Here's some initial thoughts RC2. This is a usability report specifically from the point of view of a non-developer. Some points or nit-picky but lend to the overall professionalism of Postnuke.
Browser used: Internet Explorer 7
Installation Package: .8 RC2 Core
Admin
The blank module should be inactive by default
It would be nice to have the hover text explain what the links are for rather than the link text
Admin>Content>Admin_Messages
Remove the underscore in the name
Admin>Content>Categories
There should be some VERY clear documentation readily available for this. Seriously.
Admin>Content>legal
the "l" should be capitalized
Admin>Layout>Blocks
The Blocks list should reflect the block order
The Block display restriction by module should be clearer. State that no selections will display in all modules, or have the selection denote a display restriction.
Function Type(s), Function, and Custom Arguments should be labeled as "Advanced Options"
(bug) On the Block position list, and "e" is showing under the row displaying Title, Module, Name, State until you drag the row. After dragging, the "e" is replaced by the block state.
Block position list tip at the top should be formatted like Admin>Users>Users>Account Panel Manager>Account Panel Properties List
Does anyone actually use collapsible menus? The only implimentation that I've seen used Dynamenu instead.
Admin>Layout>Blocks>Main Menu
.8 installs with the menu block set to display all modules. The allows web site visitors to see things that they probably shouldn't.
If the Menu block is able to display links to all installed modules, why not have that information accessible when adding an entry to the menu (under the Content heading in the block config)
Admin>Security>SecurityCenter
There should be a space between the two words
Admin>Users>Groups
Does not display properly when browser is not full screen, resolutions lower than 1280, or themes that restrict width
Admin>Users>Permissions
Checking the user permissions for unregistered visitors (username: guest) should allow for the User Name field to be blank or "unregistered"
General Comments
Out the box, new web administrators should be able to create a page and have it viewable to web site visitors. Perhaps include the Pages module in the Core distribution and have it as the default start module
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Out of the box usability
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Posted: Jan 12, 2008 - 02:34 PM
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Posted: Jan 12, 2008 - 04:59 PM
Nice list... It will be reviewed tomorrow. I will link it to the bugfix messenger window now..
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David Pahl
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Posted: Jan 12, 2008 - 08:46 PM
dks
The blank module should be inactive by default
The Blank Module is what is set as the start page, at least in the core distro. Not sure if that's something that can be customized when setting up a custom distro or not, if not, would be a good, and I'd think easy add to the system.
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Posted: Jan 12, 2008 - 11:41 PM
Thank you for you detailled feedback. This is really important information and I agree with all your points. We will fix some of the stuff for .8 but some points would require bigger changes and thus can't be included into .8 if we ever want to have a final release.
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best regards from Kiel, sailing city
Steffen Voss
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Posted: Jan 12, 2008 - 11:56 PM
Nice list
dks
Blocks
Function Type(s), Function, and Custom Arguments should be labeled as "Advanced Options"
IMHO it'd be nice if Function Type(s), Function, Custom Arguments and Modules are hidden by default and you can show it by clicking on "Advanced Options" (by javascript of course)
That's why these options are seldom used and I know a lot of new webmaster who get confused when there are too many options in a page.
Whilst if the options are hidden it's clear to all that they are not mandatory.
I think the inexperienced webmasters'd thanks for this
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Zikula Italia
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Posted: Jan 13, 2008 - 12:02 AM
Its a catch-22... If we start hiding stuff.. then people won't remember it's there.
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David Pahl
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Posted: Jan 13, 2008 - 12:02 AM
dks
Admin>Layout>Blocks>Main Menu
.8 installs with the menu block set to display all modules. The allows web site visitors to see things that they probably shouldn't.
IMHO the default Main Menu would also be moved from 'menu' to 'extmenu'... the latter is so much better, it is a pity that it's "hidden" by default.
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Zikula Italia
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Posted: Jan 13, 2008 - 12:14 AM
AmmoDump
Its a catch-22... If we start hiding stuff.. then people won't remember it's there.
Well... it depends on HOW you hide them
IMHO if you replace them with a fieldset named "Advanced Option" and containing something like "Click here if you want to add a placement filtering" it'd be clear to all where they are.
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Posted: Jan 13, 2008 - 07:57 AM
dks
Function Type(s), Function, and Custom Arguments should be labeled as "Advanced Options"
Just having a box around them labeled "Advanced Options" would be quick and easy.
Also, I've been playing with Joomla, Mambo, Drupal, and PHP-Nuke.
