OptaPlanner design questions

optaplanner_design_questions.adoc

OptaPlanner Design Q&A

1. What do you think about the images in the docs? (which are reused in our slides!)

   Answer1

Some images from the docs/slides(all):

In practice: images embedded in the docs, images embedded in reveal.js presentations.

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1. What do you think about the icons in the Swing examples? (such as those when starting OptaPlannerExamplesApp)

   Answer2

2. What do you think about our Swing examples app in general?

   Answer3

Note	For all OptaPlanner images, the only hard rule is that they must use the Tango color palette in Inkscape: http://tango.freedesktop.org/Tango_Icon_Theme_Guidelines By standardizing on 1 color palette, all images can be combined randomly in the same slide deck or in a new image.

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Some logo images of our use cases and examples (all):

OptaPlanner logo:

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OptaPlanner icon:

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cheaptime:

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cloudbalancing:

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curriculumcourse:

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dinnerparty:

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examination:

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investment:

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machinereassignment:

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nqueens:

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nurserostering:

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pas:

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projectjobscheduling:

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tennis:

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travelingtournament:

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tsp:

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vehiclerouting:

optaplanner_design_report.adoc

OptaPlanner Design Report

Report of my (oskopek) meeting with RH Design Intern Mariia Leonova in Brno on Aug 26 2015. Some of her comments are inline.

General

• No black borders (edges). "The borders must go."

• More spacing around text and edges.

• More whitespace is always better in general.

• Align text to center (horizontally & vertically).

• Aim for matching colors, calmer colors.

SwingUI

• "Oh, that is so nineties!" → Get rid of the 90’s look (change the look&feel?).

  • Be careful with cross-platform compatibility.

  • Get rid of the gradients on buttons.

• Modern (flat) icons instead of 3D and pixel art.

  • Try to find one icon set and use icons only from there.

  • Mariia could help with that if time permits.

• Get rid of the unsolved datasets buttons → make them into a selectable list.

  • "People don’t mind scrolling."

• Align the Show Web Examples button properly.

• Make the example group titles bigger and more noticeable (main window).

  • Get rid of the scroll bar in the description.

• Consider a font change for the Swing UI.

Docs (images)

• Separate (try to differentiate, group) parts of the images. Make them stand out, put the flow arrows between the separated groups.

  • Aim for this, not this.

• Class diagrams

  • Get rid of the borders (debatable, I’d say to keep them)

  • Align text to center

  • Align the * and 1 to the arrow (align them to one column, move them towards the arrow "body")

  • Explain the * somewhere in the docs (link to UML)