As iterated in #habari, I disagree with both these suggestions. From a design perspective, the timeline is *not* the same as a search box. The amount of information in it simply couldn't fit in the area you suggest. Remember, while this system should work well for new users, power users need to be able to use it as well. When you have thousands (or even hundreds) of posts, a tiny timeline (like you suggest) would become unusable.
Furthermore, I fundamentally disagree with the tenant that there is somehow too much "separation" between the content and the search. I mean, the field is labeled search after all. However, you do have a point regarding the timeline being difficult and confusing for new users. When you have less than a dozen posts, it is basically indistinguishable from a blank space. Therefore, I have two alternate proposals for improving it: 1) Create a large "TIMELINE" heading behind/in the timeline. For new users, this would clarify its purpose. As users become more advanced (and accumulate more posts), the heading would gradually be hidden. 2) Size the timeline dynamically. Instead of having each post being 1 pixel, have the timeline always be 100% of the container. The width per post would be calculated appropriately. On Jul 22, 2009, at 7:08 PM, Lukas Kahwe Smith wrote: > > Aloha, > > The other day I was in #habari discussing a UI issue in the comment > management interface. > Essentially the issue probably boils down to the fact that if you just > install your blog, you do not yet have a timeline: > http://screencast.com/t/ST0lOQ5nrRO > > Therefore you just have this big grey area separating the search input > fields, the action buttons and the actual comments. > As a result I never realized that there was a way to search for > comments since my eyes never made the connection between the input > fields and the comments, even though by now its possible to see the > timeline building up. I just got used to the UI thinking there was no > search. Furthermore that also caused me to frequently mistake the > action buttons as filter buttons, since I sort of expected there to be > a search obviously. > > At first I suggested not having 2 separate floating containers for the > search and the comments, essentially moving the search, the action > buttons and the comments onto one floating container. This however > would mean that all other management interfaces would also need to see > similar changes. > > After pondering it a bit more, I think one solution would be to make > the timeline look more like the search field. That is it should not > span the entire width and it should get rounded corners. This way it > no longer works as looking like a "separator" when the timeline is not > yet visible, because the blog has just been installed. > > regards. > Lukas Kahwe Smith > [email protected] > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/habari-dev -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
