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#13 2005-11-06 12:05:47
- davidm
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- From: Paris, France
- Registered: 2004-04-27
- Posts: 719
Re: Textpattern and usability : how can we improve ?
Interresting idea, and nice article I’ll probably use this though for some projects I’ll check how secure the password_protect tag is…
Could this be transformed into some kind of admin plugin ?
I think it should be integrated, since it’s definitely a missing feature compared to other tools… that said, Textpattern remains (to me, as a designer) way more flexible than Wordpress or Movable Type…
.: Retired :.
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Re: Textpattern and usability : how can we improve ?
> Sencer wrote:
> Dashboard is covered in it’s own topics, not too affectionately
I just want a page to show me all my pending drafts haha. To each his own I guess.
Would it be possible to have front-end editing as a built-in feature then? One of the reasons I came up with the dashboard idea is so that I can have an admin page for my web design clients to quickly do what they want to do.
Last edited by davidwang (2005-11-06 12:31:20)
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Re: Textpattern and usability : how can we improve ?
That would be quite useful. Not exactly a dashboard, or at least a WP dashboard. More like a “personnalized backend page” with datas we care about:
- our articles in draft
- our articles pending validation
- articles pending validation (if we have validation privileges)
- comments pending moderation (if we can moderate)
- maybe last ressources (comments, articles, files, images, links) if we have an administrative privilege (on multiples authors website, the admin may want to keep a global eye on what’s going on)
and so on.
Last edited by Jeremie (2005-11-06 15:48:59)
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Re: Textpattern and usability : how can we improve ?
WSYIWYG interface option for the write page.
Yes, I’ve heard all the arguments against it. If I was the only person using my site then it wouldn’t matter but if I want to have a solution for a writer that has never seen a blog and doesn’t know the first thing about HTML, this is what is needed. I know that there are just a few things that they need to know to get an article posted but there are also a lot of quirks that they need to know about also if the site is referencing a CSS.
For users that are developing sites for clients, then substitute client for writer.
I know there are plugins for this but when a new version of textpattern comes out, plugins are broken. This should be available as an intergal part of the software. I think it is that important.
The dashboard is an excellent idea by the way. For those that don’t like it, maybe have an option on the admin preferences tab that will determine the start page for users that would have the priviliges to view that dashboard page.
Another option would be plugins for a dashboard, editor or other features that are not included in the main program but are still issued and supported by the developers.
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Re: Textpattern and usability : how can we improve ?
RenJonsin wrote:
WSYIWYG interface option for the write page.
Yes, I’ve heard all the arguments against it.
Have you heard the main one ? It doesn’t work.
If you can show one that does work (and I mean really work… that include with full Textile support, full browser support, behave nice with non javascript activated UA, produce pure semantic valid and standard Textile and XHTML code, small to agree with pay-per-byte and modem connexions, use the appropriate frontend style sheets, etc.) I’m sure that idea would get more support.
Another option would be plugins for a dashboard, editor or other features that are not included in the main program but are still issued and supported by the developers.
I think we need to define what each one mean by “dashboard”.
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#18 2005-11-06 17:03:06
- davidm
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- From: Paris, France
- Registered: 2004-04-27
- Posts: 719
Re: Textpattern and usability : how can we improve ?
Yeah by Dashboard a lot of us don“t mean WP or MT dashboard… davidwang has a nice dashboard, clean and simple and Jeremie sumed up pretty well what would be needed there.
About WYSIWYG, I agree with Jeremie but Clients want something which looks like Word, no matter what the cost is in terms of standard, semantic markup or browser support… I truly believe quicktags + live preview is the way to go for clients. You can set custom formatting buttons taking your CSS into account, you dont get bad markup… and it uses Textile. I am no coder thus I can’t say if javascript librairies such as script.aculo.us or RICO can help do the trick but I thought I would mention them. I know AJAX is hyped, but it’s also nice…
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Re: Textpattern and usability : how can we improve ?
I would be the first one to implement a wysiwyg editor for some of my sites… if one would work the way it is supposed to be. Bad software doesn’t mean we are obligated to get stuck with it :)
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Re: Textpattern and usability : how can we improve ?
Jeremie wrote:
Have you heard the main one ? It doesn’t work.
If you can show one that does work (and I mean really work… that include with full Textile support, full browser support, behave nice with non javascript activated UA, produce pure semantic valid and standard Textile and XHTML code, small to agree with pay-per-byte and modem connexions, use the appropriate frontend style sheets, etc.) I’m sure that idea would get more support.
Sure they work. At least if they are designed by the developers of the application they are to be used in they do. They may not work under every browser but if it works in IE that’s all that matters to 90% of the users. Few end users care about strict compliance (or securtity). If they did, they would install something other than IE.
In the few instances where the editor isn’t supported or not wanted, there should be a provision to turn it off.
I think we need to define what each one mean by “dashboard”.
My vote would be an “overview” page that shows the pending articles, recent comments, that sort of thing. If you can make it flexible enough to allow the user to choose what is on there, so much the better.
Edit: I don’t want this to turn into a pro/con wysiwyg editor thread. I can’t develop one but I can provide a medium volume site with several authors using different configurations to test it with.
Last edited by RenJonsin (2005-11-06 18:19:22)
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Re: Textpattern and usability : how can we improve ?
Jeremie wrote:
I think we need to define what each one mean by “dashboard”.
All I want is something simple. I shouldn’t have given WP and MT dashboards as examples. I want a page to show me everything that’s outstanding at a glance. I think it’s useful both for bloggers or client sites. The main actions I would be performing on my blog/website are to write entries, approve entries, moderate comments if necessary and little else 90% of the time, IMHO. If we can have a single page to lead us to these actions that would be simply more efficient.
Of course, some people may not like a dashboard, but having the option to enable one would be great and would just make Textpattern stand out over all other CMS in the market.
Abt WYSIYWG editors, I’m not a big fan of those too. Like I said, something simple.
Last edited by davidwang (2005-11-06 18:28:17)
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Re: Textpattern and usability : how can we improve ?
RenJonsin wrote:
They may not work under every browser but if it works in IE that’s all that matters to 90% of the users. Few end users care about strict compliance (or securtity).
Ok I believe that close the talk on that topic… :)
Last edited by Jeremie (2005-11-06 18:33:43)
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#23 2005-11-06 18:41:49
- davidm
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- From: Paris, France
- Registered: 2004-04-27
- Posts: 719
Re: Textpattern and usability : how can we improve ?
Dashboard might be closed topic, but the WYSIWYG part… what do you think about the quicktag + live preview option I mentionned above ?
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Re: Textpattern and usability : how can we improve ?
The closed one was the wysiwyg… come on, ask Dean Zem Sencer and Kusor to buy a windows computer and develop a windows-only software ? And us to use it ? :p
But yes, I think your idea was a good idea. The code is already here, he might work nicely. Still basic (no select+apply for example), but work-able.
But im my humble opinion this is a topic for a plugin request/developement, I don’t think we can sell it to the dev team as an important part of the first round toward better usability.
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