Right Toolbar needs improvment in 2.8

There is a large discussion right now going on at the devtalk forums about what to do with the right toolbar. Feel free to join in: devtalk.blender.org/t/the-toolbar-sidebar-interface-issue/8704/47

A lot of add-ons would probably work fine if they were in their own actual panel/window/editor (like the properties or outliner panels)

For the rest there could be a preference widget where all the possible side tabs are listed and the user can check/uncheck which ones they want to be visible at the moment. There's no way you need more than 9 or 10 of these things simultaneously.

The biggest issue is add-on developers thinking that their add-on needs its own dedicated tab. In most cases, that's not really needed. A lot of these add-ons could easily be integrated into existing part of Blender's interface.

I think the answer is something that has mentioned many times but always rejected by blender users. A toolbar. I'd take a hard look at the left side t menu and see if it is actually an improvement over 2.79. Here is my test proposal:

1. categorize the tools so you have a hierarchy which allows the ui to display the tools in hierarchical manner while also allowing the user to find tools that do x type of thing. This means creating tool groups like snapping, shading, normals editing, add shapes, measuring, transform. And then each of these groups is categorized under its own sub sections: selections, editing, manage, relations. All these groups are just examples. Creating the actual categories is a big task on its own.

The reason to have at lease two or three levels of categories is to heavily reduce ui spam. Too many sub layers and you end up creating deep tool trees where maybe one tool is at the end of 5 clicks. Too few sub layers and you need to display too many primary tool groups at once because in such situation the first step is to find the correct tool path from that huge list before the user can move down the tool tree to the tool he wanted.

This hierarchy is not just for blender tools but for addons as well. I can't code myself out wet paper bag but I'd imagine finding the good place where to put your addon is not very easy or simple in blender ui. This hierarchy should help with that a lot as a bare minimum all tools should be forced to have a place in the hierarchy.

This hierarchy should not be like the tools are categorized in blender currently. The categorization should be about what the tool does (selects, snaps, moves, shading). Not what the tool edits (vertex, face, normals).

One key aspect of this categorization is make clear division between blender tools and object tools. These are terms I just invented but this is what they mean. Tools like undo, repeat last, snapping, 3d cursor, selecting etc. are all blender tools. They change blender, not the object. Object tools are tools that do something to the object. Move, scale, relations, editing tools like extrude and scissors are object tools. These two groups need to be separated to their own groups and these two tool groups should not be mixed.

2. Rework the t menu with this tool hierarchy. Split the t menu vertically so blender tools are on top and object tools on the bottom. This should mean that when texture painting the paint palette is on top left and not behind right click for example. Like gimp does. But instead of list of icons you have a manageable tool tree where you can view different groups of tools and find them using search or find their sub groups using the search. I don't mean an actual tool tree like the outliner but something that displays the tools based on the hierarchy. 2.79 menu was basically little bit towards this direction but it was super messy and totally lacked hierarchy. Blender tools and object tools were mixed willy nilly and you had to know where something was to find it.

Of course context sensitiveness is key part of this. Makes no sense to clutter the modelling t toolbar with tools from different workplaces (rigging, animation, video editing etc.)

I have quite a few addons and with now, i really can't see ANY names :(

This is describing an issue without proposing a solution. A few proposals around this issue have already been posted here. It may be worth it for you to search them out and contribute to those discussions.

Vertical tabs are not ergonomic. Even after years of usage I need to slowly search through. Horizontal stacking is the better way to have them.

I've seen this brought up quite frequently in the Blender weekly streams for months now, know that devs are definitely aware of this issue. But if you've got some mock ups on how to tackle this situation, do post them here.