Interface usability and consistancy

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corce
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 11:25 am

Interface usability and consistancy

Post by corce »

Hi I don't know if you are working on this on upcoming versions I think I ready you are changing the backend interface, but here goes:

If you look at these pages they are all performing a similar action, listing items:

Edit News
Open questions
Glossary
Edit FAQ
Categories

However they are all different in ways that I think are unesessary and complicated for users, look at these actions as an example:

How do you delete?

You click the delete icon, unless you are on the "open questions" page in which case you click the "Delete!" link. They should all be the same. Also the delete icon is not very good, looks too much like a printer, it would be much better as a red cross.

How do you edit?

Edit news: click edit icon
Open questions: click "take question and edit" link
Glossary: click glossary item (item should be called "term" in english)
Edit FAQ: click on FAQ title
Categories: click edit icon

There are too many different ways, there should be an edit icon on every page. I would also alter the icon so it has no magnifying glass, the paper and pencil alone would be easier to understand.

Also consider how the lists look, they are all lists, they should all look as similar as possible so users aren't confused or have to learn several interfaces.

Finally, when I am on the Content tab in the administration pages it should be highlighted, and the menu on the left should always be the same.
corce
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 11:25 am

Re: Interface usability and consistancy

Post by corce »

I would also change the menu structure on the content page:

Navigation
Categories
FAQs
News
Open Questions
Comments
Glossary

Quick Actions
Add Category
Add FAQ
Add News item
Add Glossary Term

The most important thing is to get the same language on all of the items, they are all lists apart from add FAQ, so add FAQ is an action not a menu item. At the moment some things say edit in them, but actually you are just looking at the lists when you click on an edit link.

I have attached the first steps towards this, re ordered main menu items so content is second (I think its more important and used more often than users. Changed the sub menu under content to be the words and order listed above. I have not added a second menu of action or included the additional actions, so add faq just comes at the end of the list.

Files are:
lang\language_en.php
admin\header.php
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Thorsten
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Re: Interface usability and consistancy

Post by Thorsten »

Hi,

an improved usability is our main goal for the 2.7 release. I hope to start the development next week and I try to add your suggestions. The reason of the inconsistancies are some old parts of the software...

bye
Thorsten
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corce
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 11:25 am

Re: Interface usability and consistancy

Post by corce »

New update with menu items now highlighting on the page you are on.

Files are:

admin\header.php
admin\style\admin.css
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Thorsten
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Re: Interface usability and consistancy

Post by Thorsten »

Hi,

your patch breaks the layout... I'll try to fix that.

bye
Thorsten
phpMyFAQ Maintainer and Lead Developer
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corce
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2010 11:25 am

Re: Interface usability and consistancy

Post by corce »

There was a spelling error preventing the exports page from highlighting, fixed in the attached.

Which part of the layout is broken for you?
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Thorsten
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Re: Interface usability and consistancy

Post by Thorsten »

Hi,

the left second level menu moved to the right side... but I'm working on it.

bye
Thorsten
phpMyFAQ Maintainer and Lead Developer
amazon.de Wishlist
Thorsten
Posts: 15560
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2001 11:14 am
Location: #phpmyfaq
Contact:

Re: Interface usability and consistancy

Post by Thorsten »

Hi,

I just committed and pushed your patch for the 2.6.9 release. It'll be included in the 2.7 release as well.

Thanks!

bye
Thorsten
phpMyFAQ Maintainer and Lead Developer
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