Electrum lite GUI

[genjix]

Current version:




========

Hi,

Electrum has a new lite-mode GUI. The normal expert-mode is available when clicking the expand button in the bottom right.

I'm interested in feedback people have:



* Entering a number in the amount field will show the conversion amount.
* Clicking the balance label changes the currency between USD/GBP/EUR.
* Click the bottom left button to show the normal 'expert-mode' GUI.
* Address box has text completion for address book entries.

Currently only 1 account exists (top left button) called "Checking". Multiple accounts will be added in the next release.

-----------

Looking for feedback. Lots of design work went into this. My old design notes are pasted below (much of it is on paper). I eventually dropped the system tray concept as it's rapidly falling out of favour in desktops. If you look at the dock concept being adopted by Mac, Windows 7 and Ubuntu, then there is this movement towards having a single place where a program runs. Clicking an app to restore it (from minimised state) or start it up (from closed state) has no big distinction. Electrum with its quick startup times fits this kind of model for users. There should be little functional difference between closing or minimising Electrum to your dock.

Hi,

We met at the metalab hackerspace where I was discussing plans for a
Bitcoin UI.

Based on the design notes of that session, I have gone and written a
mockup in Qt.

My guess for users is that they typically send more frequently than they
receive. You maybe purchase a number of Bitcoins in bulk from an exchange
and then spend them on smaller sites/donations.

Rated in order of importance:
- Send bitcoins
- Check balance
- Get your address to receive donations
- Manage your addresses (not very important)

Based on this, we have functionality which is important and then less
important. Each one of these 'actions' is highly separate from the others
and so it makes sense to split them into separate dialogs:
http://i46.tinypic.com/jj1v2x.png

Main / most important action here = Send

Send - send bitcoins and quick glance of the user's balance:
http://i45.tinypic.com/168y2ir.png

I made two mockups here. I'm just unsure how to nicely show the balance
without it looking forced or out of place. Also I feel like the balance
should maybe get more emphasis to encourage the behaviour of the user to
use this as a place to check their balance. Maybe it is not obvious to the
first time user that this is a place they can check their balance?

"Copy Address" opens no dialogs. It silently copies your bitcoin address
to your clipboard.

"History" shows the list of transactions like:
https://en.bitcoin.it/w/images/en/d/df/Spesmilo_esperanto.png
(old app I made)

"Settings" is the usual things.

Now it is possible to have multiple "accounts" (wallets in bitcoin speak)
for people to logically separate their funds. I was thinking to either
make a new entry on the right click system tray menu called "Manage
Accounts" or throw it inside Settings. I'm erring towards the latter right
now.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Old screenshots:

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[jim618]

Looks very nice.

When Electrum responds to bitcoin URI requests, does it show the 'lite' mode ?

[genjix]

Looks very nice.

When Electrum responds to bitcoin URI requests, does it show the 'lite' mode ?

yes, unless you specify otherwise.

[flatfly]

Nice job, genjix!

Here's some quick feedback from me (as a Win XP user):

- I like the size of this GUI. Very nice for casual/mainstream users.

I do have a couple of bug reports & suggestions:

 1. Not sure if this is a Windows-only problem, but when launching Electrum for the 1st time after a cold boot, the balance in the lite GUI stays stuck on 0
     (not on subsequent runs, though.)

 2. The Copy Address button seems to copy a random address if clicked right after launching the app
     Do we really need that button anyway? IMHO, it's taking valuable space and doesn't seem that useful to me.

 3. Is it critical to use HTTPS to get the exchange rate? The reason I'm asking is that the resulting Windows
    stand-alone executable would get significantly bigger if I have to include ssl.py and its dependencies.
    It would be around 7+ MB rather than 5.9MB without it. This kind of thing could matter when targeting
    the Windows audience.
 
 4. Hopefully the theme/icons/colors are not final as they could be a lot more polished IMHO.

[bitcats]

Great job! Donation (Bacon) will come ;-)

How can i import an address in the lite Client?

[genjix]

Great job! Donation (Bacon) will come ;-)

How can i import an address in the lite Client?

Thanks 1LDjY9hJs7eFaL8z9vGVXD2spDEPb5oeX3

You cannot import an address. You must do it in expert mode by clicking the bottom left arrow.

[genjix]

Nice job, genjix!

