[TYPO3-hci] The Constant Triptichon

[Quentin Dewhurst]

Hi alex

> I agree, but usability for the majority can be enhanced by promoting a
> good standard interface rather than putting hours and money into
> creating a customizable interface that makes it more difficult or time
> consuming to teach editors to use. The hours and money should be put in
> refining the standard interface so that it is the easiest to use, learn
> and teach. It can be the difference between a site developer spending
> another 20 hours just for documentation for their users because the
> standard 1000 pages and hours of video don't make sense any more. And
> would the developer upload all of their docs to TYPO3.org so that the
> rest of us can benefit from them? Personally, I'd rather spend those 20
> hours per project relaxing or working on a new project and guide my
> editors to the existing docs and videos. That's usability on a
> big-picture scale that you can't get by having an infinitely-tweakable
> interface on a per-project basis.

Why not have the backend truly reflect the front end though? - this doesnt 
have to be uber difficult or tricky to configure via the backend either - 
the front end template could be interpreted via the backend automatically, 
displaying a visual representation to the user.

Cheers, Quentin.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alex Heizer" <alex at tekdevelopment.com>
To: "TYPO3 human computer interaction team" 
<typo3-team-hci at lists.netfielders.de>
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 10:39 PM
Subject: Re: [TYPO3-hci] The Constant Triptichon


> Hi Phillip,
>
>
>
> Phillip wrote:
>> One thing that bothers me about T3 (front and backend) is the
>> obnoxious Triptichon paradigm. Left, Normal, Right, Border. Enforcing
>> (at least verbaly) left-aligned 1999ish column layouts.
> For usability, having a standard layout isn't obnoxious, it's sensible.
> End users currently have 2 editing paradigms, the BE column view which
> is fixed and consistent, and the FE direct editing on the page in the
> "real" locations. In the BE, editors can be trained with their specific
> site to know which column goes where, which is never a problem. If
> people get confused then it means they weren't trained well. In
> addition, having standard layouts means documentation can be created
> that demonstrate how to use the site for 100% of the content editors
> instead of having to create documentation for each site after it's been
> created based on that site's setup. Even with the differences between
> the classic BE and a TV BE can be hard if documentation was written
> using one BE or another. Now you have to have 2 sets of docs for the
> same set of actions and tasks. Taking this concept further, look at the
> Maya 3D interface, with a selling point being that it's very
> configurable. Next, what happens, as in the case of my brother who took
> a course on using Maya and the first week was spent having everyone in
> the class reconfigure their interfaces to match the teacher's so that
> the teacher could effectively teach. Now, all of a sudden, every Maya
> book and tutorial available in stores and on the Internet becomes
> instantly harder to follow. There is a reason that MS Word and
> Photoshop's interfaces haven't changed significantly in 15 years, and
> aren't especially customizable by IT or end users.
>> Naming should
>> be more abstract (Segments) and one should be able to define the
>> amount of Layout segments by oneself. I know this is yet another
>> architecture thing, but one that is once again strongly tied to
>> backend usability.
>>
> I agree, but usability for the majority can be enhanced by promoting a
> good standard interface rather than putting hours and money into
> creating a customizable interface that makes it more difficult or time
> consuming to teach editors to use. The hours and money should be put in
> refining the standard interface so that it is the easiest to use, learn
> and teach. It can be the difference between a site developer spending
> another 20 hours just for documentation for their users because the
> standard 1000 pages and hours of video don't make sense any more. And
> would the developer upload all of their docs to TYPO3.org so that the
> rest of us can benefit from them? Personally, I'd rather spend those 20
> hours per project relaxing or working on a new project and guide my
> editors to the existing docs and videos. That's usability on a
> big-picture scale that you can't get by having an infinitely-tweakable
> interface on a per-project basis.
>
>> Shouldn't we start shedding that in the backend already? I mean,
>> Triptichon Layout could be something like a default preset, but
>> naming and layout of the "Move Element" view should be customizable
>> to fit the templated grid.
>>
> I agree that labels and namings could be refined in some cases, but
> those refinements are what we should be concerned about instead of an
> interface that can be customized infinitely for each installation or BE
> user.
>
> Cheers,
> Alex
>
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