Tooltips on the slicer to help unravel all the settings#823
The Cloud slicer control panel is icredibly dense, with a lot of selectors and edit options for various related things. I recently read a helpdesk article on the difference between matrial profiles vs slicer profiles, which help cleared up some confusion, but I think part of the problem is, since there is a lot of overlap in the names (‘e.g. ‘Snapmaker PLA’,’PLA’,’Snapmaker PLA @U1’,’Snapmaker SnapSpeed PLA’) it’s not always clear which namespace is being referenced in which field.
I think it would be extremely helpful (and easy) to add some tooltips to each of these fields, to let you know exactly what is being selected and how you can configure it. As I’m looking at my current cloud-slicer page (orca slicer for my SnapMaker U1), it would have saved me literally hours of digging around through the platform if these parts had all been clearly identified with labels, or tooltips, (or little question-mark help icons maybe?)
For example, starting from the top (and please note that I’m guessing on some of these descriptions!)
Format is <UI element contents/description> – <Strawman tooltip suggestion>
1) pulldown says ‘OrcaSlicer’ – “Select which slicer software (and which version) you want to use to slice your model. See Settings->Slicing”
2) Box says ‘Snapmaker U1 - Alex’ – “Which Specific Printer are you slicing this model for? – See Printers page to add/manage printers”
3) Pulldown says “Snapmaker U1’ – “The Machine Profile associated with the KIND of printer you have - you usually don’t need to mess with this, but it lets you define details about the printer (e.g. bed size) and the different available variants/configurations of this kind of printer. For more info, see this article: <link>“
4) Pulldown labeled “Printer Variant” – “selects the current configuration for your printer, from the list of options in your machine profile. For example, what size nozzle is currently installed?”
5) Filaments/Nozzles - I think this is ok as-is
6) Box with a picture of a spool and “Snapmaker SnapSpeed PLA\n220° / 0°” – “This is the Material Profile associated with the filament in the selected Nozzle - it defines basic information about the kind of filament you are using. You can find them in Settings->Filament->Material Profiles – see article <link>“
7) Pulldown/edit box “Snapmaker PLA @U1” – “This is the [Orca] slicer profile that will be used for this filament on this machine. Slicer Profiles are managed in Settings->Slicing->Slicer Profiles – see article <link>“
etc.
SimplyPrint is very flexible and capable, but the complexity and flexibility is at odds with the “Simply” part. You guys work with it day in and day out, and so I think you are maybe a little bit blind to how opaque some of this stuff is to the average user. I have been a 3D hobbyist for years, I have an engineering degree, and I guarantee I have been programming longer than most of your team has been alive – and I still find it confusing sometimes. I can’t imagine, say, my next-door neighbor getting a 3D printer for christmas and trying to figure all of this out without some more hand-holding inside the UI.
Hi John :) thanks for the detailed suggestion! We do appreciate those!
I agree with a lot of what you’ve put forth - and “developer blindness” is real, with no official cure in sight! However, we are very aware of it - we have been doing this for a long time, and are very aware of the fact that we’re not our own target audience (if we were, SimplyPrint would look much more like a terminal window! ;)). We have to design SimplyPrint for old and young, people who can barely operate a smartphone and ones that grew up with one in the crib - as well as teachers and students of all ages, hobbyists, farms, enterprise & schools - that does make it a bit difficult to make both powerful and simple. We do always strive to earn the “Simply”-part of our name - and know that we set ourselves up for scrutiny by our users if anything is complicated (and we’re here for it! ;)) - so most definitely in the slicer, and many other places, there’s definitely room for improvements and simplification.
Much of what you suggest we do already do in various other pieces of UI, adding explainers inside selects/dropdowns, adding automatic popups explaining a feature the first time you click on it, and many parts of the slicer would benefit from a similar “treatment” 💪
We always appreciate feedback, and the only thing we ask in return for the open forums and access, is just a little “credit” - we’re indeed a (mostly) young (and young-minded) team, but we’ve been doing this for 6.5 years. Priorities and the complexities in the very different audiences that we all cater to and have plans for - with one unified panel - makes for a… challenging development task to say the least: but not due to blindness or lack of effort. A good suggestion is good even without listed qualifications :)