Coming Soon: The New Toolbar Is Rolling Out to All Users

Would it be possible for you to consider making it at least semi-transparent? Right now it just straight up *removes* screen real-estate from the canvas for no good reason, a big block of empty white or black pixels, whereas the old toolbar allowed the canvas to be visible even with the toolbar accessible.

BEFORE you release it to all, PLEASE let us choose, which color we want to use the Sidebar and its Menus in! (Un-tie it from the Rest of the VTT)

THANKS!

Riley D. said:

Hey folks!

As you know, we’ve had the UI Redesign effort underway for quite some time as an opt-in behind a toggle in the settings panel. Starting in the New Year, we’ll be moving pieces of this into the main Roll20 interface to replace legacy components in preparation for Jumpgate.

To start, we’ll be rolling out the New Toolbar to all users as the only option on January 16th. This feature has been available for testing to users for more than half a year now, and we’re very happy with the feedback we’ve gotten and with the new experience that this unlocks. We’ve also gotten some recent work done here like fully supporting Light Mode and Dark Mode, and adding responsive design to the New Toolbar so that it will smartly show and hide buttons behind a “...” menu based on your screen size.

Page Folders, New Compendium Search, and other upcoming UI Redesign efforts will stay behind the opt-in flag for now, but it will be renamed “Experimental Features.” Our plan is to continue to put new work behind this flag where possible so that users who are comfortable living more on the bleeding-edge are able to test and provide feedback, but other users who only want a more stable experience can wait until rough edges have been smoothed out.

We’re very excited about the future of Roll20, and if you haven’t read about Jumpgate yet, please check out the blog post to get an idea of what we’re looking to accomplish – bringing you a modern VTT that will be fun to use for decades to come.

And as always, thanks for your support of the team as we work to make Roll20 better.

Teller said:

Would it be possible for you to consider making it at least semi-transparent? Right now it just straight up *removes* screen real-estate from the canvas for no good reason, a big block of empty white or black pixels, whereas the old toolbar allowed the canvas to be visible even with the toolbar accessible.

If you're comfortable using Stylus, you can use this code to make the left toolbar background transparent and not blurry: 

div.master-toolbar-outer#master-toolbar { background: transparent; backdrop-filter: none; }

Or you can adjust the transparency of the entire toolbar (including the buttons)

div.master-toolbar-outer#master-toolbar { opacity: 50%; }

I find that for some reason the new UI does not allow setting up doors using Matt's Door Script. Up to now I have just switched it off for set up and back on afterwards.

Teller said:

Would it be possible for you to consider making it at least semi-transparent? Right now it just straight up *removes* screen real-estate from the canvas for no good reason, a big block of empty white or black pixels, whereas the old toolbar allowed the canvas to be visible even with the toolbar accessible.

Agreed!!! Or alternately, a hover to pop out option on the toolbar rather than a button press. 
(Ie. the toolbar pops out when you push the mouse into the side of the window.)

Before the final release can you please make it that the pop out boxes, for example the pop out box for the measure tool, can be resized or hidden with a key bind, so they don't take up half the screen all the time.  I know I can drag it ot the bottom of the screen and get it out of the way, but a way to resize it or hide it manually would really help.

+1
My stylus hacks thank you.

Riley D. said:

Yes! We are working on a system where the Measure Toolbox can be toggled on and off even while the Measure Tool is selected. That should be done before this change goes live.

Thank you, that would be perfect.

Nice, and new icons too?

I still haven't got a clue what the Journal one is meant to represent, but they are certainly an improvement on the previous ones.

Oenanthe said:

I still haven't got a clue what the Journal one is meant to represent, but they are certainly an improvement on the previous ones.

It's a book, with two stars on the cover.

Riley D. said:

Yep! We took another stab at the Collections and Compendium icons based on the feedback we got.

Can you PLEASE finally FIX the CONTRAST ISSUES with Light mode?! In dark mode when hovering over those icons they are highlighted in purple! In Lightmode, this is NOT the case! Same goes for EVERY DIALOGUE NOW in Light Mode (since the Light Mode Sidebar was introduced!)
Just create a character and then delete it in Light mode... NO CONTRAST AT ALL! Same with the Icons in the right sidebar!

keithcurtis said:

Oenanthe said:

I still haven't got a clue what the Journal one is meant to represent, but they are certainly an improvement on the previous ones.