Joomla/Mambo use overlib (I prefer WZ Tooltips) for mouseover help which is very nice, although they still use the alt atribute which is mental.
After using all four of these, I find the Core installation of .8 very refreshing and can see how the learning curve for newbies dropped dramatically. Still, it would be nice to have scribite! and a very simple page creator included so new installers could actually *do* something. Maybe even have a basic page already created (like the Admin Message) stating where to get support, new modules and themes.
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Posted: Jan 13, 2008 - 09:08 AM
Nice point!
The initial Admin_Message should suggest some interesting links, (a link for a "tour")...
scribite! is a little heavy by default... in the BugFix weekend, Mark West take the responsability to add the needed plugins to use JSQuickButtons by default in the main textareas. Then, when you install scribite! you deactivate the JSQuicktags in the settings to avoid problems with the new WYSIWYG editor...
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Posted: Jan 13, 2008 - 10:52 AM
nestormateo
in the BugFix weekend, Mark West take the responsability to add the needed plugins to use JSQuickButtons by default in the main textareas.
Unfortunately this bug has been set to postponed. I think there's quite some details which have to fixed beforew 0.8 is ready for release, and it's only details like we had this weekend. It's been 5 years and 38 days since 0.722 was released (my mail-archive has no older mails), I think these small glitches should be cured before 0.8 finally gets released. Is there any reason to hurry now? The system has to be complete before releasing.
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Posted: Jan 13, 2008 - 11:28 AM
.8 will sure not be perfect. Our focus is
a) the new really completely modular architecture
b) and to make it possible to upgrade from the old stuff.
.8 is almost a complete rewrite (some rewritten parts are already in .764) so we took the chance to improve the look&feel along the way. But we want everything to work basically. We can care about the details in later releases. And you can be sure we make a better plan for the time after .8 - so we don't have to work 5 years again to have .9
dks
After using all four of these, I find the Core installation of .8 very refreshing and can see how the learning curve for newbies dropped dramatically. Still, it would be nice to have scribite! and a very simple page creator included so new installers could actually *do* something. Maybe even have a basic page already created (like the Admin Message) stating where to get support, new modules and themes.
Axel's and Simon's distribution system will make it easy to download custom packages. It knows "scenarios": Community, Shop, Blog ASO - so there could also be a scenario "I am new" with something small to start.
If we included a "very simple page creator" they might think that that is the best Postnuke has to offer. If they don't find anything, they might get the idea, that something is missing and start looking for it. But when the distribution system is in place there's almost no way that somebody accidentally downloads only the core.
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Steffen Voss
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Posted: Jan 14, 2008 - 03:32 AM
I'm starting to think that the distribution system needs more marketing/advertising than PostNuke does. I think it's hard for anyone who doesn't know how pn.8 will be distributed to see anything other than 'all content modules are removed"... that does not translate to 'you can only download the core and you're on your own for modules'.
Admin Messages should indeed give a basic 'Settings, Themes, and Blocks Configuration' links to the Wiki, but there's no way the core devs can assume a distributions scenario in order to give a 'tour'. It's got to be up to the distro's creator to author a default tour of their blog distro, or commerce distro, or even work/sales force distro. It's also up to them to ensure end user usability such as choice of in-line editor, content modules, predefined content/workflow scenarios, etc.. Of course the quality of said distros is what's going to make one more popular over the other.
There's a lot of these kinds of suggestions being raised for the release of pn.8 and they're all great suggestions... keep em coming. But be aware that it's people creating distributions that should be listening and responding to these suggestions and not necessarily core devs.
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Posted: Jan 20, 2008 - 10:48 AM
I agree with a lot of your points. I too think that once the stable .8 release comes out, a lot more documentation is needed (especially for Categories). There should be online documentation for both regular PN admins and for module developers (and standards for them). I also agree with having many of the current options be listed as 'advanced options.'
One thing I have disagree about though is the name issues with Admin_Messages and SecurityCenter. You really cannot have a space between the two words. You either need an underscore or nothing between them. Otherwise it will appear in browsers as Admin%20Messages and Security%20Center (which is really not user-friendly). Spaces also seem to break images with many hosts. -
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Posted: Jan 24, 2008 - 12:30 AM
The module names/display names issue is tricky since the display name field is used both as the link text for a link to the module and in the URL to the module. So adding a space to the module name causes a problem in the URL usage.
For .9 we'll add a urlname field (as used in the content modules) to differentiate between these fields.
-Mark
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