vegetation instead of a dropdown selection menu. To switch from one tool to another, you need to first click to expose the dropdown menu, then click on the tool you want, If we had 5 buttons, all the end-user would have to do is click the button (one action instead of two). 

Thanks.

[Josh]

Wow, your Leadwerks looks cool! 

I kind of like the idea, but I also think it would be hard to do without breaking the visual continuity of the UI. Some image buttons might be nice, but it's also hard to design something that looks right and doesn't stick out in a really weird way.

Usually when I am designing stuff like this I will make a mockup of the interface in Paint Shop Pro and figure out how it should look before I write any code.

[Monkey Frog Studio]

Hi Josh,

Glad you like my UI colors.

I think there's a way to do this without breaking the continuity of the UI. I've attached two images: 1) is my current UI (I've added a few buttons) and 2) is the terrain dropdown replaced with buttons. I didn't make new buttons for this quick example, but it should still get the point across.

For me, the idea is that the end-user is going to spend a lot of time in the editor. The less mouse-clicks needed to do things is going to make it easier and a more enjoyable experience. Dropdown menus, by their very nature, add an additional click. It's why I've added most of the stuff from the 'creation' dropdown as buttons to my UI. I can just click and go. Much faster than click, scan the drown down, find the button there, click ...

 

[Josh]

I would probably make the buttons bigger, and square. But it does not look bad.

[Monkey Frog Studio]

For me, usability trumps design, though both are important. If I'm going to spend all day in an editor, I want to be able to quickly access my tools. It's why I have buttons for turning on/off grid snapping, rotation snapping, adding lights, etc. One-click access.