Re: Belle: Content tree slide-out

[John Sheppard]

Hello,

Fully agree with Dan. It needs to be pinable. And if it can't be it is
better to be fixed as opposed to sliding. I do a lot of editing and I
use the content tree to remind me where I am :)

John

On 21/08/2013 4:15 AM, Dan wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've been keeping an eye on the progress of Belle, and I must say (as
> a front-end dev especially) it's shaping up to be a great thing.
> It'll give us a lot more control over the back-office and much more
> flexibility in what can be done back-end, just as Umbraco does front-end.
>
> The one thing that struck me though, that I've been trying to
> overcome, is the sliding content tree panel. I've given it some time
> and tried to get used to it but I really think it's something that my
> customers (mostly editors) are going to find less intuitive than the
> old interface where the content tree is 'pinned'. I think having the
> content tree visible when you're editing a page is a very good thing;
> I feel disorientated when it's not there and when I need to hover over
> things to see where I am. I've never had a customer who didn't like
> this aspect of Umbraco (in fact very much the opposite) and horizontal
> screen space has never been an issue - which seems to be the main
> 'problem' it solves. I was thinking recently how nice the Webmatrix
> interface is in terms of simplicity and making things obvious but
> actually it's very similar to the current Umbraco back-office,
> sections bottom left, content tree always visible etc, but with some
> nice UI embellishments such as being able to toggle the content tree
> or slide it across to make it wider or narrower.
>
> Anyhow, perhaps the new back-office build will make it easy for
> someone with my skills to tweak this for my own purposes (will this be
> possible?). I just wanted to share my views and my concerns as I feel
> it's important to do so and the community is encouraged to do this.
> I'd love to hear other people's thoughts and perhaps some of the
> design/UI justification for why the content tree area has been
> unpinned as I feel that's one of the few things that's not an
> improvement to the UI. Context menu as a sliding panel on hover or
> click, yes, but content tree, no, IMHO.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dan
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[pe...@littlewebempire.com]

Hi Dan I had the same thoughts too when using it and I raised an issue over at issues.umbraco.org about this.  I also became quite disoriented with how the section would change with a simple rollover of the icon rather than it being the same tree i had open last time I was interacted with it.

Personally I think that the tree should only change sections when you touch/click on a section item and then it should remain that tree until it is changed again. Have the ability to pin it also so it remained open & not over the content would be awesome as well.

[pe...@littlewebempire.com]

This is the issue link. http://issues.umbraco.org/issue/U4-2645 

Maybe go add your throughts / vote it up.

[Casper Horsted]

+1 for 'pinned' or 'pinnable' tree.

As Dan, I never found horizontal space to be a problem, and the constant sliding and switching is rather confusing... But surely there's much to love about Belle :-)

[Niels Hartvig]

I agree and it's also the intention. When there's horizontal room have a it permanent, when there's not (99% tablet) then slide it.

In addition we're working on the hovers to make sure they don't change immediately - here's what we're aiming at:

http://bjk5.com/post/44698559168/breaking-down-amazons-mega-dropdown

Best

Niels...

[Dan]

That's fantastic news, thanks Niels.  Keeping the slide for smaller devices makes total sense.  Happy days :)

[Joao Pinto]

+1 one of the first thoughts when I opened belle was "Why the hell is it closing?!"

[Thomas Kjær Nielsen]

Just tested the BETA a little bit today.

First thing i noticed was a wish to pin the tree - and move the content below the tree out to the right.

Next thing was a wish that the section changes when clicking on the section to the left.

Looks like both is gonna change on desktop screens. Thank you :)

On Wednesday, August 21, 2013 1:27:38 AM UTC+2, John Sheppard wrote:

[Anthony Dang]

I've just downloaded the beta.

I truely believe that the panel sliding is a very big usability issue. When the left panel slides out, it should stay out. But it should not not overlay the right panel.

Also, the labels for the left icons should always be there. A novice/new backoffice user/dev to Umbraco will never remember what icon relates to what.

[Douglas Robar]

I agree with Anthony... the sliding out on less than large screens (1024px wide for instance) sometimes is fine and sometimes is supremely annoying as a content editor or site developer moving between sections of the site. A "pin" to force the side panel to stay out (and not obscure the content loaded in the right panel) just as happens on wider screens would be very very welcome.

I run into this problem when showing off Umbraco using a projector (when will people move beyond 1024px?!?). If I need the extra width for the right-side content area I (temporarily) unpin the left tree. It would be beneficial to have the option.

cheers,

doug.