Re: [libreoffice-design] Re: Proposal for the "Cross-Reference" dialog

Hi Paulo, Cederic, all,

Am Samstag, 22. Januar 2011, 11:23:03 schrieb Paulo Jos�:
> Hi all!
>
> I had not seen that others has replied to the original thread, including
> great improvements like a proposal to change the dialog to one (or more)
> wizard. I really apologize for that. Maybe if I had read them, I had
> take them into account and my propose could fit to the previous ideas.
> Now I see that there are much work to be done on the issue, essencialy a
> deep study of all possibilites of integration with other dialogs and
> measure the usability/accessibility aspects intrinsic to the change.
> I don't know exactly how to start. So I wait for a direction, maybe
> given by Cedric or Bj�rn, already involved in good approaches (and
> solutions) for this issue.
>
> My apologizes,
> ~Paulo

My appologies for not stronger pointing to this being a thread. But I think 
this:

> On 21-01-2011 21:29, Paulo Jos� Amaro wrote:
> > I made a superfitial analysis of usability and acessibility of the
> > "Cross-Reference" dialog of Fields options and some proposes. Please
> > see them in my user page the wiki. Comentaries, tips and changes will
> > be very welcome! :)
> >
> > http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/User:Paulojose#Improving_the_.22Cross
> > -Reference_Window.22_UI_in_Fields_dialog_.402010-01-21

is not a waste of time, because you had the time to get to know this dialogue 
much better and hey - we need to iterate towards a good solution anyhow.

So how can this dialogue be improved?

I think the approach of a tabbed interface is wrong in the first place. Why?

What do user do in here? They want to INSERT a field / variable etc. or 
CONFIGURE the set field. 

What will user NOT do in here? User do not want to change a set field to 
something totally different in this dialogue. If they want to do so, they can 
simply delete the set field and add a new one.

What is the conclusion? 1. We need to make it as easy as possible to find the 
right field for the user.  2. We need to make it as easy as possible to 
configure the set field (e.g. update the date in a fixed date field).

How can we achieve this?
1. We need a wizard, that really helps the user to find the field he needs. 
This is basically the content included in the tabs and in the "Type" column. 
Also some content of the "Select" column would be of relevance (e.g. the 
Select column for Type==Sender or Type==Statistics should rather be included 
in the wizard, while the Select Column of Type==Date or Type==Author would 
rather be part of step 2.

2. For each Field the user can insert we need a specialized dialogue that 
allows to intuitively configure the content of the field. Perhaps we need to  
allow some interaction like: remove the field and start the wizard again to 
insert a new field without loosing relevant formating options - but I am not 
sure about that.

So, Paulo - and anyone else interested: 

I guess we should start with step 1. How should a wizard look like that allows 
the user to comfortabely select the wanted field? This wizard should be 
capable to add any new functionality that can possible make it into LibO at 
any time. It should be informative, so the user knows wether he has found the 
right field and it could make suggestions about any related field, the user 
might be searching for.

Once we have a solution for this, we can then make our way through the 
individual dialogues needed to present the different kind of fields (2.).

What do you think? Please provide mocks that we can discuss!

Best,
Björn
-- 
Voluntary Open Source Usability: http://www.OpenUsability.org
Commercial Open Source Usability: http://www.OpenSource-Usability-Labs.com


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