Re: [Cosmo] Re: FLOSS usability sprint report

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5695014987646696458&pr=goog-sl
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2193869634752737809&pr=goog-sl

I have now had a chance to watch the videos of the user test. I  
encourage anyone who has the time to take a look.

There are many issues and the issues are multi-faceted. So before  
jumping back into the weeds, I'm going to take a step back and  
attempt to formulate a high-level proposal for how we address the  
test results from FLOSS.

A word about approach. I'm taking a slow-change approach here. Let's  
make iterative tweaks to the UI, collect feedback (test again if  
necessary) and tweak some more based on feedback. The goal here is to  
improve usability without incurring heavy visual design costs. IOW,  
how can we address usability issues by giving *better* visual cues as  
opposed to *more* visual cues?

Also, please pipe up if you think I'm missing something.

1. Make it clear what collection you're *working in*. Both test  
subjects weren't always clear on "where they were" in their data:  
Which collection am I working in? Which View am I working in? (This  
didn't come up in the usability test because pagination wasn't  
tested...but we've also had problems with people not noticing the  
pagination widgets and therefore not understanding that the  
collection has more than 1 page of items.)

This was true of both the Triage Table and Calendar views. In the  
Calendar view, there was much confusion re: the difference between  
selected versus checked collections. I think much of this confusion  
can be explained by the lack of visual feedback that the selected  
collection is the *active* collection in the summary pane.

Beef up highlight for selected collection
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11355

Invert text and icon color when a row is selected
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8481

Beef up connection between view selector / pagination widgets and  
table / calendar canvas
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11399

Visually distinguish between selected and overlaid collections
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11354



2. Changes to the Detail View
+ Confusion around what the 'Task-check' mark means in the Triage Table
+ Inability to figure out how to 'Add people' to an item

I think we can start to address these 2 issues by:
+ Tweaking the Task icon in the Triage Table View to look more like  
the task icon we use in the Desktop; and
+ Replace the checkboxes in the Detail View with stamping icons so  
that there's more of a correlation between what you do in the Detail  
View and what shows up in the Triage Table.
+ 'Person' icon for 'Addressing' stamp will hopefully help users  
figure out that 'that's the way to 'Add people' to an item.

- At the same time, we want to continue to take advantage of the in- 
place expansion affordance we've developed for stamping.It helps  
people understand what's going on. We should continue to work on  
tightening up the detail view UI elements however so that we leave  
sufficient vertical space for the Notes field.

Improve Task icon
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11346

Make Notes field auto-resize depending on available space
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11271

More Detail View feedback:
+ Onerous date/time entry experience
+ Stamping metadata is lost when user unstamps and re-stamps

Set start and end date to today when stamping an item as an event
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10962

Mini cal for date picker
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8396

Keep stamping data around when users stamp/unstamp
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11345

I will send a more comprehensive proposal to the list:
Improve Detail View based on FLOSS feedback
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11398


3. Sort out sub-sort order for Triage Status column
This is tricky. I'm going to start a separate thread for this.

Sort out sub-sort order for Triage Status
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11400



4. Adding and moving items between collections

Add to>> and Move to>> menu items
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11347

Add ability to add/move items between collections (via Drag and Drop??)
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11340

I think bug 11347 (context menu items) is a good first step towards  
satisfying this workflow. Meaning, we could probably get away with  
not supporting Drag and Drop of items between collections just yet.



5. Hide disabled fields. There was confusion when the entire detail  
view was disabled, but visible because nothing was selected in the  
summary pane. There was also confusion around specific fields being  
disabled. This is partially because Firefox doesn't do a great job of  
providing clear visual feedback when a field is disabled.

Hide disabled fields
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11344



6. Change "Create new note" to "Create new item" There's no mention  
of 'Note' items anywhere in the UI. So 'Create new note' while more  
concrete and specific than 'Create new item' was also more  
confusing ;) Test Subject 2 didn't want any hint text. But I'd be up  
for trying 'Create new item' and see how that goes.

Change quick entry hint text to Create a new item.
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11341



7. Discoverability of features in the Collection Details Dialog

Change collection details icon to be a down arrow
https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11342

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