Thanks for the feedback, Andrea. My comments are inline below:
On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 2:57 AM, Andrea Aime
<andrea.aime@anonymised.com> wrote:
Generally speaking it works for me, all besides the preview link. It may not be prominent
but the current position is one of those you barely have to look for since it's just "bottom left".
I guess for those on notebooks with smaller screens it may end up out of the screen?
On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 10:18 AM, Andrea Aime
<andrea.aime@anonymised.com> wrote:
To me it's preferred to the very bottom or the very top. The reasoning is that one does not
actually read anything to locate it, it's just the last line so visually you're just looking for
the last item in the menu list. When you look for something else, like "layers", you actually
have to read the labels to locate it. Makes sense?
So your concern is primarily one of scanability? That's reasonable, as
I could see how it may get lost in a list of other links. I can't say
that I totally agree with the status quo though, as "the last item in
the menu list" is only as 'intuitive' as we have been habituated to
think by using GeoServer pretty much every day.
My concern with adopting the proposed changes but leaving the Layer
Preview link at the bottom is that, as Justin described, the general
rationale behind the reorganization is to order things roughly from
most relevant to least relevant—hence why I proposed moving it up to
the fourth position (when logged in), as leaving it at the bottom
would put our most used menu item in the "least relevant" position
(along with Demos). As you pointed out, the bottom position is not
exactly the best for netbook users or really anyone who doesn't keep
their browser window at full screen all the time.
To further solve any scanability problems, the proposal seeks to
habituate users as to the location of the Layer Preview. As you'll
note from the proposed logged-out state, the Layer Preview shows up
prominently as one of two available items and establishes that the
user should expect to locate it within the Data section once they log
in. This habit is further reinforced by placing it at the very top of
the Data section at all times.
I certainly would have to make more effort to find it in the new position that in the current one.
Maybe we could retain the quick to look up position if the layer preview was placed at
the top of the "server" category (top left)
I don't necessarily agree that putting it further towards the top
"takes more effort to find" than the current position near the bottom
of the list—especially for new users or people who never log in but
just want to find the layers. Though I do agree that there would be a
short period of time during existing users would need to relearn their
habits, I think I made a decent case that it wouldn't be such a big
deal.
Should there be broad disagrement with this proposal though, I think a
compromise that would put the Layer Preview at the top of the list is
better than one that maintains it at the bottom.
Anyway, thanks again for humoring me in the channel Andrea. I hope I
put forth a reasonably convincing argument for a more internally
consistent and more relevantly organized sidebar. If anyone has any
thoughts please feel free to contact me.
Cheers,
Rollie
--
Rolando Peñate
Design Lead
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org
... ah, another thing to add into the spare time pile...