Thx for pulling this together Priss. I agree with all the items in
your 3 buckets. I would add:
+ Collection pulldown and Collection details button into the 2nd bucket.
+ Login area links into the 2nd bucket
Additionally, I wonder if there is a class of items that should pop a
little bit more, even though they're technically things that people
won't need unless they're looking for them...the reasoning being that
these are things that users will be unfamiliar with, especially CC's
who don't know anything about Chandler. This would include stuff like:
+ Mark-up bar buttons: Triage status and Stamping
+ Triage status in the Table
+ Week versus Day view selectors in the Calendar view (the way we do
it is unconventional)
+ Remove and Save buttons (again because we have a multi-pane layout,
users may assume that you don't need to explicitly save changes).
So I guess what I'm saying is that I'm suggesting we have 2 tiers in
the 2nd bucket.
1 Stuff users need to see immediately, whether or not they're looking
2A Stuff users need to trip over when trying to complete a task,
because they may not know what it is exactly they should be looking for.
2B Stuff users need to be find easily when looking for them.
3 Stuff users can find on their own time
===
It may also be helpful to have a shared understanding of the various
visual techniques available to us when it comes to implementing or
applying the priorities we have set to the UI:
1. Location
+ Above the fold, below the fold
+ Top left corner
+ Dead center
2. Size
3. Saturation (ie. Grey text versus Black text)
4. Color and Brightness (ie. Bright green v. Dull grey)
5. Layering (ie. Overlay on top of UI, like a dialog)
6. Weight (ie. Line weight, Beveling, Drop shadows)
Does that sound reasonable?
Mimi
On Apr 27, 2007, at 6:18 PM, Priscilla Chung wrote:
Here is my list: http://wiki.osafoundation.org/Journal/
OrderOfImportanceWebUI
-Priscilla
---
*First order UI elements: What needs to pop, etc...*
In my opinion, *no more than three items* should stand out on the
UI. Of course a rule of three is always a useful guideline, but the
point is that if there is more then three items, then everything is
popping and nothing does.
Making items stand out are created visually by color, size, and
location/layout. Here are the three items which I consider as first
order UI elements:
+ Logo. This represents the branding. It is the only identity for
the product and you need to show the value of the product. At this
point the value of the product are the events, the calendar and the
dashboard triage. What does the user think about when they first
look at the screen? What's going on? The user is going here for a
reason for some relevant information specific to them.
+ The items in the table (on the dashboard), since it is the
default screen and holds all the item information in the
collection. It is the most important element on the screen. In the
case of when the user selects calendar view, it is the calendar
canvas and the lozenges.
+ Critical errors. For example, this collection has been deleted
and the web UI is no longer functional. These are currently
displayed as dialog boxes which are center to the screen and the
user is not able to do anything on the web UI until they dismiss
the dialog box.
So I changed this category and created a new one because this
sounded too a bit too close to the first category
'Stuff users need to see immediately, whether or not they're looking:'
*Stuff which needs to pop only when the user focuses on it or a
specific task*
What do I mean? These are stuff normally in the background until
the user does something to bring it to the foreground. It's really
important to see event details when you select an event, but not
all the time.
+ Detail view: this should be emphasized only when a user clicks on
an event/item. This includes the save and remove button on the
detail view since there is no auto save.
+ Quick item entry in the dashboard: This is the dashboard
equivalent of creating an event in calendar.
+ View selector from calendar/dashboard view: This dual view is key
to the product
+ Highlight on the lozenge or item in the dashboard
+ Mini cal to figure out the date of the event
+ Mark up tool bar
+ Triage toggle
*Stuff users need to be find easily when looking for them ie. how
to subscribe*
+ Subscribe drop down list for users who want to move the
information into their own calendaring application, export .ics
files, feed reader etc. (I'm a bit confused if this is really a top
level item or should be down by where users should easily find. If
a user is going to use their own application and not the web UI,
then this should be a top level item. If this is some one who uses
the application then it should be a third level item. In any case,
I guess I'll just leave it here for now—specifically for 2
different users.)
+ Alert bar for warning such as time zone information. This is
temporary and does not need to be in the user's face such as the
serious error dialogs. This is more of an informational dialog,
things will work on the application, but the information viewed may
not be accurate unless the user does something or sometimes, there
is no ability to fix it just yet.
+ Sign up for an account: As I see it, services on the web as I see
it is very much a 'try before you buy'. It's important for user to
know where to sign up, but it's more important for users to *want*
to sign up.
+ Add collection to account/log in: If you're logging in you're
already sold.
*Stuff users can find on their own time ie. as ppl will use the ui,
they will discover it.*
+ Tabbing to all of the form elements to creating an item on the
detail view.
+ E-mail this event
+ Go to date
+ Forward back buttons on calendar and pagination on dashboard.
---
On Apr 25, 2007, at 6:22 AM, Mimi Yin wrote:
+ Bucketize UI elements into 3 categories:
- Stuff users need to see immediately, whether or not they're looking
- Stuff users need to be find easily when looking for them
- Stuff users can find on their own time
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