Making the SDK toolbar configurable

Upon observation, we found that grouping seemed trivial until we attempted to define it in practice: some categories had too few similar tools to be worth a group, while others had too many to remain readable and user-friendly. As a result, we ultimately arrived at two mechanisms. Tools could be laid out in place, where spacing alone carried the grouping, or collapsed into a drop-down, where the first tool became the icon and the remaining tools were listed with labels. In light of this insight, one mechanism was intended for groups we wanted to keep visible, while the other served groups we wanted to keep available, in order to drive a more seamless and intuitive experience overall.

In light of customer feedback, it seemed that customers wanted toolbars on all sides, at every breakpoint, and in any number they saw fit. Granted, this was not necessarily buildable in a literal sense, so we ultimately set a limit of two layers, with the inner layer able to be either full-width or floating, and tools overflowing into a drop-down once they ran out of room. Ultimately, we came to believe that this ceiling was what made the freedom feel genuinely seamless and intuitive for our customers.

After observing that the hand-off process kept failing in a similar manner each time, we determined that developers were not necessarily able to attend every call, decisions had often been made months earlier, and the work moved between developers over time, which meant that the same questions tended to resurface while the answers largely lived within our own understanding of the project. To address this issue, we documented toolbar capabilities and organization as guidelines across four categories, which appeared to reduce the number of recurring questions and helped take some of the load off the broader team. Ultimately, on a project of this duration, we believed that an undocumented decision was likely to be made again by whoever picked up the work next, underscoring the importance of a cohesive, well-documented approach.