It's a book, with two stars on the cover.

Weird looking book, square, two stars, a black line and a bite taken out of the side.

I guess books in the US must look different to books in the UK.

At least the new Compendium books look like books.

Oenanthe said:

Weird looking book, square, two stars, a black line and a bite taken out of the side.

I guess books in the US must look different to books in the UK.

At least the new Compendium books look like books.

The weirdness kind of stems from the fact that it is the only icon in the lineup that is trying to depict a 3d object instead of just 2d.  The  book is viewed as if you are sitting at a table looking at a closed book laying on the table ahead of you so that you are seeing part of the body/pages and back cover (the black line and bite) at the bottom of the book.

Wow, that's what they're shooting for?. As someone who once drew images for service manuals, I think an isometric would have worked better. Even the old clipboard was more intuitive. What about the "open book" icon that was tried for the compendium tab?

Kraynic said:

The weirdness kind of stems from the fact that it is the only icon in the lineup that is trying to depict a 3d object instead of just 2d.  The  book is viewed as if you are sitting at a table looking at a closed book laying on the table ahead of you so that you are seeing part of the body/pages and back cover (the black line and bite) at the bottom of the book.

Rick A. said:

Wow, that's what they're shooting for?. As someone who once drew images for service manuals, I think an isometric would have worked better. Even the old clipboard was more intuitive. What about the "open book" icon that was tried for the compendium tab?

Kraynic said:

The weirdness kind of stems from the fact that it is the only icon in the lineup that is trying to depict a 3d object instead of just 2d.  The  book is viewed as if you are sitting at a table looking at a closed book laying on the table ahead of you so that you are seeing part of the body/pages and back cover (the black line and bite) at the bottom of the book.

Yeah basically this:

All I can say is that it made immediate sense to me. A quick google image search on "book icon" will turn up many similar images.

I think the latest change broken something somewhere. Images aren't loading at all right now.

M2the2ndpower said:

I think the latest change broken something somewhere. Images aren't loading at all right now.

Hi M2the2ndpower!

Can you elaborate? Is it your uploaded images or marketplace images in the Library tab, images on the VTT, Images in chat, journal tab, etc., images on the VTT? I just loaded a game and am not seeing anything broken.

EDIT: There were apparently some broken image reports earlier today. Hopefully the issue is fixed for you, now?

The point of multi-user testing is to gather at least five individuals. If the purpose isn't apparent to most, you don't take the positives and throw away the negatives: you review your choices, because confusion in a small group translates to confusion in a large group. 

I'm still adhering to my previous advice on the art tools not representing an art library, and going to point to the other drawing tools also having a brush as a point of confusion, and the speaker not being clear that this is the tab that has the audio library, not the sound controls for speech and chat. 

Edited to add: I'm familiar with the tabletop for almost ten years now, and I'm pausing each time before I select it. 

Riley D. said:

We just pushed out a new update with the change I mentioned above, and players will now see a more compact toolbar that uses only the vertical space needed to reclaim some screen real estate. 

I'm thankful, but I'm also very confused. I use Roll20 primarily as a Game Master, and I don't see anything different? Did you forget to make this change for Game Masters as well?

If anything GMs need screen real-estate More than the players do.

@Teller
make sure you are logged in as a GM.

Teller said:

Riley D. said:

We just pushed out a new update with the change I mentioned above, and players will now see a more compact toolbar that uses only the vertical space needed to reclaim some screen real estate. 

I'm thankful, but I'm also very confused. I use Roll20 primarily as a Game Master, and I don't see anything different? Did you forget to make this change for Game Masters as well?

If anything GMs need screen real-estate More than the players do.

He did say 'Players' would see the difference, so I'm guessing changes for GMs haven't gone through yet.


On a different note, one of my players on Friday was trying the new UI, and couldn't get a character sheet to open up.
We were playing 7th Sea 1st Edition, and I know he was on either Chrome or Firefox.  Everything worked fine once he opted out of the new UI.  It was working fine for me and the other two players (not sure if they were on the old or new UI) so I'm wondering if other have heard of similar issues.

