UI Suggestions

💬 Lounge
1

A couple of disclaimers before we get into it:

  1. Personally I have no problems with the current UI, but I came into IT when punch cards were the latest thing.
  2. I have absolutely no associations with the HE team other than I use their product. (Wouldn’t blame them for giving me a hard time for starting this. :upside_down_face: )
  3. There is no guarantee that anything discussed here will ever lead to a new UI (but I may know a very talented Java developer - not me - that might be willing to look at it in his spare time).

Having said the above, please observe a few ground rules:

  1. This is not a bash on HE thread, please keep all comments positive.

  2. This is not a place to tout your own product (understand that some comparisons will be made to other UIs but let’s keep it to that.)

So much for the preliminaires, now to the discussion, what do you think a good UI for HE should include?

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2

A nicer graphical rules engine, like Stringify (RIP) without the complexity of Node-RED.

2 Likes
3

That was a fairly clean interface.

4

More context sensitive actions (like clicking an element shows it's options).
Example: Feature Request: Easier rule editing with popup menu

1 Like
5

Drag and drop dashboard tiles. We know it's possible since Smartly was able to do it. It should really be a built-in feature.

5 Likes
6

Ability to group devices in the devices page with tags or some other mechanism other than naming prefixes.

Also on the devices page, add a couple of checkboxes to filter by lights, switches, locks, motion sensors, etc. I know I can type those into the filter box but I always just find myself scrolling through the list unless I'm on my phone.

On the app list, make the apps collapseable so we don't have to see all the child apps if we don't want to.

Allow logging to a syslog server.

5 Likes
7

Have you seen this driver?

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In my humble opinion, I suggest that the UI first include the following:

  1. Simple Automation
  2. Motion Lighting
  3. Notifier
  4. Modes Manager

In other words, the first level "rules". This would allow it to compete with competitors who claim an easy to use, easy to deploy, drag and drop, "simple" smartphone app.

I'm not sure if RM should ever be deployed on a smartphone - it's just too complicated.

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9

I miss Stringify so much.

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10

Funny that you should mention that. Kris Linquist (formerly of Stringify, now with Comcast) had mentioned a few years ago that a repeated request from Stringify users was for a web editor that could be used on a desktop.

Have you tried Node-RED? While it does take a little bit of getting used to (but doesn't everything?), it is very easy to put together complex automations.

2 Likes
11

I would love to see improved UI as well. I started to type out my suggestions then decided to wait for the would you like us to make it prettier / easier or would we like the time spent on developing new features response.:slight_smile:

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12

I will probably break down and give it a try at some point.

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13

Not in my experience. I have a few now and they were quite problematic to set up, troubleshoot and get working exactly as I want. I still have several that don't do what I want properly. There is also a huge number of nodes available, with the classic "you don't know what you don't know" problem. Trying to find an easy way to achieve something can turn into a real time sink. I miss the simplicity and ease of use of Stringify, which included several common integrations that made it simple to achieve automations that are still tough to achieve easily in Node-RED.