[TYPO3-hci] Let's try to aks the users!

[JoH]

> 1. Typo3 should be as simple as possible even for admins, trying in
> the same time to keep the great variety it offers. Before adding a
> feature, think twice if it is really necessary! I totally agree with
> the emails "less ways to do it". On the other hand an editor for TS
> in templates seems indispensable for.

"less ways to do it" doesn't go well with "great variety.
IMHO it's one of the major advantages of TYPO3 that there is always more
than one way leading to the same goal.
I would prefer "more possibilities to disable/enable different ways of doing
things".
This way we could have a fully blown feature rich TYPO3 for the power user
as well as the minimalistic one way solution for the anxious newbie.

> 2. Typo3 should be as simple as possible for BE-users, and my own
> experience shows me how difficult it is to explain to users who don't
> now computers very well how to add a simple news.

Well - we have different clients calling themselves a DAU.
They haven't got very much experiences with computers at all.
But they got no problems managing their content and news using the current
backend.
Some of them are even able to create newsletters and send them to imported
recipient lists using the Direct Mail Extension.
There is not even one of them complaining about difficulties with the
backend.
A few hours of coaching have been enough for most of them to get used to the
ways of doing things with TYPO3.
Most of the complaints I know of are coming from people who try to be
Administrators or even Developers while they are in fact just on the skill
level of simple editors.

> The idea of a new
> starting page (which is open to changes by the administrator, e.g. to
> add "note of the day"), of a modified task-center and one-click
> actions for important tasks seem to fit into this command (And I have
> no idea of what mambo means). A clearly arranged fusion of the BE and
> FE could fit as well.

These things can already be done with the current version.
You can have notes of the day, you can assign tons of actions to the user's
taskcenter and you can use FE-editing.
Even though I have to admit that these things could still be improved.
Maybe it's a good idea to change the default behaviour of the backend just
by enabling different features that are already there but not very well
known to most of the users.
Things like "save and new", page uids in front of the titles in the page
tree, editing more than one content element at once, predefined actions of
the most common tasks ... the list is almost endless.

I agree with most of you that things should be less complicated and easier
to understand for Editors, Administrators _and_ Developers.
But I don't think it's a good idea trying to imitate Mambo, Joomla or
whatever you might have in mind.
TYPO3 has got it's own style and IMHO we should try to keep it that way,
since this has been a part of the success story during the last few years.
Improving things should never lead to a loss of identity.
So we should not try to do it _like_ the others do, we should try to do it
even better!

I like the idea of having a special "bugtracker" to get the most popular
features on a wishlist.
But on the other hand it will take months of discussion since we will have
to explain to the people why some of those wishes are considered as
important while others are not.

Have to get some sleep now ...

Joey

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