Hi all, There was a recent (long) debate on IRC about a new dialog should be used when you use "Add bookmark" on a page that is already bookmarked. The source of this debate is: http://home.exetel.com.au/harvey/epiphany/t3c.png
Fundamentally, the question was whether or not the menuitem immediately under Bookmarks menu should be: * Add Bookmark * Bookmark this page Scenarios --------- Alice wants to bookmark the current page and continue browsing. There are numerous examples of this and it is the most common use case. Bob wants to bookmark some page *other* than his current page and continue browsing. This is a less usual use case. Carl wants to bookmark a slightly cleaner URL from his current page and continue browsing. This can happen, especially with the results of search queries and the like. Dennis wants to bookmark the current page and then immediately bookmark some base page (eg. http://www.php.net/manual/en/ and then http://www.php.net/). This can happen when searching for documentation, or otherwise after something specific on a site. So, Alice and Carl are the most common use cases, but Dennis and Bob would happen often enough to give them some consideration. Bookmark this page ------------------ The principle here is that the action immediately under the Bookmarks menu should relate just to the current page. This principle can be desirable from the conceptual view of "we bookmark a page, we don't create a bookmark", and/or because it makes the concept of what will happen simple and clear. Certain things are implied by this. For example, when selecting "Bookmark this page" on a page that is already bookmarked, the user should not be allowed to create a new bookmark. Also, the user should not *in theory* be able to edit the bookmarked URL, as this breaks the above behaviour. For example, if I was able to bookmark http://my.home.page.com/index.html and edit it to http://my.home.page.com/ then [a] I have bookmarked the same page but [b] I am able to re-bookmark it). The option remains to permit editing of the URL on creation, but it will encourage users to use the "Bookmark this page" action in circumstances where it won't always work. Alice * Just "Bookmark this page" Simple, easy, clean. Will be warned if a bookmark already exists. Bob * If he can edit the URL, he would try "Bookmark this page" and edit, but would fail when (and only when) he's currently on a bookmarked page. * Would alternatively open "Manage Bookmarks" and then "File/New bookmark" to create a blank bookmark to edit. * Or would open a new tab, browse to the site (if possible) and use "Bookmark this page" from there. If you can edit the URL of a bookmark on creation then it is likely a user would think they can create the bookmark first before being blocked from making duplicates. If you are unable to edit the current URL then it seems a little long-winded for a user to open "Manage Bookmarks" and find the file menu, etc. Carl * Would "Bookmark this page", unless he knows that he can't edit the URL. * Otherwise must open "Manage Bookmarks" and then "File/New bookmark" and edit a blank bookmark from scratch. * Alternatively can "Bookmark this page", close the bookmark, find the bookmark somehow, open properties, and edit the URL *anyway*. Frustrating if you can't edit the URL of a page. Simple and clean if you can. Dennis * Would "Bookmark this page" for the current page (the manual). * Then must follow Bob's routine, except that this time "Bookmark this page" is guaranteed to fail if he tries. Add Bookmark ------------ The principle here is that a bookmark is created and pre-filled with the information from the current page. As the default use case would be "bookmark the current page" we would expect users to not modify the URL most times. So a dialog notifying the user that a bookmark already exists for this page would be useful, but shouldn't block the user if they want to edit the pre-filled contents. This does create a problem that the dialog notifying the user looks like: http://home.exetel.com.au/harvey/epiphany/t3c.png If the user has the concept "we bookmark a page, we don't create a bookmark" then it might be problematic to have "Create new" there. The common response by users with that concept would be "But why?". Alice * "Add Bookmark". If the bookmark exists then will be warned. She might be confused by the "Create new" option, but as the dialog is informational and the message seems to only tell her that the bookmark already exists the "OK" option is clearly the choice to take. Bob * "Add Bookmark" and edit. * If the current page is already bookmarked he will be presented with an information dialog telling him that he already has a bookmark for the current page. He can tell that Epiphany has erroneously thought that he wanted to bookmark the current page, and would be in the frame of mind where he knows exactly what "Create new" does. Carl * Exactly the same as Bob. Dennis * "Add Bookmark" for the first page. * Then exactly the same as Bob, except that he might be fully aware of the dialog that will present itself. Review ------ Bookmark this page, with URL editing: * Encourages users to think the action/dialog can be used in all circumstances, which isn't true. * Functions like "Add Bookmark" in *most* circumstances, but... * Completely blocks the user in some circumstances, forcing them to find a different path (through "Manage Bookmarks") to achieve their goal. Bookmark this page, without URL editing: * Encourages users to think of bookmarks for pages, not links * Prevents the user from touching up the URL, or using current page as a template to create similar bookmarks (eg. google.com, google.com.au). Add Bookmark: * May confuse Alice if she has a strong notion of "we bookmark a page, we don't create a bookmark" * Explcitly admits that a bookmark may be duplicated (this can happen anyway, we just didn't really want the users to be so aware of it) My opinion ---------- To my mind the idea of "we bookmark a page, we don't create a bookmark" is broken. It wants to ensure that a user can only bookmark a page once, but is flawed when: * two URLs give the same page (undetectable/unenforcable) * a user wants to modify the URL before clicking "OK" on the bookmark * a user modifies the URL later anyway I can understand Epiphany being *helpful* in some circumstances. It can detect duplicate URLs at least and notify the user. But to block the user completely doesn't ensure no duplicate bookmarks. And it complicates the other use cases. Regards, Peter Harvey. _______________________________________________ epiphany-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/epiphany-list
