[TYPO3-hci] The Constant Triptichon

[Alex Heizer]

Quentin Dewhurst wrote:
> Its not front end editing I was alluding to - more the setting up and 
> configuration of the templates and content areas themselves.  If the backend 
> truly reflected the front end i probably wouldnt get comments from users of 
> websites i have built in typo3 like - "how come the stuff that goes in the 
> footer has to be put in the 'border' area."
>   
Okay, so you're just talking about being able to re-label the BE columns 
then, not changing the BE interface.

But then, you still have the problem with documentation having to be 
specific for each user. For example, if you customized that users' BE, 
and were on vacation when they wanted to know the answer to that 
question, where would they turn? With the standardized BE, even if it's 
a little weird, conceptually, to be putting footer content in the border 
column, at least there exists 1000's of pages of documentation and hours 
of video that the editor can learn from.

Alex


> ----- 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 11:04 PM
> Subject: Re: [TYPO3-hci] The Constant Triptichon
>
>
>   
>> Quentin Dewhurst wrote:
>>     
>>> Why not have the backend truly reflect the front end though?
>>>       
>> My question would be: why would anyone ever want this? You already have
>> the FE editing.
>>     
>>> - 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.
>>>
>>>       
>> So how would you propose, with this method, that documentation be
>> created? People already complain about TYPO3's documentation, having a
>> nonstandard editing interface would make it impossible to create
>> documentation for anything other than "theoretical" editing or on a
>> site-by-site basis. Removing a standard "every installation gets this
>> interface" interface in place of one that changes with every site would
>> mean the best we could ever hope for out of documentation would be
>> sketchy details about how "this element may be here, or there, please
>> consult your developer for more specifics regarding your site." All of a
>> sudden you take the burden of documentation off the community and place
>> it squarely on each individual developer for even basic editing tasks
>> such as "Create a new content element". Even adding TV created new
>> standardization issues with documenting TYPO3 as a system, and placed a
>> lot of the work on each site developer.
>>
>> Don't get me wrong, I think the ideas are cool, and the technology is
>> cool. I loved it when Netscape started letting you customize your own
>> portal pages with drag and drop years ago. But for making the system
>> usable and supportable for tens of thousands of end-users, all of which
>> need to be trained at some time and many of whom only have basic
>> computer skills, having a standard interface for all means usability.
>> Having tens of thousands of custom one-off interfaces introduces so many
>> supportability and maintainability issues that it's no wonder Microsoft
>> may change the look of Windows, or refine some features, or add new
>> features, but since 1995 the interface hasn't changed at all and they
>> don't seem to be suffering from a lack of adoption.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Alex
>>
>>     
>>> Cheers, Quentin.
>>>
>>>       
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>>     
>
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