| | 1 | = CKAN UI Review = |
| | 2 | |
| | 3 | General points |
| | 4 | * GUIDs are ugly. Can we, per default, display them truncated? |
| | 5 | * "You're currently in the X section" is largely unhelpful. Try and work out what the user might *actually* be doing, and suggest possible next steps/alternative actions, without such a stilted writing style. |
| | 6 | * Set meaningful title attributes on navigation links. |
| | 7 | * Do we really need to display "About CKAN" everywhere? Doesn't it get a little tired? |
| | 8 | * Perhaps an academic point, but users in general think of model objects as collections: /groups and /tags rather than /group and /tag. At the very least make the plural versions forward to the singular versions. |
| | 9 | * Not so keen on URLS such as /package/edit/mypackagename. These seem to be task-oriented rather than resource oriented (which would be /package/mypackagename/edit), and unstable: there is a common root for /package/edit/mypackage and /package/history/mypackage which is not reflected in the URL structure. |
| | 10 | * The "FAQ and Guide" is anything but. |
| | 11 | * There is huge inconsistency in the titles of pages across the site: to give one example "Edit Package:" vs "Package: mypkg [not linked]" vs "History - mypkg [linked to package page]" |
| | 12 | |
| | 13 | Home [/] |
| | 14 | * 'Login via OpenID' -> 'Login with OpenID'? |
| | 15 | |
| | 16 | * Make clearer possible actions on home page. Maybe move explanatory para below {search, browse recents, add} options? |
| | 17 | |
| | 18 | * Search |
| | 19 | * allow clicking on 'only openly licensed'/'only downloadable' to select/deselect checkboxes: make them <label>s. |
| | 20 | * cut 'only's -- use word 'filter' instead |
| | 21 | * doesn't appear to match substrings!? A search for 'anna' doesn't return match the 'annakarenina' package. |
| | 22 | * autocomplete package names? |
| | 23 | |
| | 24 | * Search results page |
| | 25 | * See below under "Packages:" -> "Package search results page:" |
| | 26 | |
| | 27 | * Recently changed |
| | 28 | * What's with the blank entries? |
| | 29 | * Could we make this neater? Tabulate the information, and cut down on the visual impact of less relevant data (time, @-signs, etc). |
| | 30 | * "More..." what? -- make it clearer what this does. |
| | 31 | * /revision needs copyediting. |
| | 32 | |
| | 33 | Packages |
| | 34 | * Packages landing page [/package] |
| | 35 | * Booooooring! Can we show some 'hottest'/'most recent' package lists here? Or something? Anything! |
| | 36 | * Propose three-column package listing: two lists of highest-scorers on some metric and last column is an invitation to register a new package, with a little copy explaining what's involved and why you'd want to. |
| | 37 | * Why can I search packages from the home page but not immediately from the packages index page? It's not like there's anything else going on here... Move contents of /package/search to here. This to go above the three-col stuff suggested above. |
| | 38 | |
| | 39 | * Package search results page [/package/search?q=something] |
| | 40 | * need clearer delineation between search entry form and results. |
| | 41 | * 0 results needs to be clearer, and the alternative suggestion: 'would you like to create a new package' needs to not look like a search result. |
| | 42 | * openness/downloadability ticks/crosses are totally inscrutable to non-techies (those who don't know about the title attribute). need better icons, and a key in a box on RHS. |
| | 43 | * maybe highlight two-tick entries with a particular colour, but the open knowledge badge is horrendous, and breaks visual cadence. |
| | 44 | * results data should be tabulated, with the project names and descriptions made most prominent. <li> blobs are unnecessary visual noise. |
| | 45 | * "N tags found" -- why do I care? this should be presented as "filter results by tag" -- very unlikely that I'm looking for a tag: I'm looking for a package, but tags might help me narrow down my search. |
| | 46 | * tags should be displayed more like the way they're displayed when you add them to a package (i.e. blue 'tag' background) |
| | 47 | * maybe links should go on the full titles? package names are less important to a user scanning the list: they could have less visual impact and come after the readable title. |
| | 48 | * pagination is currently lost in amongst the results list. needs to be *much* more obvious, and should appear top and bottom, or at the very least at the bottom! |
