New GUI improvements

[bodriye]

Mod note: The OP originally suggested that the new GUI be dropped entirely. This is simply not going to happen.

Instead, please use this thread to suggest improvements to the new GUI.

-Ericloewe

I think the new UI is unusable from functionality pov and looks ugly, It is just there to appease the corral fans who like dark theme. Maybe change the css file of the old UI to allow for dark UI. There is nothing wrong with the old UI and it should not be replaced.

 

[ArgaWoW]

I think the new UI is unusable from functionality pov and looks ugly, It is just there to appease the corral fans who like dark theme. Maybe change the css file of the old UI to allow for dark UI. There is nothing wrong with the old UI and it should not be replaced.

I am totally agree to this. They should make an UI like corral or let it be like it is. The only hope I have is, that's the old one will be still usable and we have the choice witch we want to use

 

[Jailer]

I think the new UI is unusable from functionality pov

You do realize that it is in preview status and no where near complete. If there is something you desire in the UI submit a bug reports at bugs.freenas.org with the feature you want.

 

[CraigD]

Why not have both?

Being able to toggle between both UIs would be great, I imagine it is a trivial thing to code

Have Fun

 

[amiskell]

Why not have both?

Being able to toggle between both UIs would be great, I imagine it is a trivial thing to code

Have Fun

Trivial to code the switch, but there's more to it than that.

Now you have to maintain two different UIs, QA against two different UIs, develop new features for two different UIs, etc, etc, etc. All that takes time and man hours to do.

 

[danb35]

There is nothing wrong with the old UI and it should not be replaced.

There are a good many users and prospective users who disagree with you. I don't have strong feelings on the subject myself--I think the existing UI is pretty dated, and kind of ugly, but it generally works. But the fact that you have buttons across the top, and buttons in the left gutter with the same names, but that don't do the same things, is bad.

And to say that the devs should just drop development of the new GUI is just silly.

 

[Ericloewe]

The old GUI is usable, but it's not intuitive. It is also a very old design that is not easy to adapt for asynchronous operations.

 

[microbug]

IMO the old GUI is OK, but as Ericloewe said it's not especially discoverable for new users. I think the dev team should plan out a new GUI before trying to implement it (rather than the other way around), but I'm not complaining -- this is free software after all.

 

[m0nkey_]

How often do you look the GUI? You set it up, maybe tweak it a few times and then leave it alone. I guess I only log into the GUI infrequently enough not to care.

 

[danb35]

True, most people don't have much need to be in the GUI much once the system's up and running. OTOH, without the web GUI (and associated middleware), FreeNAS is just FreeBSD.

 

[SRSR333]

I liked the Corral UI, I really did. It was buggy, definitely, but some things there were slightly easier than with the old UI. I have gotten used to the latter, but there are unnecessary repeats (top toolbar, left sidebar) of identical functions. The icons could do with some polish, the overall theme still looks like it was written for a 4 × 3 resolution.

I say keep the old UI for legacy, and actively develop the new one.

 

[giox069]

My comments:
- I'm using 4:3 1280x1024 monitors to manage some FreeNAS, and both the 11.0 GUI and Corral are unusable. Lists with only 7 elements requires scrolling. Fonts are too huge and I have to scroll everything around. Tried with Chrome under Windows and Firefox under Ubuntu, see attached file.
- Slow internet connection: I manage FreeNASes remotely, and sometimes I have only 256Kbps or 512Kbps of bandwidth. Corral was extremely slow on slow links. The new 11.0 GUI gives you only 40 seconds of penalty to reach the logon screen, after that it seems to be quite responsive in slow links, good. Removing the background bitmap will help a bit in this case. And will improve further when managing FreeNAS via a RDP or VNC connection which resends all the background for every page refresh.
I like the new GUI, good job, but it must be improved.