ONLY for Players. As the GM you still have the full sidebar...

Teller said:

Riley D. said:

We just pushed out a new update with the change I mentioned above, and players will now see a more compact toolbar that uses only the vertical space needed to reclaim some screen real estate. 

I'm thankful, but I'm also very confused. I use Roll20 primarily as a Game Master, and I don't see anything different? Did you forget to make this change for Game Masters as well?

If anything GMs need screen real-estate More than the players do.

vÍnce said:

@Teller
make sure you are logged in as a GM.

My bad.  Apologies. I thought it was just in regards to missing tools, not that GM's should/would also get a compact view of the toolbar.

I like the full sidebar as GM, so please don't change this!

Riley D. said:

So both Players and GMs get the benefit of the Toolbar collapsing down to fewer buttons if you have smaller screen sizes. We specifically also rolled out the more compact version to Players (since they have a lot less buttons in the first place, and even at pretty standard screen sizes there was a lot of wasted space).

I think I am hearing a request though that we consider maybe a breakpoint where if your screen is large enough and you would have a lot of wasted space in the toolbar even as a GM, we consider doing a compact version like the Player version?

I wouldn't mind smaller GM toolbar height to recover map realestate on the middle-left, but, NOT at the expense of any impairment on the LAYERS section at the bottom-left, which has proven to be a huge time-saver and interface improvement. For my use of the VTT, that part needs to stay persistant at lower-left. I've found it very convenient. 

So i would vote yes if Roll20 can eliminate (or increase transparancy on) the buttonless middle-section, while still keeping the Toolbar visibility at top AND BOTTOM intact. Maybe it would be 2 floating toolbars, with the Layers one anchored to bottom-left beside the Players. 

Also i would like to Highlight (to the Forum) that there are already elegant alternative interface solutions in-place, that some Users may not be aware or maybe haven't developed the habit of using these features, so increasing Awareness and Education on these features might help:

1. The existing ability to completely hide the left-hand toolbar with the little << button. 
2. The existing ability to access many/most (all?) toolbar buttons including Layers by using Keyboard Shortcuts. 

With those important features in-place, to me it's a bonus if the toolbar can be further minimized in pixel efficiency. 

The option to close the windows when using things like the Measuring tool would be cool. Too many times have i needed to measure something in the top left to have to move the window away first to do so lol.
I end up dragging them off to the far far left to get them out of the way. But it'd be nice to be able to minimize or completely close them when using them would be nice.
Also being able to move the different icons on the left would be nice. I find myself switching between token and map the most and they're spaced really far. stuff like that so everything is where i want it. Heck be nice to just only have the buttons i use could be really cool.

But otherwise it's pretty good the way it is overall. Like the effort. ^^

As for switching Layers, I use shortcuts. That way I don't have to click down left on the different layers every time I need to switch... and the rest is conveniently placed at the top. With Advanced Shortcuts enabled it is "o" = Object Layer (Tokens etc.), "m" = Map Layer, "k" = GM Layer (maybe "keep"?) and "," for Lighting Layer (really don't know why they chose this as the shortcut for the Lighting Layer)...

Mr. NumNums said:

The option to close the windows when using things like the Measuring tool would be cool. Too many times have i needed to measure something in the top left to have to move the window away first to do so lol.
I end up dragging them off to the far far left to get them out of the way. But it'd be nice to be able to minimize or completely close them when using them would be nice.
Also being able to move the different icons on the left would be nice. I find myself switching between token and map the most and they're spaced really far. stuff like that so everything is where i want it. Heck be nice to just only have the buttons i use could be really cool.

But otherwise it's pretty good the way it is overall. Like the effort. ^^

Speaking of custom css and transparency, I wanted a nice fade in/out:

div#master-toolbar {opacity: 0.2; transition: opacity 1s ease-out 0.5s;}
div#master-toolbar:hover {opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease-in 0s;}

I started a section on the Community Wiki's Stylus-page for snippets to adjust the new toolbar: https://wiki.roll20.net/Stylus#Toolbar_Redesign