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Author
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Message
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Eirik Alfstad Johansen
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Monday 05 January 2004 7:19:31 am
Hi, Most of us have complained about useability (or the lack thereof) in eZP at one time or another. And though I've grown fairly acustomed to the admin interface after having used eZP for about half a year, the interface leaves a lot to be desired for newbies, useability-wise. I was hoping that ez had made some useability improvements to v. 3.3, but that doesn't seem to be the case (and if they have, the changes are minor). So my questions are these: How big of a concern is useability for ez? Are you open for suggestions? (I'm hesitant to put them among the bugs/enhancement suggestions as I feel they wouldn't be prioritized.) And would you consider hiring useability experts (like NetLife Research) to test and give feedback to the admin interface? Thanks in advance ! Sincerely, Eirik Johansen
Sincerely,
Eirik Alfstad Johansen
http://www.netmaking.no/
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Paul Borgermans
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Monday 05 January 2004 12:26:44 pm
Eirik Post your suggestions here, if there are things others want too, I'm sure the ez crew will take notice and change the default admin interface accordingly. Perhaps a contest should be held on who makes the most useful general admin design. For end-users, I would go for a minimalistic interface, ie just the things they need. But that depends on the application and target audience(s) and I'm afraid there is no catch-all solution. What I do is integrate "admin" functions in the user site, thereby happily using the ezpreferences mechanism :-) -paul
eZ Publish, eZ Find, Solr expert consulting and training
http://twitter.com/paulborgermans
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andreas spahr
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Monday 05 January 2004 11:54:54 pm
Hi all,
this topic has as many different opinions as users, I think. But the great benefit of eZ is, that everybody can change the view and design of the admin interface accordingly to his audience and requirements.
As I know, this is not so easy on other systems.
And even the standard admin interface is quite good!
regards,
andreas
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Alex Jones
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Tuesday 06 January 2004 6:12:22 am
While the interface is customizable, some of the customizations would require a lot of work for a non-eZ developer to put into place. One example of a frustrating interface element - for me at least - is the way that fields are ordered within a content class. As discussed in this thread (http://ez.no/developer/ez_publish_3/forum/suggestions/ordering_elements_of_classes_numbers_instead_of_arrows_), it would be great if the arrows were replaced with a text box allowing us to set the order, much like how we can set the priority of objects within folders. The initial request to improve usability is a fair one I think. Now that eZ publish is growing more stable and its features are filling out, I think it is important that the interface is re-examined. We as developers would benefit from a solid, consistent UI foundation to build upon, and our users and clients are better served if we can our spend time on our public-facing sites instead of the internal interface to the content management system. Which is why I occasionally post suggestions as to UI improvements, with the hope that some might be rolled into a release. It would be really nice if an upcoming revision focused on usability improvements in addition to, or instead of some additional features. Alex -- Sorry about the length of the post.
Alex
[ bald_technologist on the IRC channel (irc.freenode.net): #eZpublish ]
<i>When in doubt, clear the cache.</i>
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Balazs Halasy
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Tuesday 06 January 2004 6:23:17 am
Good news: Documentation and usability/ease-of-use will be our main goals within the upcoming development cycle. Regarding your concerns related to the admin interface: improvements are on the drawing board, things are definetively going to be better. More information will publised at a later stage. Stay tuned! Balazs
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Alex Jones
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Tuesday 06 January 2004 7:16:10 am
Thanks for the update Balazs! Do we have time to make suggestions for that revision, or have you decided upon the options already? Again, thank you for the information. :) Alex
Alex
[ bald_technologist on the IRC channel (irc.freenode.net): #eZpublish ]
<i>When in doubt, clear the cache.</i>
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Balazs Halasy
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Tuesday 06 January 2004 7:21:04 am
Hello again, As far as I'm concerned, we haven't decided anything yet. Except from the fact that eZ publish must be easier to use (which again will have an impact on documentation, admin interface, etc.). At the time of writing, we're in a catch-up phase, fixing bugs, fixing the webpage, doing stuff that we didn't have time to do in 2003. The next development cycle will start (for real) within a few weeks. Please, feel free to contribute suggestions at any time. We're always looking for new ideas and suggestions, together we can accomplish great things! :-) Balazs
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