We the People - a request to the Respected Lord of the Buttons

just a quick and superficial search on this forum bring up these results, all basically requesting the same thing:

smaller size buttons.

yes, @Pavel, i have read your reasoning about scientific research, psychological effects and mortality rates of people using smaller buttons…

:slight_smile: but despite these dangers, would you consider the following:

  • just enable the current buttons to be resizable to a smaller size, not just bigger. i guess everybody would be happy with half the size option - nothing complicated to implement

  • you can leave the current - scientific - size as default, but let the people resize them if they want to… what’s wrong with this?

  • in the last years, projects are getting bigger and bigger. i made several projects with 15 - 20 devices involved (and extending) - they use LOTS of buttons and widgets, so the display quickly gets crowded. with option for half sized buttons they could gain 50% more space

  • i didn’t read any research about button sizes, but on the android os buttons are roughly 1/2 or 1/4 the size of the blynk button widget, and they are still usable. also, buttons on the project header (exit project, settings, start / stop, online devices, etc) are 1/4 size of the button widget, still usable

  • the size of the up / down “buttons” on the step widget are exactly half the size of standard button widget, still, i feel they are perfectly usable. so far no one complained thay are too small

  • if a significant amount of blynk people ask for optionally smaller buttons, who cares what the general research says?

8 Likes

We are planning to add smaller button.

13 Likes

@wanek So, I read through this entire topic and each and every subtopic… am I correct in assuming that you want a bigger button?

4 Likes

yeah, but it should be with a pink base color, and green elephants in foreground :elephant:

1 Like

Personally, I think you should just ask for something simpler… like perhaps smaller buttons?

3 Likes

holly shit!!!

Can we have dancing elephants, that play a tune when the button is pressed?

Yes, but you need code for that :wink:

1 Like

Some Work in Progress for you, guys :wink:

image

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One recommendation I have is don’t make any button look like a display… potentially confusing.

I think your current button design is fine… but perhaps an optional reduction to the size of the LED Widget?

this ain’t gonna happen ever, sorry )

1 Like

You just made @wanek cry… that I am fairly certain of :stuck_out_tongue:

Is there any particular reason this can’t happen? I mean the LED size is clearly possible, and a sliders “button” is the same footprint as an LED, and that responds well for touch, so sensing shouldn’t be an issue.

EDIT - Or is such a thing stepping into the proprietary options for the business side of custom Blynk Apps… that I can understand… I guess… if I have too :slight_smile:

actually, i’m 100% sure most users would be happy with a button which is sizable down to 1/2 of the current one (i.e. size of 2 led widgets). thats an ideal “size to usability” ratio.

image

Yes, that blue button size would be better for some applications… but I have noticed that the Play/Stop, Nut and Widget Box buttons are the same size as that little “green around the gills” button… and they are only spaced about 1/8 further apart than distance between two of the smallest element sizes of a desktop grid.

I bet if you made the little button option as well, those that can use it would love it, and those that cannot… well, they can pick the next size up :wink:

Buttons resize would be fine with me as well, but I don’t agree with @wanek and @Gunner on leds size. If led widget was smaller, there would be no way to add text and mark your led, so current size is fine and fits well with other widgets.

Non-labeled, half-size leds as a new widget, perhaps? Or even add text field in active led space, like two characters, that would leave possibility to still label the led somehow and keep it in half space size, but I’m aware that this is too much to ask anyway.

That would be right about RTC, Notifications and Eventor widget size, and that would be ideal size for small button.

No one said anything about making the LED smaller… I was thinking of an optionally small button of that size, that was all.

Come on, Gunner, how would you pick the button that small? Are you kidding me? Button with current led widget size would be eventually usable on tablet, and only if you have really delicate, small hands and eagle-sharp eye :slight_smile:

As I said… we already do have buttons that small… look up, look way up and start/stop your project… etc.
(EDIT - not to mention a slider… even my chubby nose pickers can handle fine movements, let alone a simple press, on such a small vertical or horizontal sized widget)

I have yet to read a "help I can’t click on the start stop button of my App"… Ok, some can’t find the right button :stuck_out_tongue: but once pointed out, it is fully clickable.

And I started out using Blynk with a NexusS sporting a whopping 53mm x 87mm screen… Now typing on the onscreen KB… OK, that got interesting, but I never had any problem clicking on, moving or otherwise accessing any of the equally small features in Blynk.

But then I am not planning to make a matrix of LED sized buttons… or am I… :thinking: