Note: even if we change the home page to be a plain wiki page, the Dashboard will remain accessible from the app bar. The user who really wants to have it as her main page could still include it as we do now, or by using your application.
Currently, when people click on "Dashboard", they end up... in the same page visually. WTF effect. I agree that not having a statistic tool to identify if the home page is good is a problem. Maybe we could rely on the retention rate measured with active installs after the change is done to see if our strategy is efficient? Without that tool, we must rely on our intuition. I always had the intuition that the home page were not good. By demonstrating wikis to people, I've noticed that it was a problem for them too. People from our internal brainstorming sessions think that too. It's not statistical, but I think it worth trying to fix it. Thanks, 2016-05-19 14:23 GMT+02:00 Vincent Massol <[email protected]>: > > > On 19 May 2016, at 14:00, Ecaterina Moraru (Valica) <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > On Thu, May 19, 2016 at 2:21 PM, Vincent Massol <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > >> Hi Caty, > >> > >> Thanks for starting this interesting thread! :) > >> > >> See below > >> > >>> On 19 May 2016, at 13:00, Ecaterina Moraru (Valica) <[email protected] > > > >> wrote: > >>> > >>> Hi, > >>> > >>> I'll summarize some ideas gathered from other XWiki SAS employees: > >>> > >>> 1. Instead of being a Dashboard, the homepage could be a plain wiki > >>> page. This would help the newcomers easily edit it. > >> > >> I’m ambivalent on this one. I can see pros and cons of both approaches > and > >> I’m not sure which one is best so I think we just need to experiment. > >> > >> I have a stupid question: do we have data to show that users are having > a > >> problem with the home page? We have mouseflow recording on > >> playground.xwiki.org. Could you share some analysis of them that would > >> demonstrate the problems? > >> > > > > playground.xwiki.org is not relevant in this case since users can't edit > > Main.WebHome that contains the Dashboard. Regarding the data to show > > problems with the Dashboard we have some old usability recordings videos, > > but nothing recently. > > > > > >> > >> My analysis: > >> > >> Dashboard-style page: > >> A) + Nicer first look > >> B) - Less easy to understand that it can be modified > >> C) - Less information about what the user can do on his freshly > installed > >> wiki > >> > >> Note that to address B) I had developed this HomePage Application that I > >> put as an external extension so that people could try it out: > >> > http://extensions.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Extension/Home+Page+Application > >> > >> I’ve never received much feedback on it so I don’t know if it was a good > >> idea or not. My goal, if I had received lots of positive feedback, would > >> have been to propose to integrate it by default in XWiki. > >> > >> To address C) we’ve already discussed about having a Tour in XWiki (it’s > >> even already in the roadmap for XWiki 8.2). > >> > >> Note that the Tour could also explain that the home page can be modified > >> as part of its last step for example, and how to do that. > >> > >> Wiki-style page: > >> A) + Can contain more explanations about what the user can do in his > wiki > >> B) + Simpler to understand that the page can edited. > >> C- - Less polished/finished L&F > >> > >> I’m fine to test wiki-style as an experiment if we think it would help > BUT > >> we need to define a way to measure how it helps so that we can draw a > >> conclusion. Because for all I know we could make the home page worse by > >> doing so too :) > >> > >> Any idea how to measure that? > >> > > > > Locally we don't have any way to measure it. > > So to be clear: > * We have very little data (some old recording) to prove there’s an issue > with the home page > * We haven’t thought yet about a way to measure how it improve or get > worse if we were to change it > > hmmm…. :) > > Here’s a wild idea: > > Add a new feature in XWiki at runtime, where we offer a way for users to > provide feedback about pages. Something like “Do you find this page > useful?” and they can fill a small form if they say not, explaining why not > and optionally give their email address if they want to start a discussion. > > We wouldn’t do this on all pages. We could introduce a new XObject and for > pages having that XObject the UI would make that little questionnaire > visible. > > We could also make it visible only when the hash of the content matches > the default content hash so that if some user modify the page the > questionnaire is no longer visible and people can’t comment on modified > pages. > > Any other idea? > > Thanks > -Vincent > > > 2. We could remove some of the applications listed in the AppBar for > >>> Administrator, in order to feel less cluttered. Invitation, Scheduler > >> were > >>> the most mentioned apps, especially since some users don't find them > >>> polished or useful enough. Also User Index is present also in the > >> Drawer. > >>> I've created this issue for this idea > >>> http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-13433 > >> > >> Note: This is not just about the home page