[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] staff client dev 2014-05-19 / feedback requests

[Jeff Davis]

On 2014-05-21 23:00 +0000, Dan Wells <dbw2 at calvin.edu> wrote:
> I'm not quite sure how to answer because I feel like we're not asking
> the right question.  Rather than ask how links should behave, we might
> instead ask, what should be a link?  And also perhaps the inverse; in
> our interface, what should a link be?
[snip]
> My sense, though, is that you were not really asking about external
> links which might exist in our content, but rather "internal" links
> (which I will define as a link to a new context in the staff client).
> These are trickier.  To help our thinking, I wish to posit that on any
> given screen, we have both a context and a state.  The URL always
> captures the context, and sometimes some aspects of the state, but we
> cannot expect it to always capture every aspect of the current state.
> Because of this fact, every time you switch contexts, you risk losing
> some state.  Therefore, we should be very careful to offer any
> interface element, link or otherwise, which switches context without a
> clear indication to the user of that intention.
[snip]
> Instead of thinking of things as 'links' and then trying to make one
> rule for a bunch of disparate things, I'd propose that we should have
> distinctive interface elements for which we can then define usage
> appropriate behaviors.  Doing so would create a tremendous opportunity
> for improving the overall usability of the staff client as a whole.
> 
> I could say more, but I've said a lot already.  I'd love to hear
> reactions to what I've said so far (which I know is very uneven given
> the time and space limitations).  Am I way off-base?  Or is this the
> beginning of something we can work with?

Dan, I share your concern (although I would never have been able to
articulate it so well!), and I think you've presented us with a good way
of thinking about the issue.  In general I like the idea of letting the
user choose how a link opens.  But I don't think that behavior is always
appropriate in a web app, where context and state are richer, and user
behavior more constrained, than they are on a simple web page.
 

> P.S.  Bill, I think you are doing an outstanding job, and we couldn't
> even have this conversation without all the work you have done to pave
> the way.  Please don't take anything above as being critical of the
> hundreds of decisions you've had to make to get to where we are today.
> Again, thank you!

This probably isn't said often enough.  Thanks for all your hard work on
the new client, Bill!  I've been really impressed and pleased by the
development so far.
-- 
Jeff Davis
Lead Evergreen Specialist
BC Libraries Cooperative