Here's some quick feedback from me (as a Win XP user):

- I like the size of this GUI. Very nice for casual/mainstream users.

I do have a couple of bug reports & suggestions:

 1. Not sure if this is a Windows-only problem, but when launching Electrum for the 1st time after a cold boot, the balance in the lite GUI stays stuck on 0
     (not on subsequent runs, though.)

 2. The Copy Address button seems to copy a random address if clicked right after launching the app
     Do we really need that button anyway? IMHO, it's taking valuable space and doesn't seem that useful to me.

 3. Is it critical to use HTTPS to get the exchange rate? The reason I'm asking is that the resulting Windows
    stand-alone executable would get significantly bigger if I have to include ssl.py and its dependencies.
    It would be around 7+ MB rather than 5.9MB without it. This kind of thing could matter when targeting
    the Windows audience.
 
 4. Hopefully the theme/icons/colors are not final as they could be a lot more polished IMHO.

1. yeah I noticed this. Will have to fix it. (edit: fixed this)
2. But then how will you get your receiving address?
3. I see. Let me investigate this. Thanks for letting me know.
4. Software always looks pretty crude initially. We'll have to fine-tune it as we go along. Perfection is a journey. But I definitely want to have it be eye-candy.

[Deafboy]

Code:

[deafboy@Planetexpress ~]$ sudo pip install http://ecdsa.org/electrum/Electrum-0.61.tar.gz#md5=9b87fd3fa4c4dae5efa896e9b0d6d51c
[sudo] password for deafboy: 
Downloading/unpacking http://ecdsa.org/electrum/Electrum-0.61.tar.gz#md5=9b87fd3fa4c4dae5efa896e9b0d6d51c
  Downloading Electrum-0.61.tar.gz (227Kb): 227Kb downloaded
  Running setup.py egg_info for package from http://ecdsa.org/electrum/Electrum-0.61.tar.gz#md5=9b87fd3fa4c4dae5efa896e9b0d6d51c
    
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): slowaes in /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (from Electrum==0.61)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): ecdsa in /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (from Electrum==0.61)
Installing collected packages: Electrum
  Found existing installation: Electrum 0.60
    Uninstalling Electrum:
      Successfully uninstalled Electrum
  Running setup.py install for Electrum
    changing mode of build/scripts-2.7/electrum from 644 to 755
    
    changing mode of /usr/local/bin/electrum to 755
Successfully installed Electrum
Cleaning up...
[deafboy@Planetexpress ~]$ electrum 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/electrum", line 143, in <module>
    import electrum.gui_lite as gui
ImportError: No module named gui_lite
[deafboy@Planetexpress ~]$

[flatfly]

Nice job, genjix!

Here's some quick feedback from me (as a Win XP user):

- I like the size of this GUI. Very nice for casual/mainstream users.

I do have a couple of bug reports & suggestions:

 1. Not sure if this is a Windows-only problem, but when launching Electrum for the 1st time after a cold boot, the balance in the lite GUI stays stuck on 0
     (not on subsequent runs, though.)

 2. The Copy Address button seems to copy a random address if clicked right after launching the app
     Do we really need that button anyway? IMHO, it's taking valuable space and doesn't seem that useful to me.

 3. Is it critical to use HTTPS to get the exchange rate? The reason I'm asking is that the resulting Windows
    stand-alone executable would get significantly bigger if I have to include ssl.py and its dependencies.
    It would be around 7+ MB rather than 5.9MB without it. This kind of thing could matter when targeting
    the Windows audience.
 
 4. Hopefully the theme/icons/colors are not final as they could be a lot more polished IMHO.

1. yeah I noticed this. Will have to fix it. (edit: fixed this)
2. But then how will you get your receiving address?
3. I see. Let me investigate this. Thanks for letting me know.
4. Software always looks pretty crude initially. We'll have to fine-tune it as we go along. Perfection is a journey. But I definitely want to have it be eye-candy.

1. Thanks!

2. OK, it wasn't immediately clear to me that the "Copy Address" button was copying
one of the user's *receive addresses* to the clipboard. (Should've read your OP more
carefully!) Perhaps I was misled because the only other reference to the word "address" in the GUI is very near that button, in the input field for *destination* address. Perhaps the button should be renamed to something clearer (such as "Copy My Address" but that might be too long), or have a little  explanation in a tooltip, or provide some feedback after it has been clicked?

