No Buried Settings Mode

[Guest]

[glifford]

!! Please remember to vote. It's just a mouse click. !!

Problem: CIS's interface is messy and deep. There are what are essentially tabs along the top of the main window. Then within each of those tabs, there is another set of tabs (usually only two) on the left. From here you open child-windows. And sometimes in these windows there is another set of tabs or a button to spawn yet another child window!

Solution: An advanced mode that flattens this rather messy hierarchy of tabs and windows. Specifically...

1. "Common tasks" and "Advanced [tasks]" show up together on their respective CIS component window pane.

2. "Common tasks" and "Advanced" tabs are no longer needed.

3. Every window gets its own button (so you no longer have to click through the protected files window to get to the file groups window).

4. If a window has tabs, that window does not get it's own button, but rather each tab gets its own button.

5. This new set of buttons should be arranged thematically on the main window pane (such that "My Protected Files," "My Blocked Files," and "My File Groups" are all next to each other).

6. This new set of buttons should have no descriptions (so that there's space for all of them). Instead they should have tool-tips. Who really needs to see the descriptions every single time anyway?

7. I suppose the advanced mode would be initiated from the main program settings. Or potentially from a button on the green bar.

This should hopefully make it much faster and more consistent to navigate between settings. I've attached a rough image of what I'm talking about. Hope you like it.  

Minor Correction: "Zones and Sets" should obviously read "Zones and Ports"

[glifford]

The merge shoved this thread off to the second page. I'm giving it a one-time bump to bring give it some front page time on the new forum.

[John Buchanan]

I think this is more confusing

[Watasha]

I wouldn't mind some GUI tweaking but I have to agree, this is confusing.

[glifford]

Er. Could you guys be more specific as to what's confusing about this idea? Are you saying it's difficult to navigate? Are you saying you don't get what exactly I'm advocating?

I mean... let's consider... defining a new blocked network zone. Let's suppose you want to add a new network zone. You have to close the My Blocked Network Zones window, go to the advanced tab, go to Security Policy, go to the My Network Zones tab, and finally create a new zone. Then close that, go back to the Common Tasks tab, re-open the My Blocked Network Zones window, and add the new zone.

What happens if you want to add a new file group to your protected files? You click a button in the My Protected Files window to launch a child window that cannot be accessed any other way. Upon making a new file group, you're returned to the My Protected Files window to add the group.

Two very similar tasks... incredibly inconsistent, and more importantly tedious, usability. How could a list of buttons linking directly to their respective windows, with tool tips, and contextual grouping, be more confusing? How could this be more confusing than putting My Blocked Network Zones in Common Tasks, then burying My Network Zones in a tab in My Security Policy under Advanced?

Let's suppose you want to add a new network zone to your blocked network zones. Click Network Zones, add the new zone, close the child-window. Click Blocked Network Zones, add the new zone, close the window.

Let's suppose you want to add a new file group to your protected file groups. Same thing.

Add a new file group to your computer security policy? Same thing. etc.

***

View
+ View Active Connections
+ View Firewall Events

Wizards
+ Define a New Trusted Application
+ Define a New Blocked Application
+ Stealth My Ports

Zones & Sets
+ Network Zones
  + Blocked Network Zones
+ Port Sets

Policies
+ Application Rules
  + Predefined Rules
+ Global Rules

Behavior Settings
+ General Settings
+ Alert Settings
+ Advanced Settings

Is there maybe some confusion over the grouping? Are the titles too vague? Is there some confusion over what's click-able and what isn't? Was it the layout in the picture?

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