[8.3.1] Tweak the Trial Mode Footer
A
Andrew Martin
Got a chance to download and try the new 8.3.1 build from IA. I love the new grouping layout! except for the Activate Ignition footer. Immediately noticeable, and obtrusive!
I love the decision to move it to the footer. It's much more visible to the user how much time they have left. But why make it an overlay that overlaps text on the page? Makes the whole thing feel like an uncloseable popup. Maybe that makes sales feel warm and fuzzy, but as an end user that's just trying to develop... it's just irritating. On top of that I can see some poor engineer had to add in white-space at the bottom of each page so that it doesn't block text. Why not just put it on the same z plane as everything else, kind of like how it's done in the mobile view, but just pushing content out the way instead of overlaying it? similar to what was done on 8.1, 7.9 etc. Or hey, compromise, an actual close icon for the popup that locks it into the same z plane as a dock.
In the meantime, I'm just blocking it with UBlock, so i can be on my merry way.
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A
Andrew Martin
And just to prematurely counterargue that there's plenty of whitespace for it to sit at the bottom. Imagine if you go to read a book, except there's a sticker covering the bottom few lines of each page.
The sticker is easy to peel, and it has a coupon for the next book in the series. so you are glad to have that sticker! But its on every page, and you soon find yourself having to peel the sticker off the bottom of every page before turning it.
I get the feeling every time I get far enough down the page that now there's hidden text I'm not seeing. Because i'm teased with information to the left and right of the "popup" but not able to see it. all of a sudden, the act of scrolling doesn't feel like turning the page, it feels like peeling the sticker. Does that make any sense?
So the whitespace is fine as a "final resting place" for the bottom bar, but the actual experience of navigating and reading down the page is just worse now. The process now becomes scrolling to get the popup out of the way, then turning attention back to the text of the screen to read it.
Phew. rant over. Apologies if that sounded too harsh, I had to get that out of my system. Hopefully it made sense or at least resonates a little bit with you. All the best, AM.