Designer/Developer Work Session at the Sakai Atlanta Conference

We're planning a 90 minute work session where designers and developers can get together, discuss user interface problems in Sakai, and work towards fixing these problems. If you have a suggestion for particular issues that could readily be addressed in a 90 minute session, please post it here.

Suggested Issues

• Accessibility fixes?

• Make back button behave as users expect in a tool where it doesn't. This may be too difficult, but Aaron may not think so.

• If addressing the Back button is too hard, create a toolbar with Forward and Back links and a Reset Tool link. Another alternative would be to add breadcrumbs to a tool.

• Add a Multi-Step Indicator to at least one multi-page Sakai form? Site creation comes to mind, but perhaps that's used largely by admins who don't need the help. Can others easily think of more important multi-page forms? I think there are some but don't know what at the moment.

• Using as a model the hidden/revealed properties in Resources > Add, find other tools where it would be useful to hide some options so users don't have to scroll so much. If we do this, we should also find a way to make the link more obvious. Would a "More Properties" link be more obvious than the expansion arrow and "Optional Properties" on the Resources > Add page?

General Issues

• "Save Draft" buttons: Confusing. Users often think this is what they click to save their work. More appropriate wording might be "Save Draft Version" or "Save Without Posting"
• "Email Notification" dropdown menus: "Low" priorities should read "Only participants who have opted out" not "...opted in"
• "Show ... items" dropdown menus: All such dropdown menus should have a "Show All" option (Currently, some do and some don't)
• "Save" and "Post": Inconsistent terminology. Some tools (i.e. Schedule) use the term "Save" for the final action button. Other tools (i.e. Announcements) use the term "Post"
• Removing items: Some buttons for removing items read "Remove" while others read "Update" - inconsistent.

Syllabus

• "Create/Edit" button: Confusing. Users expect to just click "Add" to add a new syllabus, or "Revise" below a syllabus that requires editing.
• "Redirect" button: Confusing and not necessary. Adding syllabi should be just like adding resources, i.e. Choose what kind of syllabus to add from a dropdown menu (Text box, File, URL). Users commonly don't realize they can attach a syllabus and don't have to type one into the text box.

Schedule

• Clicking on a cell should allow you to create an event for that date/time

Resources

• "Description" field: Text should indicate that the description of folders and files will not appear unless users click "Properties"
• "Upload-Download Multiple Resources" button: Confusing. Users see this button before they see the "add" link and understandably think this is where they upload and download resources. This is the only button in Sakai that doesn't allow an action to be performed and just gives information.

Discussion

• Replies to topics shouldn't require a title to be typed in. They should have a pre-filled title with "Re:" and the title of the topic.
• Move the Trash and Topic Contents icons to the left of the message titles (So they are visible in the column layout)
• Expand topics when they are clicked on (Don't rely on clicking the black arrow, which users don't realize is clickable)
• Retain place in scroll bar when clicking on topics (Do not return to the top)
• Remember the choice between Column and Row layout between sessions
• Remember read/unread state of messages between sessions
• Remember state of which threads were open between sessions
• Display entire thread when replying
• Put "Reply" button under each message on "Topic Contents" screen
• Make "Recent Discussion Items" on HOME page link to those topics
• Allow editing of categories, topics and messages (instead of only deletion and re-creation)
• When there are no categories/topics, there should be text to indicate this (i.e. "No categories/topics have been created.")

Assignments

• In the "Add" screen, under "Due Date," include text "Assignments will be marked late after this Due Date"
• Allow email notification for "Announce the open date" when adding a new assignment

Email Archive

• Do not display the alpha-numeric, long email archive address here under the human-readable site email archive address