[geeklog-devel] Suggestion: simple mode

[Euan McKay]

Blaine,

I do use the advanced editor with these sites, but even with the tabs
(which are a great improvement on how things were) there are still too
many options for some people, particularly older users.

I'm concerned with the general usability of Geeklog - I think it could
be much better, with a little more tweaking of what is already there.
Perhaps that would be a more productive path to follow than
considering just the story editor - that was just one example I was
raising. As I mentioned earlier, the problem with usability is that
many users don't have the experience to select what to ignore and what
to focus on. Just having the archive/draft/access rights/etc. options
there is enough to confuse them so much that they lose confidence.
Which is a shame, because they could very easily be creating
something.

One example of a simple improvement then might be to have more tabs in
other plugins (e.g. the staticpages plugin would benefit greatly from
tabs like the story editor), and consider the placing of things on
those tabs. So, for example, the basic editor tab for stories should
perhaps show the title, the introduction edit area, the body edit
area, and the save / cancel / delete buttons only.

OK, I've convinced myself anyway: I think that there should be a more
rigourous consideration of the interface layout of Geeklog, focusing
on presenting core functionality to users in as simple a fashion as
possible, and reducing barriers to access for inexperienced users.
Starting with stories and staticpages as perhaps the most important
features. Sounds like a good SoC project to me.

Euan.


On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 23:50, Blaine Lang <devel at portalparts.com> wrote:
> The Advanced Editor was created with that main purpose to simplify the
> interface and hide all the non-needed options for basic content creation and
> editing.
> If users need or want to explore, the editor's many options are broken out
> into 4 other tabs to further keep things more simplified and organized.
> The default FCKeditor toolbar options are set in a config file so it can be
> simplified to just a few icons.
> Only more adventurous users are going to check out the other toolbar modes.
> I believe the fields on the 'Editor' tab are pretty much the most basic we
> could get it to now.
>
> Are your sites not using the Advanced Editor or should we call it the Simple
> Editor?
> Are they clicking on the other tabs and getting confused?
>
> Blaine
>
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