First let me try to see if I understand the reader settings correctly: There are two kinds of settings: settings tied to a reader profile and settings tied to a document. On the reader screen, there are simple settings and custom settings. Simple settings don't let you change the reader profile, so they include a simplified version of per-document settings as well as some reader profile settings that you think might be more popular. Custom settings includes the full per-document settings as well as the ability to change the profile.
If that's somewhat correct, a design challenge must be knowing what settings to include in simple. I don't know how common my use case is, but if the following settings were made available outside of expert mode I probably wouldn't need expert mode (I do see how to do them in expert mode though):
1. Ability to change word look-up dictionary list to one of my dictionary groups similar to how search works. (Although given that the old dictionary groups are now search profiles, I'm not sure that would work. It seems like the new dictionary groups are just a way to organize your dictionaries for visual appeal without any functional difference?)
2. Ability to turn off multi-character word selection so that only single characters are selected by default. (The word boundary settings in expert mode are super complex so even if this isn't added to the reader settings, it would be nice if it could be a simple toggle in expert mode.)
3. Ability to customize the top and bottom toolbar icons (in the Expert mode settings for this, it would be nice if the toolbar icons were placed in line with the labels because I know what the icons do but not necessarily what they're called.)
Something confusing:
In custom settings you can add a new interface layout, and you can also add a new interface layout in a reader profile, but they seem to control different things.
Two other random suggestions:
- In the settings on the reader page, you can edit existing reader profiles. Maybe also let users make a new reader profile there?
- Maybe "builtin" when making new profiles could be called "default"? Although its unclear to me conceptually why there are those two levels of customization when I make a new profile—why some settings can be changed on a "builtin" profile but most settings require changing "builtin" to something else. What determines what goes inside and outside of "builtin"?
If that's somewhat correct, a design challenge must be knowing what settings to include in simple. I don't know how common my use case is, but if the following settings were made available outside of expert mode I probably wouldn't need expert mode (I do see how to do them in expert mode though):
1. Ability to change word look-up dictionary list to one of my dictionary groups similar to how search works. (Although given that the old dictionary groups are now search profiles, I'm not sure that would work. It seems like the new dictionary groups are just a way to organize your dictionaries for visual appeal without any functional difference?)
2. Ability to turn off multi-character word selection so that only single characters are selected by default. (The word boundary settings in expert mode are super complex so even if this isn't added to the reader settings, it would be nice if it could be a simple toggle in expert mode.)
3. Ability to customize the top and bottom toolbar icons (in the Expert mode settings for this, it would be nice if the toolbar icons were placed in line with the labels because I know what the icons do but not necessarily what they're called.)
Something confusing:
In custom settings you can add a new interface layout, and you can also add a new interface layout in a reader profile, but they seem to control different things.
Two other random suggestions:
- In the settings on the reader page, you can edit existing reader profiles. Maybe also let users make a new reader profile there?
- Maybe "builtin" when making new profiles could be called "default"? Although its unclear to me conceptually why there are those two levels of customization when I make a new profile—why some settings can be changed on a "builtin" profile but most settings require changing "builtin" to something else. What determines what goes inside and outside of "builtin"?