3. I've tested an alternate (7z-based) compression method in the meantime, which will
only add 150K or so to the download size, so I guess this is not really an issue anymore
(Although I wish the PyQt libraries were not as big, as they currently account for about 85% of the Electrum executable size on Windows, but that's another story...)

4. OK, great!

[genjix]

Interesting. I guess 2. is a problem then.

A tooltip might not be immediately obvious. I changed it to "Copy My Address" but that seems a bit wordy. Try it out and tell me what you think.

I'm thinking maybe a small popup should appear over the button with the address and some text saying "Your bitcoin address for receiving funds has been copied to your clipboard!". I'm wondering if a minimal/small popup that closes by itself might still be sacrificing usability and quickness by increasing the number of clicks. But certainly now there isn't enough "feedback" as to the action that's just happened.

I'm glad the SSL thing isn't a bother. Saves me a tiny bit of effort

[genjix]

Code:

[deafboy@Planetexpress ~]$ sudo pip install http://ecdsa.org/electrum/Electrum-0.61.tar.gz#md5=9b87fd3fa4c4dae5efa896e9b0d6d51c
[sudo] password for deafboy: 
Downloading/unpacking http://ecdsa.org/electrum/Electrum-0.61.tar.gz#md5=9b87fd3fa4c4dae5efa896e9b0d6d51c
  Downloading Electrum-0.61.tar.gz (227Kb): 227Kb downloaded
  Running setup.py egg_info for package from http://ecdsa.org/electrum/Electrum-0.61.tar.gz#md5=9b87fd3fa4c4dae5efa896e9b0d6d51c
    
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): slowaes in /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (from Electrum==0.61)
Requirement already satisfied (use --upgrade to upgrade): ecdsa in /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (from Electrum==0.61)
Installing collected packages: Electrum
  Found existing installation: Electrum 0.60
    Uninstalling Electrum:
      Successfully uninstalled Electrum
  Running setup.py install for Electrum
    changing mode of build/scripts-2.7/electrum from 644 to 755
    
    changing mode of /usr/local/bin/electrum to 755
Successfully installed Electrum
Cleaning up...
[deafboy@Planetexpress ~]$ electrum 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/electrum", line 143, in <module>
    import electrum.gui_lite as gui
ImportError: No module named gui_lite
[deafboy@Planetexpress ~]$

OK this should be fixed now if you wanna test.

[flatfly]

Interesting. I guess 2. is a problem then.

A tooltip might not be immediately obvious. I changed it to "Copy My Address" but that seems a bit wordy. Try it out and tell me what you think.

I'm thinking maybe a small popup should appear over the button with the address and some text saying "Your bitcoin address for receiving funds has been copied to your clipboard!". I'm wondering if a minimal/small popup that closes by itself might still be sacrificing usability and quickness by increasing the number of clicks. But certainly now there isn't enough "feedback" as to the action that's just happened.

I'm glad the SSL thing isn't a bother. Saves me a tiny bit of effort

To me the meaning of that button does look clearer / more intuitive now.  Thanks!
(Of course, that's just my opinion)

Also, how about only showing the BTC balance in the title bar?
The EUR value doesn't show anyway due to the small width of the window (see screenshot)

[bitcats]

I dont like that large Copy button, the GUI looks crammed.

Also, how about only showing the BTC balance in the title bar?
The EUR value doesn't show anyway due to the small width of the window (see screenshot)

Thats right

[genjix]

The problem with moving the balance:

- Click the label
- Type stuff inside the amount field

See what happens. You lose that functionality with it in the titlebar.

[flatfly]

The problem with moving the balance:

- Click the label
- Type stuff inside the amount field

See what happens. You lose that functionality with it in the titlebar.

Actually, I didn't mean to move the balance to the title bar,
but to only show the BTC value (not the EUR) in the title bar, because
it is not wide enough to contain both the BTC value and another currency.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. Let me know if my explanation is still confusing.

[bitcats]

Sent you some bacon 1LDjY9 

[genjix]

How about this?



flatfly, fixed.

[bitcats]

That looks better 

[flatfly]

Yeah, much better, good job!

Thanks for the latest commits. There's still some "ugly flashing" at startup though (noticeable at least on my slow netbook)

[flatfly]

Sent you some bacon 1LDjY9 

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