The Kitewheel Hub June 2018 Release sees the first release of a major user interface overhaul. Every user interface component has been redesigned and reimplemented.  Our changes are based on a wide range of user experience surveys, research and many, many, support calls. We have tried to design an easier to use, easier on the eye product. We hope that you like it and we hope that this is much more new shoes than new coke. 

These changes also lay the groundwork for further improvements and new features in the product. Now that we have given ourselves space in which to put these we feel we can make progress more quickly. 

User Experience

The goal with the user experience was to give a proper home for projects. We realised that the tiles on the home screen were the only place you could see a "project" summary - but that it didn't contain nearly enough information. So we have now introduced a project page that contains real summary information about your project and a place that you can center your workflow rather than going back to the front screen. 

New Look and Feel and Global Navigation

The first thing you will notice is the new look and feel - brighter, fresher, cleaner and more consistent use of highlighting colors. This is so much more 2018 than 2016 - such a long time ago. 


The project tiles exist, in a cleaner layout, with easier filtering, and the project title is the link to take you to the new project screen. 

Colors and Links

Throughout the interface you will see a number of consistent user interface elements and coloring: 

Editing Things 

 if you have changes to save then you will see this button - clearly identified in yellow - and yes we moved the location of  the Save Edits button on the Connection Information window!

 if you see this button you know that you have no more changes to make 

Global Navigation 

We are not saying that the navigation wasn't perfect in the old interface but it was easy to find yourself in a perpetual loop going back through the home screen. 


At the top of the screen you will see a "breadcrumb" that shows exactly where you are in the interface. This makes it easier to return to the project page and also the home page and know exactly where you will be going. Clicking on the logo in the top left corner still takes you back to the home page - just for old times sake. 

In the Upper right you will find a new two new menus:

Project Page 

There is a new Project Page is now the main page for dealing with all components of a project. 

The main sections show the Project Name and Description and immediately below that the current deployments in your environments. 

On the right hand side of the page are a whole series of major navigations and shortcuts to important things.

For more information on the new Project Page see the new documentation.

Metrics

Metrics are now directly linked to the Node instead of being viewed in the right hand panel. Nodes with associated metrics will have a graph icon  on them. Upon clicking the icon you will be able to see the details of the metrics

Data Schema

The data schema has two usability enhancements.

Admin Pages

The Admin pages features three important updates.

Bugs

The user interface redesign has closed a lot of small user interface bugs and user experiences as well as the following bugs: