[TYPO3-hci] PPT: Ideas to improve the Usability of Typo3 4.x / 5.0

[Silke Arend]

Hi,

> Jens, Kasper, Lasse and all others of the HCI,
> 
> First thanks to Jens for his inspiring PDF. I follow the HCI list for 
> quite some time, but did not have any time to join it and send my 
> thoughts to it.
> 
> As I'm not only an extension developer but also a graphic designer with 
> a lot of knowledge in interface design as well, I think it is time for 
> me to join this list as well.
> 
> In the HCI list I never saw anybody talking about a desktop-like idea, 
> until I saw the PDF of Jens with a screenshot of Lasses backend skin. My 
> opinion is we should go this way. Thanks to Lasse for the mockup he 
> provided. This looks very promising.
> 
> We are not developing a piece of software like Open Office (or M$ Word, 
> for the commercial freaks) but a huge framework which is actually a 
> collection of separate applications.


This is true in general. Yet, for most of the users TYPO3 is far more narrow in usage than a word processor. They work on different web pages or new elements and the like. A desktop IMO is a place where one can keep different short cuts or files of different applications. The same is true to the windows menu. Why would you want to introduce a second desktop to TYPO3 users? They have one already...


> 
> Every user is familiar with a desktop, it is in all the operating 
> systems and work 'almost' all the same. You have a taskbar, windows you 
> can open, move around, minimize or maximize them or drag the corner to 
> shape it your own way, icons on the desktop like shortcuts. This way the 
> user can resize its windows to its preferred size to save space on the 
> screen and open multiple screens which are usefull for the session of 
> the user. It is also easier to switch between applications (modules) 
> inside the framework.
> 
> I had this ideas about TYPO3 for quite some time and discovered I was 
> not the only one who had this idea about how a CMS should look.
> 
> I don't know if anybody is familiar with the commercial Sitecore. They 
> actually did it already. I've put a screenshot on my website (sorry, but 
> my monitor of my laptop is running on 1920 pixels width) 
> http://www.patrickbroens.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/Sitecore.jpg. It shows 
> a part of the desktop, the taskbar at the bottom, the 'Start' menu and 
> some windows of the applications inside of Sitecore. As you can see in 
> the layout, the people of Sitecore are big friends of M$. But it is 
> beautiful to see and works like a charm.


Thank you for your screenshot. IMO, what you show there might work to some degree with 1920px width. Imagine this with 1024px or 1280px width... And I can't see where you save space on the screen as long as you don't take the time and effort to arrange the windows using all the "empty" corners etc.

Independent of the screen size, I personally find it far more confusing than the regular TYPO3 backend. To me it lacks the structure. This won't help a beginner to understand TYPO3. They might find the point they most of the time need, but they will be kept "uninformed" as long as they depend on their shortcuts.

Have a nice weekend

Silke


> 
> I'm offering help in the ideas and graphic design of the desktop from 
> Lasse. He has already done a great job with the windows so please 
> continue with that :-) Just let me know.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Patrick
>