On 16/08/2007, at 4:50 PM, Dwayne Bailey wrote:
On Tue, 2007-08-14 at 17:52 +0200, Olivier Salaün wrote:I've just upgraded to the latest 1.0.2 version of Pootle. Whilesearching for SVN related features I noticed a few usability problems on the user interface of Pootle. I thought it'd be worth reporting them :* the user interface does not lead the user toward the "Commit"button and therefore most translators might forget to commit theirwork. We'd end up with one major translator translating 100 strings and forgetting to commit and the next translator whose name would be associated to the previous translator's work.Ideally the "commit" button should be proposed when a translator whishes to end his translation session ; maybe a "commit my work"button should be carried along the pages.* when the user hits the "commit" button, he does not get a reportthat tells him that the action has been performed. Ideally heshould be prompted with "Your N changes to the project have beencommitted in the repository"I've created http://bugs.wordforge.org/show_bug.cgi?id=276 to trackthat. The main problem I see is the different roles that committing canplay. In your scenario it is in many ways about saving and credit. While commit later would be about approval.
The appearance of the commit button relies on privileges. Perhaps we need a different button for "Commit my work" (translator) and "Commit Changes" (admin). The "Commit my work" button only displays if you have translator-commit privileges, and the "Commit Changes" button only if you are the admin. Would that work? They are two different situations, and this would make it easier to assign commit rights to individual translators.
* it is not natural to hit the "show editing functions" button from the project/lang page ; most users will hit the PO file name linkbelow instead. The problem is that you can't access the editingfunctions anymore once you've hit the "project.po" link. It then becomes complicated to find the "commit" or "translate all" links. Therefore I'd suggest removing the "show editing functions" andshowing the editing functions depending on the user privileges.Yes that separation is horrible. Friedel is the guilty party and he did the nice UI hack when he started working on Pootle. He's done some workon cleaning up the editing page so that they can eventually merge together as they should be.
Despite the excellent work done in getting Pootle established, the editing functions toggle has always been non-intuitive. Editing functions should be the default, while still making it possible to see the stats and errors.
We need to integrate all three in one display: you see the coloured stats display (nice appearance, good visual overview), but have a drop-down menu for editing functions which appears when you click on a filename. Then you would see all the stats by default, but could still start translating with one click. Show Errors could also be an item on the drop-down menu, or a separate pane/drawer/frame.
The contents of the drop-down menu would depend on your privileges: items would be greyed out or removed if you didn't have those rights.
Also, for hierarchical projects (files within folders), could we please have an expanding/collapsing layout? It's a major pain to have to click through several pages to reach a file, then click back through several pages, then through several extra pages, to reach the next file.
Pootle has needed a visual design overview for quite some time. I can't design, but I can tell you what works best: one integrated interface, uncluttered, clear icons, drop-down menus or drawers for extra functions.
Never underestimate the importance of visual design. I used to. Then I became ill, and now I have to deal with brain damage. I have learnt that visual design is important. For example, once I became ill, I could no longer use IRC. The IRC programs were all too complicated for me, too cluttered. My concentration just gave out, looking at them for any period of time.
Then, luckily, I found a program called Conversation [1], written for OSX. It handle all the normal IRC functions, but it's well-designed: clear, integrated interface, no clutter, no sharp edges (sharp edges eat brain cycles). I was able to use IRC again. :)
Pootle needs to be intuitive and easy to use, since we're dealing with people of so many different language-backgrounds, who often don't have time to "learn to use" an interface. Even if you don't have brain damage, you don't have time to waste, and you want to spend your concentration on getting the task done, not on trying to make sense out of the interface.
We need to improve our visual design.
* I didn't manage to understand the differences between "goal", "assigns" and "my strings"Having to explain them here means it isn't clear. But here goes anyway.A goal allows you to partition the project into named goals. You can add and remove files from a goal. You can then assign people to thosegoals. Once that is done then they by using "my strings" they translatework assigned to them in a given goal.
Olivier, I've been using Pootle for over two years, and _I'm_ not sure I understand the interface yet ... which is not good. I tried writing a howto in our language, and rapidly realized I didn't understand Pootle well enough to describe it to others. :(
A goal is a separate workspace, as Dwayne says. It allows you to decide who works on what part of the project. Only admins can assign goals.
So what's an assign? Something assigned to you? In which case, shouldn't it be your goal?
"My strings" are either the strings you're allowed to translate, or the strings you have translated. I don't know.
INTERFACE DESIGNI suggest a main toolbar across the top of each Pootle page. It contains:
* Home * My Pootle * Recent * Contact * Help Home goes to the homepage. It has drop-down menu items: ** [NAME] Pootle The name of the current Pootle has two submenu items: *** Projects and*** Languages, which each have a submenu of all supported Projects or Languages. I originally made these main toolbar items, but most users or admins very rarely change from one language or project to another. Having all that info accessible, but out of the way in this menu would work better.
** Wordforge Pootle (phone home, ET ;) ) ** Pootle NetworkPootle Network has a sub-menu listing other Pootles which share registration processes and/or encourage translators to join. (They might be sorted into groups [sub-menus], if there are a lot of them.)
* My Pootle contains:** Preferences (goes to a page with the usual prefs, plus Last logged in, stats on strings translated)
** Goals (goes to Goals page, listed by project)** New/changed strings [NUMBER] (goes to list of these strings, sorted by project, then by file) ** New/changed files [NUMBER] (does to list of these files, sorted by project)
* Recent contains recent files you have translated. The links will take you back to your _last position in each file_. Big time-saver.
* Contact (shows a number each for new email (?) and Jabber messages) contains:
** Inbox [NUMBER] (goes to main Messages page) ** Jabber [NUMBER] (opens Jabber pane)** Project contacts (goes to list of contact addresses, choosing an address provides a form to send a message, right click to send email via your email program)
** Admin contacts (same for admin) * Help contains: ** Help and Docs ** Help in my language ** Report bug (goes to your bug-reporting template) ** My bugs (list of bugs you have reported) ** What's new in Pootle VERSION? ** Keyboard Shortcuts ** Pootle Mailing List Admins would see an extra item on the toolbar: * Admin, which would contain: ** Assign rights ** Assign goals ** Manage files ** SVN ** Submit translations ____________________________That's only a start, but it would make the interface much more accessible. :)
from Clytie (vi-VN, Vietnamese free-software translation team / nhóm Việt hóa phần mềm tự do)
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/vi-VN [1] http://homepage.mac.com/philrobin/conversation/ Compare that to mIRC or xChat.
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