activity configuration UI

[Fania Bremmer]

Hi,


Am 28.03.2012 18:03, schrieb Carl Symons:
> On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 5:11 AM, Fania Bremmer
> <fania.bremmer at basyskom.com>  wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Am 28.03.2012 13:17, schrieb Aaron J. Seigo:
>>
>>> hi everyone.
>>>
>>> please take a look at the attached screenshot of the activity
>>> configuration.
>>> (ignore the rendering issue with the selected wallpaper.) on smaller
>>> resolution screens this is what it looks like; with icon settings tweaked
>>> for
>>> lower resolutions we get two rows of wallpapers and things look a bit
>>> better
>>> but i think it is clear that there is room for improvement.
> Generally, I like the idea of sparsity, especially on the small
> screen. Not a bunch of extra images and words. An interface where
> people's first interaction is "That's cool" or "Clever". Where after a
> few operations, there is no more thinking involved...the interface
> fades into the background of thinking.
>
> This function seems to be already more explicit than the Activity
> Spinner or Recommendations where there is just a peeking handle just
> waiting to be tugged on. Yet with a new person, one time is all it
> takes and they no longer think about it.
>
>
>
>>> a quick anatomy of that window, moving vertically:
>>>
>>> * a titlebar
>>> * a text edit
>>> * content
>>> * a toggle button
>>> * control buttons
>>>
>>> it would be nice to limit the number of vertical pixels used so that
>>> content
>>> space is maximized. it would also be nice to eliminate redundant and
>>> obvious
>>> text. as such, here is a set of proposals which i will implement if there
>>> are
>>> no objections:
>>>
>>> * change title to "Activity Settings" ("settings" being less "tech" than
>>> "configuration" and shorter, at least in english; use title
>>> capitalization)
>> +1. I would even prefer a title that integrates a verb, like "edit
>> activity". But that's a wording question. I guess we use more often nouns
>> than verbs... if we decide for one, we should apply it everywhere.
>>
> I like "Edit Activity". Verb+predicate makes sense. The user arrived
> at this screen to do something.
>
>>> * change "Activity name:" to just "Name:". that it is an Activity is
>>> implied,
>>> and is redundant with the title directly above it. the name also appears
>>> right
>>> next to the buttons on the activity view so there is an evident corelation
>> +1. Maybe even write the label into the text field until the user enters the
>> first key? So we would save even more space.
> +1. "Activity" is redundant. Label in the text field implies sparsity.
>
>>> * move "Lock as private" next to the Name entry. this eliminates an entire
>>> row
>>> from the vertical space usage and puts all of the controls in one place
>> We moved it from up there to the very bottom, because it implicates a second
>> page with the setting of the password. To link this clearly in the user
>> interaction flow, we decided to put it directly on top of the buttons, to
>> show with the changing button label that one more step needs to be done, to
>> have a final private activity.
>>
>>
>>> * change "Lock as private" to just "Private". the phrase "Lock as private"
>>> is
>>> a bit awkward (it is not a natural phrasing one would use in conversation)
>>> and
>>> specifying "Lock" speaks to the mechanism rather than the intention of the
>>> user. the intention is "this is private"; the mechanism we use is "locking
>>> it".
>> Before integrating this phrase we tested with a lot of people. We tested
>> different words and phrases like "protect, lock, mark...as private, secure"
>> etc.  The result has beenthat most people preferred and understood the
>> phrase "lock as private". Here both results, the locking of the activity
>> with a password AND the encryption of the private data, have been
>> understood.
>> Only "Private" would not clearly communicate the underlying action for the
>> user.
>>
> "lock as private" sounds awkward. How about a slider with (or as) an
> unlock/lock icon and "private" to the the appropriate side of the
> slider, similar to layers in Inkscape or objects in Scribus.
> (Especially on small screens, the Inkscape method is not as good).
> Maybe "make private" with lock/unlock icon? Or is it possible to make
> the slider look like a lock instead of a rounded rectangle? Scribus
> icons attached.

While doing a concept for this toggle, I also came across this Privacy 
Settings Slider: 
http://dribbble.com/shots/415967-Privacy-Settings?list=popular&offset=28
Do you mean something like this? Would it work without labeling it at all?


>
>>
>>
>>> one further thing i'd like to experiment with is moving the save/close
>>> buttons
>>> into the title bar. some other mobile OSes do this and it would accomplish
>>> two
>>> things: better use of screen real estate, make it more obvious to people
>>> where
>>> these buttons are. people often do not find the buttons at the bottom;
>>> i've
>>> watched dozens of people go through the UI and this is a recurring issue.
>> +1, also because the buttons are often covered by the virtual keyboard. But
>> if we move buttons up in the title bar, we should check that we make this is
>> a general UI guidelines and have it consistently in the system
>>
>>
>>> on thing that would make this harder is that currently when marking an
>>> activity as "private" the label on the Save button changes to a very long
>>> text. i also question if this is really needed or not: mark it as private
>>> and
>>> when "save" is pressed take the necessary steps for a private activity.
>> see above, we tried to make it clear to the user that without the
>> private-activation he can just save or create the activity. With the
>> private-activation he needs to fulfill one more step, which is the password
>> dialog.
>>
>> p.s. i don't have locking activities working here atm, so i can't see if
>> there is any UI for changing the password, or if the password is asked for
>> every time a private activity is saved ... in any case, i'm more concerned
>> at the moment about the default UI.o/active
>>
>> One thing in general: I am thinking about a while now about some kind of
>> wizard in this case: we could split those 3 steps into a small, little
>> wizard, at least for the creation of new activities. That makes it easy to
>> add different steps in between, like the private activities step ->  it would
>> be a handy and guided flow for the user, where he can quickly create a new
>> activity. Maybe later we get even more stuff, like tagging etc for
>> activities, which would be convenient to add in this wizard.
>> But I must admit that for editing an existing activity, a wizard would be
>> strange.
>>
>> So, thumbs up for your goal to improve the dialog (both dialogs, as create
>> new activity and edit activity are the same).
>>
>>
>> /mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/active