Congratulations! I like the aesthetics of the new design
In regard to usability however I have criticism to one point which was better in the old design:
The right sidebar item pane with the colored icons is fine. But I strongly dislike that nevertheless all sections (info, tags, related, abstract, attachments, ...) are all shown in the left side item pane window. The items icons act as navigation tool to jump to the selected section. The listing of all sections in one window gives an overwhelming and crowded overview.
I would request an option in main menu -> view to show in item pane only what was selected in the selection sidebar. That would be much cleaner and friendlier.
An alternative request to such an option and even better idea would be to split up the sections into different groups (like "notes" is already a different group in reader mode) rather than in single pieces. A senseful split up for library mode could be:
1. Info, Abstract 2. Library and Collections, Tags, Related 3. Attachments 4. Notes
If an pdf or pub is selected a split up could be:
1. Tags, Related 2. Attachments 3. Annotations
And for reader mode:
1. Info, Abstract 2. Tags, Related 3. Attachments 4. Notes (already an own group)
In the last post of page 3 I mentioned the crowded and claustrophobic feeling of the item pane. I made some requests before I realized that the huge changing of the item pane is mainly related to let add ons use the item pane.
I like to make another request that at the same time would help and nevertheless not touch the design principles of the item pane and the sidebar navigation bar: If a section is open could you add significantly more spacing at the end of this open section? So the whole layout can breathe and the crowded/pressed feeling could be cured
It wasn't mainly for plugins. It makes information easily available by scrolling without requiring you to tediously click between different tabs, and it was a common request.
Note that you can collapse a section you don't want to see by clicking on the header, and you can also pin a section to the top by double-clicking on its sidenav button, which provides the same functionality that was available previously of seeing specific content while moving between items.
Also, I assume you're aware of the View → Density setting? If you have that set to Compact, you can change it to Comfortable to get more spacing between UI elements, including a little bit more between sections.
After spending some time with the new item pane I gradually get used with it. It was the biggest change apart from aesthetics. But as with all changes it is a matter of time to accommodate to them.
The density setting in my case is already settled to comfortable. Actually my problem is that at scrolling in the really long list of sections it is difficult to recognize effortlessly where one open section ends and the other section begins. That gives the crowded feeling. I still believe that it would immensely help to add some spacing at the end of OPEN (!) sections if density option "comfortable is chosen. Here a screenshot that shows what I mean (the red arrows show where some spacing could be added):
@dstillman: that pinning is super usefull! Thanks for sharing this trick. Is there or will there be on Z7 release a list of all the features? I would never have figured it out myself tbh.
@vwrk: There will be an extensive changelog, and we'll (eventually) update all the documentation for the redesign, but note that both section collapsing and section pinning are accessible from the context menus on those respective elements, so there's a way to discover them via the UI.
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In regard to usability however I have criticism to one point which was better in the old design:
The right sidebar item pane with the colored icons is fine. But I strongly dislike that nevertheless all sections (info, tags, related, abstract, attachments, ...) are all shown in the left side item pane window. The items icons act as navigation tool to jump to the selected section. The listing of all sections in one window gives an overwhelming and crowded overview.
I would request an option in main menu -> view to show in item pane only what was selected in the selection sidebar. That would be much cleaner and friendlier.
An alternative request to such an option and even better idea would be to split up the sections into different groups (like "notes" is already a different group in reader mode) rather than in single pieces. A senseful split up for library mode could be:
1. Info, Abstract
2. Library and Collections, Tags, Related
3. Attachments
4. Notes
If an pdf or pub is selected a split up could be:
1. Tags, Related
2. Attachments
3. Annotations
And for reader mode:
1. Info, Abstract
2. Tags, Related
3. Attachments
4. Notes (already an own group)
I hope that could be addressed
In the last post of page 3 I mentioned the crowded and claustrophobic feeling of the item pane. I made some requests before I realized that the huge changing of the item pane is mainly related to let add ons use the item pane.
I like to make another request that at the same time would help and nevertheless not touch the design principles of the item pane and the sidebar navigation bar: If a section is open could you add significantly more spacing at the end of this open section? So the whole layout can breathe and the crowded/pressed feeling could be cured
Note that you can collapse a section you don't want to see by clicking on the header, and you can also pin a section to the top by double-clicking on its sidenav button, which provides the same functionality that was available previously of seeing specific content while moving between items.
Also, I assume you're aware of the View → Density setting? If you have that set to Compact, you can change it to Comfortable to get more spacing between UI elements, including a little bit more between sections.
The density setting in my case is already settled to comfortable. Actually my problem is that at scrolling in the really long list of sections it is difficult to recognize effortlessly where one open section ends and the other section begins. That gives the crowded feeling. I still believe that it would immensely help to add some spacing at the end of OPEN (!) sections if density option "comfortable is chosen. Here a screenshot that shows what I mean (the red arrows show where some spacing could be added):
https://s3.amazonaws.com/zotero.org/images/forums/u11900797/43hd3p15c45nje3m2xf1.jpg