http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/ConflictResolution
Katie asked me to think more about some simple solutions to improve
the user experience for:
1. Finding out about sharing and edit/update conflicts
2. Resolving sharing and edit/update conflicts, ideally without data
loss
In the past we've talked about clusters (http://
wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/OneDotZeroClustersProposal)
as an ideal solution for conflict resolution. According to the
proposal, each item would maintain an item history of all version of
that item (conflicting and non-conflicting) and clusters would
provide the UI affordance for displaying an item's history.
But Clusters is more than just conflict resolution UI. Clusters are
designed to support ad-hoc, lightweight organization by combining
email threads and task dependencies with in-line item creation when
taking notes in an item's notes field. Furthermore, clusters are
entirely user-configurable. Users can add, remove and re-order items
in clusters. In other words, an item's item history would display in
the context of the item's 'full, extended history', in the context of
replies, forwards, task dependencies and any other related items the
user decided to associate with that item.
Sadly, we deferred Clusters until after Preview. But perhaps we
shouldn't defer conflict resolution along with it.
So, is there room in the schedule for a simple, pared down design to
smooth the edges when it comes to dealing with conflicts?
Strawperson Proposal:
1. Error icon in the communication status column in the Dashboard
2. Error message at the top of the detail view
3. Pop-up to to view and resolve details of the conflict
There is a lot of room for different approaches within the loose
framework of this proposal. We can make it more or less ideal
depending on user needs and development resources. I'm simply
throwing this out to provide something concrete to discuss.
Most importantly, for dogfooders who have experienced conflicts, it
would be enormously helpful if you could recount your experiences and
inform the design with what information you think you need in order
to effectively resolve conflicts.
1. Were they conflicts with yourself? or with others?
2. How many people were involved in the conflict?
3. Which attributes were in conflict?
4. How much time elapsed before you discovered the conflict?
5. Were you able to figure out what had happened?
6. Were any of the sharees in question offline for a long period of
time?
Thx,
Mimi
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Open Source Applications Foundation "Design" mailing list
http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/design
