[TYPO3-hci] The Constant Triptichon

[Christopher]

Alex Heizer wrote:
> Hi Phillip,

<snip>

> 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.

Alex I understand what you're worried about, but I think your logic is 
suspect here. If what you're suggesting were true then it would already 
be impossibly difficult to train end-users in FE editing instead of, as 
it is, a 10 minute task (once they're familiar with the TYPO3-specific 
elements of the UI).

The *value* of having the layout in the BE reflect the FE is in the 
training that the developer /no longer has to do/ since the available 
regions in the BE /resemble/ the layout of the FE which the user is 
typically already familiar with.

This would be especially great for projects that include multiple 
layouts within the same site. The way things are with the standard BE 
layout, the users must e.g. remember that on pages a, b and c, 'Border' 
means the rectangular region below the three main columns, while on 
pages e, f and g, 'Border' means the narrow fourth column at the extreme 
right of the page,

Even if the developer takes the time to set things up so that the 
regions are named differently (according to their use on any given 
page), the lack of flexibility in the BE layout means that there are few 
/visual/ cues to remind the user what goes where (this is also a problem 
with TV). Providing users with a non trial-and-error-based means of 
matching editing regions in the BE to their locations in the FE makes 
the BE interface to a certain extent self-documenting, and that makes 
training /easier/, not harder.

In fact, in my opinion, allowing flexibility in the layout of the Page 
module's interface is /no/ impediment to either usability /or/ training, 
provided that the trainees have been made sufficiently familiar with the 
various /components/ of the interface--none of which varies from one 
TYPO3 site/install/project to another.



-Christopher