| | 49 | * copywriting: "Packages - Search" -> "Find a package" |
| | 50 | |
| | 51 | * "Browse packages" [/package/list] |
| | 52 | * Same comments as package search listing in general. |
| | 53 | * Should have filter by name (à la KForge alphanum widget) and also by tag: list of most common tags in box on RHS? |
| | 54 | |
| | 55 | * Package page [/package/mypackagename] |
| | 56 | * In general: a huge amount of visual and typographic noise: "Package:" is redundant. |
| | 57 | * "{edit}", "{history}" -- ugly, and it's not clear that these are primary actions on this page. Notably, why on earth is "make an enquiry with Is It Open?" bigger than these? |
| | 58 | * Openness/downloadability icons: need help, as discussed earlier |
| | 59 | * "Rating:" redundant, as is the second set of stars -- why can't both the display and rate widget |
| | 60 | * "Metadata:" technospeak, probably redundant. |
| | 61 | * <li> bullets add nothing. |
| | 62 | * Title, Version, URL can probably go in one line. |
| | 63 | * Resources can be made more prominent. |
| | 64 | * Author, author email and Maintainer, maintainer email can be merged. |
| | 65 | * Groups, tags in little boxes? |
| | 66 | * Notes made more delineated -- Markdown has the capacity to look like other parts of the page: perhaps monospace the typeface? |
| | 67 | * Don't show extras unless there are any. |
| | 68 | |
| | 69 | * Package edit page [/package/edit/mypackagename] |
| | 70 | * Fields could be grouped. |
| | 71 | * Inconsistent capitalisation (Url -> URL). |
| | 72 | * Tag editor appears to break occasionally. |
| | 73 | * Perhaps move to two column forms to save vertical space? |
| | 74 | * Notes field to monospace? |
| | 75 | * Extras fields need some jQuery love -- shouldn't have a fixed number available. |
| | 76 | * Typography is a bit of a mess. |
| | 77 | |
| | 78 | * Package history page [/package/history/mypackagename] |
| | 79 | * "Revisions" is redundant |
| | 80 | * "Compare" button is in a ridiculous place. It should be above/below (both) the table, but not *in* it! |
| | 81 | * Ditto to overall "Recent Changes" page comments w.r.t. timestamps, GUIDs, and (if poss) author links. |
| | 82 | |
| | 83 | Tags |
| | 84 | * Tags landing page [/tag] |
| | 85 | * Currently this page serves *no* purpose other than to get in the way. Why can't I *both* search for tags *and* browse the list of tags right here? (In fact they're the same operation as far as a user is concerned). |
| | 86 | * Big cloud of tags (sorted by popularity/usage?) filterable with a search box. |
| | 87 | |
| | 88 | * Tags search page [/tag/search] and list [/tag/list] are both redundant and should be merged straight into [/tag]. |
| | 89 | |
| | 90 | Groups |
| | 91 | * Groups landing page [/group] |
| | 92 | * Yeesh! What's up with the typography for "Just login..."? |
| | 93 | * Propose another three column thing with (say) largest/most active groups and a "create your own group" column, with (again) a little copy explaining how/why you'd do this, and also that you'll need to log in before you can. Cut the scary italics. |
| | 94 | * Another case of <li> bullets adding nothing. |
| | 95 | |
| | 96 | Repository History [/revision] |
| | 97 | * What is this page called? "Recent Changes", "Repository History", "/revision": standardise. Between the link in the nav and the page <title> particularly, but the route is also important. Perhaps /changes or something similar? |
| | 98 | * Pagination has similar issues to elsewhere. Also, most obvious here, is the fact that we don't need to display a link to every possible page. Please can we limit it to, say, a dozen nearby pages and an ellipsis. |
| | 99 | * Without looking at dates, its not clear whether I'm seeing most recent or oldest changes. Change pagination to say "Older"/"More recent" rather than "Previous"/"Next". |
| | 100 | * Table layout is pretty ugly (yes, I'm aware this is my fault). |
| | 101 | * Timestamps are horribly unreadable. At the absolute minimum get rid of the micros. |
| | 102 | * Can we link to an author page? |
| | 103 | * Atom feed should have a feed icon! |
| | 104 | * Why are we adding another <link rel="alternate"> to this page? We already have one for recent changes on every page in the site and the one we're adding has a less descriptive title. Which is correct? Use that one as a feed for every page. |
| | 105 | |
| | 106 | |
