Blackmagic Forum

I was trying to figure out how to drag video from the source viewer into the timeline, without the audio. There was no apparent way to do it.

Oh... unless you accidentally roll into this empty area under the viewer, and then magically two controls appear that let you drag video and audio independently. WHY?

The implication here is that we users are supposed to roll the cursor over every pixel on the screen, on every page of this application, hunting for hidden goodies. Do I really need to explain why this is an absolute design failure? Actually, it's worse than failure: It's not even trying.

Please FIX THIS NOW.

In software that is relatively simple, a fully-exposed UI makes for ease of use.

However, when working with a piece of software that is extremely rich in functionality (such as DR), the only way to avoid *massive* clutter is by using a modal/context-based UI (such as the one you have demonstrated).

Try to create a simple 1-level UI for DR and there will be no space for work because the number of buttons and other UI controls would fill the screen -- leaving no room for the actual data you're working with.

Whilst I also get a little annoyed that I've been doing something "the hard way" for months, only to find that there's a shortcut available if you know where it is, I'm still a fan of the way BMD have done it with DR because there's not a massive "overload" during the learning curve and if I really want to find something out, I can take the user manual with me on my next holiday -- for some light bedside reading.

PalmerWoodrow wrote:Actually, it's worse than failure: It's not even trying.

Please FIX THIS NOW.

Works fine nothing to fix, easy to find and its also in the manual. Next...

"Works fine" to do what, exactly?

There's no excuse for this. The point of a GUI is that you don't need to scour the manual to use it. Do you not get that?

PalmerWoodrow wrote:"Works fine" to do what, exactly?

To show controls when you need it and get out of the way and prevent clutter and improve clarity when you dont. (like when there is no audio or you just dont use it) Resolve has a few thousand features, which if they where all always on display on the gui would leave you mad and zero place to do the work.
Popups, rightclick, hover over, etc are all techniques used everywhere to help in this respect. All have pros and cons but are actual design choices. Specially good if they are contextually aware and so change depending on what you need when and where, rather then show 100000 choices to confuse you (like adobes way)
And now you know where it is , its easy to operate right ?

PalmerWoodrow wrote:There's no excuse for this. The point of a GUI is that you don't need to scour the manual to use it. Do you not get that?

No excuse needed for proper and well thought after design. If you like it or not is personal taste. We know your distaste for most of the gui, you made that clear already is several posts. That is perfectly fine, but does not mean we all have to agree with you.
Manuals are there for a reason, including for how to operate a gui. Common sense. Whats there to get.
And no i do not get it in the way you phrase it.

RCModelReviews wrote:However, when working with a piece of software that is extremely rich in functionality (such as DR), the only way to avoid *massive* clutter is by using a modal/context-based UI (such as the one you have demonstrated).

Thanks for the reply.

The problem is that this isn't modal. But it IS context-based, because I'm on the Edit page. So the universe of operations has already been whittled down to editing-related ones. It's not as if anyone expects all of Resolve's functions to be displayed on this page at once; they've already been partitioned across multiple screens. Thus the UI designer's task has been reigned in.

If there are no controls displayed in a given area, then there's no reason for the user to roll his cursor into that area. Designing your UI around the hope that the user will accidentally discover buried treasure and forever remember its location is lazy at best.

Again, no one should be expected to sweep the entire screen with the cursor, looking for hidden goodies. This isn't an Advent calendar; it's a tool to get stuff done. If the UI is cluttered, then it needs more design work. Simply deleting things from the screen is derelict.

Somehow Premiere manages to provide this exact same functionality (and more) without peek-a-bool UI.

PalmerWoodrow wrote:Oh... unless you accidentally roll into this empty area under the viewer

Or, you know, put the cursor over the source footage. As someone would do if they were about to click and drag something.

Glenn Venghaus wrote:

PalmerWoodrow wrote:"Works fine" to do what, exactly?

To show controls when you need it and get out of the way and prevent clutter and improve clarity when you dont. (like when there is no audio or you just dont use it) Resolve has a few thousand features, which if they where all always on display on the gui would leave you mad and zero place to do the work.

