[Plone-UI] Re: Thoughts on making plone ui easier for novice computer users

[Alexander Limi]

On Mon, 7 Mar 2005 13:36:10 -0500, Gerry Kirk  
<gerry at faithonline.com> wrote:

> Here's a few observations from working with a wide cross-section of
> users on our plone-based system of things that provide obstacles to
> people working effectively.

Thanks. :)

> *	needing to first find location to put content. Content is stored
> in various folders in a site, according to site structure. Users have to
> go to the appropriate folder to add in content first. In a typical CMS
> with an RDBMS, a centralized control panel is used to add new content,
> and the system manages the site structure, which is easier for the user
> to figure out IMO. With standard Zope / Plone, the two seem more
> tightly-coupled.

Yes, the idea is to have some sort of dashboard/workspace mechanism that  
people use as their personal page, and where they add content. Normal  
users shouldn't really add content placefully, the system should be able  
to figure that out for them in most of the cases.

If you have seen PloneWorkspaces/CMFWorkspaces, this is the same concept,  
only now we have the possibility to make this Not Suck™, since we finally  
have AT-based types with references.

I'm looking to discuss this at the sprint with people, but it won't be on  
the roadmap before for 2.2 at the very earliest.

> *	tab overdose. It's easy to end up with numerous tabs with just a
> few products installed. The UI only really handles about 4-5 nicely. Too
> many tabs gets confusing and perhaps overwhelming. We need a better way
> to group and display actions.

This is very much a case of people not knowing when to use views, and when  
to use actions or pulldowns with actions. It's as much a developer advice  
issue as anything else. Stuff like PloneCollectorNG is just insane wrt.  
use of tabs. (I don't mean to pick on a specific product, just showing an  
example with a product most people have seen. :^)

-- 
_____________________________________________________________________

      Alexander Limi · Chief Architect · Plone Solutions · Norway

  Consulting · Training · Development · http://www.plonesolutions.com
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       Plone Co-Founder · http://plone.org · Connecting Content
   Plone Foundation · http://plone.org/foundation · Protecting Plone