Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] Template manager : feedback

Hi,
On Thu, Dec 13, 2012 at 10:32 AM, Olivier R. <olivier.noreply@gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi *,
>
> I have been testing the template manager, and while reporting to Cedric, we
> agreed on several points:
>
> Displaying templates in a small overlay window is confusing and
> unpractical.
>
> The overlay window is too small, especially if you have many templates,
> space is wasted to display other folders you cannot select at the moment.
> We
> think it’s better to use the full space of the window and drop the overlay.

The original idea was to not have a static size for the overlay, but rather
have its size detemined by its contents, in the same way it works on
Android (and as was designed for our Android port), and similar also to
iOS/new Mac OS X behavior.

> The small cross to close the folder and go back is not obvious enough, and
> we thought that displaying the path would be better if you can click on
> elements to go back to the previous folder or directly to the root of all
> templates, as it is done in Windows explorer, Dolphin, Gnome, web forums
> and
> many other websites.

Again, here the idea was to be consistent with the Android port.
It was imagined that there would only be one level of hierarchy (as is
standard on Android and iOS), as it makes browsing templates much simpler
and will be necessary if/when there is sync functionality between Android
and desktop LibreOffice.

Thus, a path bar would be largely unnecessary, as it would only show a
single item. Also, there would no longer be an easy way to rename a folder
(at least, if it acted like a traditional path bar).

If you'd like to go ahead in implementing folders without an overlay (fine
with me), a simple back button would probably be better.

If, on the other hand, you'd like to try and refine the overlay, here are
some possible UI fixes:
* If the close button is not discoverable, it could be made more apparent,
perhaps as in
http://elementaryos.org/docs/human-interface-guidelines/ui-toolkit-elements/windows/decorated-windows
.
* Make the clickable area square and bigger than just the cross icon.
(Right now, it's somewhat hard to target.)
* Show a box around the cross on overlay, so that the clickable area is
apparent.
* Add a border or a shadow to the overlay, to separate it from its
background.
* Resize the overlay dynamically. For example, you can size it to fit the
width of the window (- a few pixels at the side) and the adjust the height
based on the amount of templates. The overlay should open right over the
template icon, so that the user can immediately click on a folder and
doesn't have to move his mouse up to the top of the window.
* Allow the user to drag-and-drop templates from the overlay to the
background, to move them up in hierarchy.

(In general, if in doubt, look at the Android 3.0+ implementation, or at
least Apple's Document Library implementation [1].)
[1] http://informationarchitects.net/blog/mountain-lions-new-file-system/