since the appbar is visible > for > >> all pages. > >> > >> I’m fine but I strongly believe we need to add an Application Index when > >> we do so or it’ll just be a pain to navigate to installed apps. > >> > >>> 3. There were mentions that the default content should help the user > >>> understand what XWiki is about. This is somehow related to the point 1 > >> and > >>> with the idea of extending the "Welcome" gadget to contain more > >> complete / > >>> helpful information. People mentioned also having videos about XWiki > or > >>> Getting started steps. > >> > >> I’m not convinced that we should bundle videos in the distribution. We > >> could have them on youtube and stream them but that won’t work in > >> environment with no internet connectivity. I think I’d prefer to just > have > >> links to videos that would be available on xwiki.org in a getting > started > >> page. > >> > >> Generally speaking don’t you think a simple link to a getting started > page > >> is enough (as we have now), and we’d just need to improve that getting > >> started page? > >> > > > > The desire here is to present what XWiki can be used for. Our current > > getting started is good (the screenshots need updating) but in general it > > present the main UI areas. These could be part of the tour also. There is > > an overlapping for the tour and the concepts part / usages / steps which > we > > will need to make some proposals / iterations. > > > > > > Thanks for your comments, > > Caty > > > > > >> > >>> 4. Not really related to the homepage, but related to 3 was the > >>> availability of multiple templates options in the create step, letting > >> the > >>> users understand what kind of pages they can create. We already have > an > >>> issue for the Blog app http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-13376 . > >> Maybe > >>> you have other ideas of bundled / other apps we should provide > >> templates > >>> for. > >> > >> Yes, I also believe that each app that allows creating content should > >> offer a template. > >> > >>> 5. Many people said that they don't find the "Send Message" gadget to > >> be > >>> relevant enough to be on the Homepage and they would want it removed. > >> This > >>> issue is somehow related to 1. If we were to change the Homepage to be > >> a > >>> wiki page, than they will not see this gadget anymore. I've created > >>> http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-13432 but we still need to think > if > >>> we want to remove it also from Dashboard or 1. will fix the problem. > >> > >> +1 to remove it from the home page. Note that we don’t need a wiki page > to > >> remove it. If people don’t find it useful on the home page then I don’t > >> think they’ll find it more useful to have it on the dashboard page. So > +1 > >> to remove it altogether since I myself, have never used this feature. > >> > >> Would be interesting to know from our users here, if anyone has ever > used > >> this feature! Please step forward if you have! :) > >> > >>> 6. Multiple people said that they would want also to have the Tree > part > >>> of the panels area, maybe replacing the Appbar or in addition to it. > >> The > >>> opinions are mixed since some consider the breadcrumb to be enough or > >>> others are concerned that the Tree is not a scalable element. > >> > >> The breadcrumb is certainly not enough without more clue that it exists. > >> The Tour could help. The advantage of the breacrumb is that it frees up > >> spaces for having other panels. > >> > >> In general my opinion is that it depends what you want your wiki to be. > If > >> your wiki is a knowledge base then I’m sure you prefer having it on the > >> left panel instead of the apps list. > >> > >> So I’d do 2 flavors by default in XWiki: > >> * Workgroup Collaboration flavor with Apps panel on the left > >> * Knowledge Base flavor with Navigation panel on the left > >> > >>> 7. Related to the Appbar people mentioned that the order changes > >>> depending on the language and is alphabetical. They would prefer to > >> have a > >>> manual order assigned by the administrator. We have > >>> http://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-13075 for this use case. > >> > >> ok. > >> > >> Let’s get this started. We need to act ASAP on this so please reply > >> quickly if you have comments/ideas. > >> > >> Thanks > >> -Vincent > >> > >>> Let me know what you think about these ideas and maybe you have more. > >>> > >>> Thanks, > >>> Caty > >>> > >>> > >>> On Thu, Apr 28, 2016 at 7:18 AM, Ecaterina Moraru (Valica) < > >>> [email protected]> wrote: > >>> > >>>> Hi, > >>>> > >>>> I would like to gather your ideas about how we could simplify the > >> Homepage > >>>> of XWiki Enterprise. > >>>> - Maybe is something that doesn't make sense to have on it? > >>>> - Maybe is something that is missing? > >>>> > >>>> Thanks, > >>>> Caty > >>>> > >>>> Interaction Designer on behalf of XWiki Development Team > > _______________________________________________ > devs mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs > -- Guillaume Delhumeau ([email protected]) Research & Development Engineer at XWiki SAS Committer on the XWiki.org project _______________________________________________ devs mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs
