SS Beta 2 - Usability thoughts

[Aram Balakjian]

Hi Guys,

Just been playing with SS3 Beta 2 and I have to say it's looking greatly improved, the workflow feels much more consistent now and generally more enjoyable to use.

I had a couple of minor comments that I thought might be worth opening discussions about:

1. Add Page Dialogue - My feeling would be that the site tree should remain visible after clicking the 'new page' button so the user can see where the page is being created, as it's a little disorientating without it. It also would retain the flow of being on a page > creating a new page under it > seeing it created in the tree, as currently when you are returned to edit the new page it is already sitting in the tree so you don't get to actually see it appear, which to me is quite an important step for the user to understand what has just happened. This also ties in with the fact that the parent of the new page page should default to the currently selected page (ticket submitted).

Also currently once in the new page view, there is no way to cancel/go back to the edit/tree view. Having the tree visible would solve this by allowing the user to simply click back to edit another page instead.

2. Level 2 Tabs - Now that there are going to be 2 levels of Tab, my feeling would be the second level should be left aligned, as it feels a little clumsy having both levels right aligned, especially on a wide screen.

3. Multiselect - When in the tree view with 'Multiselect' on, I don't think you should be able to click a page to edit it, it's a bit annoying if on the Nth page you are selecting you miss the checkbox and click the page and are taken to the edit page, then have to go back to the tree and choose 'Multiu select' again. On the plus side it does at least remember your selection.

Anyway as I said it's all looking really good now and I'm getting really excited to see it released!

Cheers,

Aram

[Ingo Schommer]

Hey Aram,

On 20/04/2012, at 1:34 PM, Aram Balakjian wrote:

Hi Guys,

Just been playing with SS3 Beta 2 and I have to say it's looking greatly improved, the workflow feels much more consistent now and generally more enjoyable to use.

thanks for the well explained and constructive points :)

We've actually conducted a usability review of our own

(with external participants), which is just in the process

of being articulated into tickets. Now that the main

features are all in, we can concentrate more on

improving the finer points of the application, like

usability and performance. There's many things in

the report that bugged me for a while already,

but until now it was a matter of prioritization.

I had a couple of minor comments that I thought might be worth opening discussions about:

1. Add Page Dialogue - My feeling would be that the site tree should remain visible after clicking the 'new page' button so the user can see where the page is being created, as it's a little disorientating without it. It also would retain the flow of being on a page > creating a new page under it > seeing it created in the tree, as currently when you are returned to edit the new page it is already sitting in the tree so you don't get to actually see it appear, which to me is quite an important step for the user to understand what has just happened. This also ties in with the fact that the parent of the new page page should default to the currently selected page (ticket submitted).

Hm, you do have a point there. Felipe's showed an alternative UI for that in a popup:

https://github.com/silverstripe/silverstripe-design/blob/master/Design/ss3-ui_pages-tree-add-page.jpg

https://github.com/silverstripe/silverstripe-design/blob/master/Design/ss3-ui_pages-add-pages.jpg

I'm not actually sure  where he intended to use either - Felipe?

For the tree to persist on the "add page", I think we need to find a way

to add+select the new node without refreshing the tree (like in 2.4),

Tree reloads/redraws are expensive, so we could use this as an opportunity to avoid them.

There's also a small chance that users could mistake the tree as a "parent node" selection,

while clicking on any node will get them back to the edit view of that page.

Also currently once in the new page view, there is no way to cancel/go back to the edit/tree view. Having the tree visible would solve this by allowing the user to simply click back to edit another page instead.

2. Level 2 Tabs - Now that there are going to be 2 levels of Tab, my feeling would be the second level should be left aligned, as it feels a little clumsy having both levels right aligned, especially on a wide screen.

I think we have a general problem with the CMS layout being too stretched out on wide screens, maybe we need to mandate a max width,

and show the CMS left aligned with blank space on the right if its exceeded? Center aligned gets a bit weird if you switch to preview+sidebar mode.

Thanks

Ingo

[ClarkePaul]

Some very good points, hopefully we can work these in or at least use
these points when making further changes in those areas.

"I think we have a general problem with the CMS layout being too
stretched out on wide screens, maybe we need to mandate a max width"

@Ingo I agree we need a layout solution even if it's just an area
stating that their website will potentially appear on the right side
(I take it that this is still the plan eventually in later releases?)

[Sigurd Magnusson]

@Ingo I agree we need a layout solution even if it's just an area
stating that their website will potentially appear on the right side
(I take it that this is still the plan eventually in later releases?)

A preview of the site (which you could navigate) was in the alpha 2011 ~May so I suspects its not too hard, more a matter of 'how many easy things can fit between now and stable, given in sum they add to a lot of effort'.

Sig 

[Aram Balakjian]

Hi Ingo,

There's also a small chance that users could mistake the tree as a "parent node" selection,

while clicking on any node will get them back to the edit view of that page.

That is a good point, though thinking about it, perhaps the tree should become a parent node selector? That would then negate the need for the parent node selector on the right and simplify the perceived steps required. Then add a 'cancel' button to go back to the standard tree/edit view?

Aram

 

Thanks

Ingo

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[wolfv]

I'd like to add that a really nice feature would be autosave for all forms (autosave to localStorage). There's some kind of plugin that does that: http://simsalabim.github.com/sisyphus/ (There might be a various number of others, i didn't check that out).

Also Strg+S support, because I'm catching myself way too often pressing those two keys.

But I do know, that right now is busy time with pushing the SS3.0 out, but it might be something for the roadmap ... :) I'd think those would be fairly unique and outstanding features for a CMS.

Just my 2 cents on usability.