[TYPO3-hci] Backend in "Mambo"-Mode

[Alex Heizer]

Hi Fabrizio,


Fabrizio Branca wrote:
> Hi Alex,
>
> I agree in what you are saying, but is it the right way to have an ui 
> that needs to be thaught? You're right when you are saying, that editors 
> need good trainers, but isn't there a way to design the ui in a way, 
> that no trainers are needed at all?
>   
I don't know that there can be a UI that doesn't need to be taught, at 
least one that won't need to be taught to *someone*. Many computer users 
are so familiar with using programs on a computer that you can say "give 
it a Photoshop" interface and most people will know how to use it. This 
is the thinking behind adding the RTE to text elements -- people are 
familiar with word processors, so give them tools they are used to using 
and it will become more intuitive. However, even if something is 
"naturally intuitive" to a person doesn't mean it isn't being taught. As 
humans, in order for us to successfully navigate our days we have to 
draw on past experiences and figure out how to get through new 
experiences. You may not know how to get from the airport to the hotel 
in a new city you're visiting, but because you know how to drive, or how 
to get a cab, or what a train does, you can intuit your way to the 
hotel, usually without much difficulty. What we do in these situations 
is teach ourselves. However, a child who has never ridden in a taxi or a 
train will need to be taught what each does, and how to interact with it 
to have it deliver him/her to the hotel, even something as intuitive as 
a train (you get on when the doors open, you sit, then you get off when 
the doors open -- how simple is that?) So someone needs to teach us to 
do new tasks, even if it is ourselves and our own past experiences.

For a computer program interface, it only needs to be as intuitive as 
what every other program is doing which that user has experience with. 
In my experiences if a computer user can use a mouse and keyboard, they 
have no troubles using the TYPO3 interface. They just need to learn the 
steps, just like they have to for any non-computer-related tasks, like 
taking a train for the first time. For me, having used a computer for a 
long time before using TYPO3, I was able to begin work right away with 
no trainer. So the user's experiences always need to be taken into 
consideration when you're trying to determine how intuitive an interface 
is.

> Do you need a trainig for opening doors? No, because it is simple. Just 
> push the doorknob and pull/push the door. A doorknob is an example for a 
> simple intuitive user interface that needs no trainig.
>
> I'm sure that it won't be as easy to handle websites and managing typo3 
> as opening doors, but those people who have problems with the interface 
> usually don't need all the features of typo3 and don't think of 
> pagetrees, data records and extensions. So my approach was to have 
> different views of the backend.
>   
I disagree with the "don't think of pagetrees, data records and 
extensions". In my experiences with end-users, the page tree is a great 
aid for them to be able to see where their data goes, as it relates to 
the site that visitors see. Having them accept each piece of content as 
distinct records helps them create content that can be utilized more 
easily than if they had 27 paragraphs in one content element. The more I 
see editors creating 1-3 paragraph content elements, the more I see 
inserted records compared to portions of one long record manually 
retyped in another location. And when it's explained that all an 
extension does is provide a way for the system to automatically process 
and display a specific subset of data records, they are more likely to 
use it than, for example, to insert a news item as a content record on a 
regular page somewhere else in the site.

> A think there must be the way in having a clear and intuitive backend. 
> Restricting the access to what the editors see is one point, but i think 
> there are some more things to be done to create an interface which can 
> be used without trainig.
>   
The hard thing is to figure out what is the default "intuitive". What is 
intuitive for one user won't be intuitive for another user in the same 
organization (think: accounting department verses graphic design 
department), not to mention between one culture and another. The culture 
and mindset of a woman from Japan will be much different than the 
culture and mindset of a man from Italy, and so what is intuitive to 
each will be different.

I think there are some things that can be done to help an admin 
streamline the UI for *their* users. I think the UI is already 
configurable, but things like maybe a graphical interface to disable 
columns you don't want an editor to be able to put content into (a 
simple representational layout with checkboxes, or something), or a 
checkbox for an admin to be able to select an uneditable content for a 
user (so that all elements on a page can be edited, but I am turning 
this one specific one off...) If we can make those kinds of refinements 
for an admin to configure an installation for their specific users, that 
would go a long way towards usability for editors, I think. Lots more 
administration for admins, of course... ;)

Cheers,
Alex

> Bye,
>
> Fabrizio
> _______________________________________________
> TYPO3-team-hci mailing list
> TYPO3-team-hci at lists.netfielders.de
> http://lists.netfielders.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/typo3-team-hci
>
>