small qol ui/ux suggestions

[Wrgys]

here s some suggestions which might be of interest

preview panel for menu items from add menu item

this is the only suggestion i feel pretty strongly should be implemented

the settings ui is really clean and nice but when i was browsing it, i clicked on the menu items ( from add menu item ) expecting to see a preview of the item on the right panel where you would normally configure it; maybe others did too

so here is a gif showing how that would look (ignore the slight up and down movement of the preview, i couldn t align the overlay image pixel perfect in the video editor)

this would also fix another issue, where users could confuse the menu settings item with the actual settings button by mentally enforcing to them this is the menu item area from the first time they click any button from that area

you shouldn t be able to modify the settings or interact with buttons in this preview part

opacity used was 0.25

ability to remap open settings bind

when you have the pie menu open, and you press space it opens settings, which is a nice touch, but it would also be nice if u could change the bind (so i can either change the key or remove the key completely)

my shortcut for the menu is ctrl+space and i got into the habit of pressing space again to close it ( while holding down ctrl cause i use turbo mode ), and it now opens the settings panel after closing the menu

minimum gesture angle to 0 by default

i don t know what this setting does besides causing this issue, i don t have the technical context someone who worked on the program has, so i don t know if this is a valid suggestion

on 1.8 i found it frustrating when i was using turbo mode, to select an element after another that s in a straight line because you couldn t just do a straight line, but had to do a kind of zig zag. and if you try to do it fast you often end up selecting the wrong item ( maybe its just a skill issue ). i noticed the option being available in 2.0 and set it to 0 and it completely fixed the issue, that was literally the only thing that frustrated me about my experience with the app

[Schneegans]

Hi there! Thanks for these suggestions!

preview panel for menu items from add menu item

I see what you mean. I also thought about this. But I think that the main UX problem is that there is no affordance that the buttons are meant to be dragged. They look like they are meant to be clicked. The only indication is the pointer turning into a hand, but this is quite subtle.

Your idea is to make them respond to clicks so that at least something happens when the user does what he thinks is right. I think this is not a real solution to the problem as users will be even more confused. Now they see the settings on the right but what next? How do I add this to my menu?

I think a better solution could be to open a tiny popover above the button which shows maybe a short description and the hint that the button should be dragged up.

What do you think?

ability to remap open settings bind

Here you actually discovered a bug. This shouldn't be possible using space, the official shortcut is Ctrl+, which is way harder to hit by accident. I just fixed this!

minimum gesture angle to 0 by default

It's good that this makes it better for you, but I doubt that it would work as default. This basically makes the menu select an item instantaneously as you move over it. This means that your gestures are now not scale-invariant anymore and you will have to look at the menu to see what happens. It basically means that you cannot select items blindly anymore. This may be fine for you, but it's definitely not how Kando is meant to be used.

That being said, there is also the "Fixed Stroke Length" setting which ultimately has a similar effect. Maybe this makes the behavior even a bit more consistent for you? Try setting the gesture angle back to 20 and the fixed stroke length to 150.

[Schneegans]

I just added the popover idea. I think this is a good solution!

Screencast.From.2025-06-14.06-29-44.mp4

[Wrgys]

oh yeah it looks really clean
it would have saved me the confusion at the beginning

also related to minimum angle
i did what you suggested; i set min angle to 30 and fixed length to 150, and it works really consistent now

initially it was really hard to select in a straight line with one drag, so i set min to 0 and that fixed it
what i didn't realize is that it also made it harder to quickly go back to parent menus and go in a different direction immediately
after i set min angle back, and used fixed length i realized its so much easier to use it quickly now and also i can still go in a straight line without issues, so its overall a much better experience for me.

maybe it would be good to have fixed length force set to !0 when using turbo mode?

[Schneegans]

maybe it would be good to have fixed length force set to !0 when using turbo mode?

No, this would be against Kando's fundamental concepts. There's the option for people like you who prefer this behavior. But on average, it will make you slower. Have you seen this video? Maybe it explains why that is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elHUCarOiXQ