 

[iposner]

Without doubt, the Corral UI was better. IMHO, the new UI has the following problems (and potential solutions):

• Too many colours: The use of so many colours is visually confusing. Colour should be used to emphasise functionality. One only needs to look at the Dashboard screen to see this: On the left we have blue menu items, a yellow restart button, a red power button, then we have white text, a red pie chart and green/pale green and amber charts.
• Font size too big: The screens are unusable on a laptop because there is not enough screen real-estate. The Text menu on the left occupies so much vertical space that it runs under the power/reboot buttons.
• The semi-transparent main menu is visually confusing when expanded: The underlying text of the Dashboard shows through. Either blur the underlying text (a-la Windows Aero) or make the menu solid.
• Eliminate ALL CAPS headings: All caps takes the brain longer to process the information as the "coastline" of the words is always a rectangle. This is basic typography.
• Too many font sizes: The font size used for text labels on the "Advanced" page is good for general use, but taking this page as an example, why do the text boxes have a different font size, as does the Update button?
• Inefficient use of vertical space: Just look at the Tunables page as an example. See how much space is wasted between rows. Cut the vertical size of the buttons. The same is true of the Volumes page
• Horrible colour scheme! The green and red buttons on the Services page are different colours to the red power button and the green/red service status circles. Be consistent! And choose colours that harmonise with the background and each other. You wouldn't choose to paint your house in the plethora of colours used, so why put it in a web interface? If you don't have the tasteful skills in-house to do this, outsource the colour scheme/design to a digital agency that does.
• Too much information poorly displayed: The Services page is an example: The grid layout means the eye has to scan left, right, up and down. The status of each service is indicated a) by text; b) by the circle; c) by the colour of the excessively large button; d) by the symbol in the button. Too much information! A simple grid with a service per row, in alphabetical order with a status column and an edit button would have been much cleaner.
• Duplication of buttons: The Volumes, Services, etc pages duplicate the buttons for each row. Really bad interface design (cluttered, inefficient use of width/height): Let the user select the appropriate row in a grid then click the appropriate "action" button at the bottom of the screen. Make the grid scrollable so that the buttons are always visible.

 

[Jailer]

Submit feature requests at bugs.freenas.org with the things that need correcting. Your voice won't be heard by the devs by posting here.

 

[m0nkey_]

Just to reiterate @Jailer's comments.. all these suggestions and no feature requests!

Submit tickets people! https://bugs.freenas.org/projects/freenas

 

[diskdiddler]

I think the new UI is unusable from functionality pov and looks ugly, It is just there to appease the corral fans who like dark theme. Maybe change the css file of the old UI to allow for dark UI. There is nothing wrong with the old UI and it should not be replaced.

Totally agree.

 

[agent_kith]

The new UI is only a preview, don't rush to judgement just yet.

From what I can tell, it's based on akveo's ng2-admin. And probably one of the better Angular based UI "out of the box" frameworks out there.

Issues like "fonts too big", "all CAPS in titles" can be changed in the scss files.

FreeNAS can probably go with just material, or some other non-Angular frameworks. And they still can, if they want to later. Once the backend logic is separated from the front end display/presentation, everything is a lot easier and more flexible.

Just give 'em more time to make things right again.

 

[m0nkey_]

I'm disappointed by the lack of bug/feature requests links with regards to the new UI ;)

 

[danb35]

I'm disappointed by the lack of bug/feature requests links with regards to the new UI ;)

Seriously. B*tching here will accomplish nothing. If you think something should be changed, or if something isn't working, file a ticket. If you don't, don't complain when it isn't changed.

Edit for the profanity filter

 

[D-Tijori]

Many might be forgetful of the fact that this is all open source free software. There should be level of gratefulness involved here.

Hence, this is not a complaint and/or request to change anything. This is more of a recommendation based on an observation.

How about just adding a dark theme instead of going through the whole process of a complete redesign of UX. Something like what Pfsense does. They have just a couple of themes and the dark one is almost just an inverting of colours. Just adding a dark theme almost has an immediate impression of something more sophisticated and refined.