[Using Sakai] we need your input: improving UI consistency from Sakai 2.9 to 2.10

Fri Aug 9 15:53:05 PDT 2013

Hello 
I'd like to add another general need: reducing vertical scrolling during setup. Over time, the constant scrolling just to hit submit or save is wearisome, particularly if it's just a few pixels down. If people think this is a good idea, I can create some JIRAs to track within tools where this could make a difference: add announcement, add schedule event, forum and topic settings, edit site information, to name a few. 

A few general ways to save space 
1) When there are good defaults, convert radio options to pulldown menus. For instance, we could save 4 rows in Announcements by converting these to pulldowns. 

This would make it fast for those who always post announcements immediately to the entire site, b ut would be harder for those who use some of the other modes just as often, or to learn that the other modes exist. In general, if they were only going to do this once in a long while, you might display everything, but for something used every day, we might do dropdowns. 

2) for short text fields, make them one row. For instance, Site Setup looks like this 

but couldn't it look like this? 

3) reduce CKEditor height by half. With CKEditor, there are now options for the field to keep expanding as type, or manual option expand to full screen. 

4) change location of Add Attachments button to go to right or left of "No attachments/attachments table", rather than below it 

5) hide advanced option in a collapsable menu. For instance, we have done this for Forums locally, along with 2, and 3, but not 5 

here are other webform suggestions from Luke Wroblewski 

http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?502 

Keli Amann 
User Experience Specialist 
Academic Computing Services, Stanford University 
----- Original Message -----

From: "Keli Sato Amann" <kamann at stanford.edu> 
To: "Emily Corse" <corse at camden.rutgers.edu> 
Cc: sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org, "sakai-ux" <sakai-ux at collab.sakaiproject.org> 
Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2013 4:39:46 PM 
Subject: Re: [Using Sakai] we need your input: improving UI consistency from Sakai 2.9 to 2.10 

Hi 
I am cc'ing the sakai ux list as well--I only became aware of this after it was forwarded to me, because I'm not subscribed to the user list. One thing that has bothered me in 2.9 is that the same pattern (id NavIntraTool ActionToolbar), is used for both action buttons and persistent tabs. 

In the past, it was a bit neutral: you had blue text along the top of your tool. If you clicked an item, it either behaved like a button ( took you to a new page with a back button), or a tab (same options persisted along the top, but the one you just clicked was black or grey). 

Now, in 2.9, they look explicitly like buttons. This is not so bad, as I've noticed that in most cases, it should behave like a button. However, there are a few exceptions, where it should behave like tabs, but it doesn't--by default in 2.9, when you click on a button/tab, if navigation persists, that button/tab no longer looks inactive. 

Samigo (SAM-2103) 
Preferences (sak-23448) 
Roster (sak-23449) 

There is a class called "current" which will make the button look grey and depressed, but it has not been applied to the active tab, so that could be applied in the three cases. It's not quite as good as making them look like tabs, but if we did, I think we would need another class, because the action buttons really should look more like buttons. The look and feel of those tabs would be tough to get consensus on. So I think this is a pretty good alternative that at least indicates which screen you are in. 

So SAM-2103 is in our backlog because we are closely tied to Samigo, but could use help making sure the others get done. 

Keli Amann 
User Experience Specialist 
Academic Computing Services, Stanford University 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Emily Corse" <corse at camden.rutgers.edu> 
To: "sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org" <sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, July 17, 2013 2:12:35 PM 
Subject: [Using Sakai] we need your input: improving UI consistency from Sakai 2.9 to 2.10 

The Sakai CLE Technical Coordination Committee (TCC) is seeking suggestions and priorities for smoothing out some of the rough edges in SakaiÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s user interface. This is NOT a request for new features and functions! Please, as soon as possible, send me a note with your top priorities. 

Examples of the types of improvements that might be considered: 

* rename Ã¢â‚¬Å“Page OrderÃ¢â‚¬Â button in Site Info to Ã¢â‚¬Å“Tool OrderÃ¢â‚¬Â or Ã¢â‚¬Å“Edit MenuÃ¢â‚¬Â 

* make notifications to students consistent between tools Ã¢â‚¬â€œ use Announcement+Email for Assignment, Assignment 2, Samigo, and Mneme (currently some tools post announcement-no-email, some send email-no-announcement, some have no option) 

* put the Edit button on Lessons/Lesson Builder items in a consistent location 

* make every date/time field consistent, both in how date/time is displayed and how users can enter it (tools: Announcements, Assignments, Forums, Resources, T&Q) 

Some of the changes you might like to request may already have JIRAs; thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s okay, please request them anyway. If I have time, IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll compile the results so we can vote to set priorities. Please realize that weÃ¢â‚¬â„¢re making no promises at this point as to which issues will be addressed. Thanks so much. 

Emily Corse 
corse at rutgers.edu 
Instructional Design & Technology 
Rutgers-Camden 
110 Business & Science Bldg. 
227 Penn Street 
Camden NJ 08102 
856 225 6474 

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