But the controls weren't shown when I needed them. And that's a specious argument anyway, because Resolve's UI is already partitioned into functional areas. The page in question revolves around editing, so now we're dealing only with a clearly limited subset of Resolve's features. And, since these partitions are always visible and clearly labeled, the user can explore them and learn their contents. If their contents are hidden because the designer just gave up on trying to organize them properly, the user doesn't learn where they are or even know they exist.

This is why inapplicable options in a GUI are supposed to be greyed out and disabled, not simply missing. When they're greyed out, the user knows

A. that they exist and where they reside
B. they require some currently-unsatisfied conditions to become usable

It's a great learning aid. Just as we often remember where on the page of a book we read something, we remember where we saw an option or control in a GUI. But... it has to be shown. Maybe you're out to have fun playing Myst with your application UIs, but a lot of us need to get work done.

Tero Ahlfors wrote:

PalmerWoodrow wrote:Or, you know, put the cursor over the source footage. As someone would do if they were about to click and drag something.

"Something" being the entire source, because that's what happens if you put the cursor over the source footage and drag. But that's not what I wanted to do, now is it? So why would I roll over the source footage?

PalmerWoodrow wrote:But that's not what I wanted to do, now is it? So why would I roll over the source footage?

"I was trying to figure out how to drag video from the source viewer into the timeline" said he in the first post. How are you dragging the video if you're not putting the cursor over the video? Like it works in pretty much every other NLE.

Tero Ahlfors wrote:

PalmerWoodrow wrote:But that's not what I wanted to do, now is it? So why would I roll over the source footage?

"I was trying to figure out how to drag video from the source viewer into the timeline" said he in the first post. How are you dragging the video if you're not putting the cursor over the video? Like it works in pretty much every other NLE.

Drag VIDEO. Not the whole source. VIDEO. So no, that's not how it works in other NLEs.

Look at the UI miracle Adobe pulled off here, with no cursor in sight.

So just edit in premiere then . Seems like its the ideal editor for you and solves all your gui needs, rather then keeping on trying to convince BM to change their gui to match adobes design philosophy.
Use the tool that best fits your needs i would say and you will be much happier.

p.s. It becomes even more ridiculous as you don't even have to move over a specific area (like you suggestively did in your video). Hover ANYWARE over the image in the source viewer, which you do anyway if you want to drag, and the popup shows (at least in he current release on Mac). No manual needed and super useful. Its so obvious. So the whole point is so mute it almost hurts laughing.
Almost feels like we are talking to an internet bot. Just there to stir up stuff

or hold the control key down when you drag... it wasn't that hard to figure that out. Someone even took the time to write it down...now where was that...hmmm....oh yeah...the manual.

Indeed their manual is not a by-product. I have yet to see a better more complete manual anywhere....
A very rare thing nowadays. Its like it includes a mini course in grading/editing etc with their product.
Very good and purposeful job.

But in general i get a really bad vibe from this original post with video after i sat behind my resolve station this morning. Try it yourself, you have to realy purposefully move your mouse from the bottom up to even make the suggestion that it only works if you move to a very special empty area or region of pixels, while it works in the whole source window. Or maybe (just to give anyone the benefit of the doubt ) it works differently on windows or on older releases, or in some resolutions/setup, or at certain moon phases, but otherwise its pure fake news spreading and really sad behavior. But i hope its not.

Out of all the hidden features in the UI, you picked the one that is most obvious in its operation.

I will have to agree with others in this discussion that this doesn't need to change. It is intuitive and straightforward.

Beyond the RTFM tentation I don't want to yield to, it's obvious that to drag & drop anything to anywhere, you'll have to hover the "thing" you want to drag, which wipes out the whole relevance of using room for icons which don't need to be constantly visible...

Btw, this led to to think about I'm doing in this case... Well, sometimes I even lock the audio track just to keep using the overwrite button
And if another icon should be always visible, I'd choose "insert and adapt the length/speed" function personally, so we can really conclude that there's no need to think everybody wants the same.

I was actually this morning looking for a way to drag from the media pool clips without adding audio to the timeline.

In the manual it was all well explained: which modifier key, which ui pop up where...

RTFM i think.

Totally agreed.
And I insist, anyway there's no need to bark at the moon claiming that what one wants would certainly be what everybody wants, for sure it's not...