Permanent icons

Heyez

The more I try and do serious work on BM3 the more I get bummed out on unnecessary taps/navigation. @mathieugarcia has said a keys icon in left side column is coming, which is great

Some other buttons in that left side column that would smooth out the overall BM3 workflow -

Pattern Edit - if I'm in pads view and playing patterns via the pattern browser. If I decide I want to edit a pattern and then get to back when I am, I need to - hit sequencer page button, then pattern edit. Then edit my pattern. Then hit pads view again. Then open browser again.
If there was a 'Pattern Edit' icon in the column it could be like a page toggle. Hit it once to go to pattern edit page for the currently playing/selected pattern. Hit it again to return to the page you were on (in my example - pads view). Would feel soooo much smoother.

Favourite Folder - if I could assign my main Sample folder to a permanent shortcut in that left column, and hit it to access that folder/browser. it'd be a workflow godsend. Currently depending where I'm at in which page etc, and the last folder I browsed, it can take way too many taps just to get to my sample folder. Ideally it could be instant..

Function/Shift - This is more of a longterm thing. Should probably be added while there's space left in that column so that secondary functions/shortcuts etc can be implemented over time. For ergonomics I'd maybe have this at top, under the ableton link button, possibly double the height of the other icons for easy targeting during performance. This button could be integral to hundreds of potential functions but that's another thread

Resample - long press for settings (destination/sync/input/threshold etc). Settings are remembered until Settings window is opened again and changed.
Hit the Resample icon once to record, once again to stop (if not using the sync settings). Instant resampling accessible from any page, at any time. Would be a HUGE addition..

DeanDaughters

Some really fantastic ideas here, @Heyez

Nice one

funk

I like these quite a bit too. Would be immense in improving workflow. Reminds me of this article:

https://blog.evernote.com/blog/2015/12/11/evernote-and-the-brain-designing-creativity-workflows/

"Lack of Stigmergy

One of the most important discoveries in cognitive science in recent years is that cognition is embodied and situated.
This means that our primary mode of thinking is not manipulating abstract symbols (like a computer does), but rather using our body (“embodiment”) to directly interact with objects in the environment (where they are “situated”). In this way, we offload some of our cognitive processing onto our environment, which is after all capable of storing information much more efficiently than our brains are.
This is one way that memory grandmasters train, called a “memory palace.” By associating information to be memorized with specific locations (“on the cupboard in the kitchen,” or “third left-hand drawer in the study”), they harness the brain’s vast location-dependent memory.
Think about it: memorizing a phone number without constant review is a challenge, yet you can probably identify the locations of hundreds of objects in your house.
This concept is called stigmergy (or stigmergic cognition) and represents one of our brains’ greatest innovations in saving energy.
Yet tags completely disregard stigmergy and instead force us to think about our notes in a completely abstract way — as virtual holograms existing in multiple parallel and complex interconnecting universes, instead of as physical objects residing in a single physical location (even if that location is a notebook or other metaphor). The “limitation” of notes residing “only” in a single location is in fact a strength!
Perverse Affordances

In design, you create affordances when you want your user to do something, and disturbances when you want them to not do something. Thus you encourage desired behaviors by making them easier, and discourage undesired behaviors by making them harder.
So which behaviors are desired and undesired when it comes to organization? In any organizational system, the constant temptation is to over organize, i.e. to create too many categories, too many subdivisions that are too specific. As the number of tags grows arithmetically, their complexity grows geometrically, for multiple reasons, both technological and cognitive. This phenomenon is all the more problematic with unlimited digital storage that never runs into physical constraints."

Heyez

@DeanDaughters @funk yeah agreed, pretty small details but overall workflow improvements would be HUGE. Having that left column as a kind of 'centre of operations' with more instant access to the most used commands....Feels like a no-brainer

The BM3 touchscreen ui is quite 'physical' in its own 'flat and glassy' way. It's not like using a mouse/daw and is more similar to hardware instruments where there is also a limited real estate for UI. But no real reason why a touch software UI should be any less focused on workflow than a well designed hardware UI would be. They both use 'buttons'

@mathieugarcia it would be change the entire feel of working in BM3 to have these thrown in there if/when you get the chance