Imagining a better project navigator

[Gregory Jansen]

The project navigator is the window panel on the left side of the workbench. It has looked mostly the same since early versions, but I'd like to think about how it can be better organized for work and flexibility. I had some initial thoughts about this, so I tried to express them in ASCII art form.

Some of the motivations are:

1) Create a clear way to organize automated behaviors and how they are triggered.

2) Introduce metadata as leaves in the Arrangement tree, without confusing them with child objects.

3) Make it easier to re-use a metadata source, for example the same source might be used for:

  * a crosswalk to some metadata schema

  * as a manifest, against which files can be audited

  * as a manifest, with a supplied checksum to validate

Anybody have reactions to the link above? I'd love to have some feedback.

thanks,

Greg

[Jenny Bunn]

Sorry Greg,

Being an idiot I know, but when I click on the link I get a lot of code.
Am I supposed to do something else? I like the sound of leaves but have no
idea what that means visually.

All the best,
Jenny

> The project navigator is the window panel on the left side of the
> workbench.
> It has looked mostly the same since early versions, but I'd like to think
> about how it can be better organized for work and flexibility. I had some
> initial thoughts about this, so I tried to express them in ASCII art

> form<https://gist.github.com/1243398>

> .
>
> Some of the motivations are:
>
> 1) Create a clear way to organize automated behaviors and how they are
> triggered.
>
> 2) Introduce metadata as leaves in the Arrangement tree, without confusing
> them with child objects.
>
> 3) Make it easier to re-use a metadata source, for example the same source
> might be used for:
> * a crosswalk to some metadata schema
> * as a manifest, against which files can be audited
> * as a manifest, with a supplied checksum to validate
>
> Anybody have reactions to the link above? I'd love to have some feedback.
>
> thanks,
> Greg
>

Jenny Bunn

Teaching Fellow, Archives and Records Management
Department of Information Studies
University College London
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
tel + 44 020 7679 2481

[Gregory Jansen]

No problem Jenny, I think I skipped some explaining.

I was trying to mock up an interface showing a tree of objects without having to build the actual UI. So when you follow the link, keep this in mind:

- Ignore the line numbers on the left side, they're meaningless
- The plus symbols indicate objects that are closed, but may be expanded
- The minus symbols indicate objects that are open, but may be collapsed
- The star symbols indicate objects that cannot be expanded
- Many of the objects in the mock up don't exist in the workbench now, or are hidden from view.

The whole thing is meant to present a new organizing structure for the left side of the workbench interface. 

[Greg Jansen]

No problem Jenny, I think I skipped some explaining.

I was just trying to mock up an interface showing a tree of objects

without having to build the actual UI. So when you follow the link, keep
this in mind:

- Ignore the line numbers on the left side, they're meaningless
- The plus symbols indicate objects that are closed, but may be expanded
- The minus symbols indicate objects that are open, but may be collapsed
- The star symbols indicate objects that cannot be expanded
- Many of the objects in the mock up don't exist in the workbench now,
or are hidden from view.

The whole thing is meant to present a new organizing structure for the
left side of the workbench interface.

[Jenny]

Thanks for that. I think I am starting to get it (very slowly). Re
your initial points ....

1) I like the idea of making the automation more transparent so that
we know what is going on beneath the surface. This seems a good way of
doing it.

2) and 3) I like the idea of also exposing the metadata more so that
it is easier for reuse, but the planned layout does not intuitively
lessen my confusion between metadata and child objects. The repetition
of metadata in the tree beneath arrangement does throw me a bit.

Hope that helps,
All the best,
Jenny

[Gregory Jansen]

I just wanted to circle back and say that here at UNC we are starting to approach some new workbench functions. In tandem with new functions will come some new usability changes to the UI. As we work on the UI design I'll try to post sketches and mock-ups for feedback from this group.

thanks,

Greg

[Bunn, Jenny]

Dear Greg,

 

Super, am looking forward to hearing more.

 

All the best,

Jenny