Daphne,
Now that issue Fluid-1335
<http://issues.fluidproject.org/browse/FLUID-1335?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:changehistory-tabpanel>
(Drop target based on position of pointer instead of avatar) has been
resolved (thanks Antranig), I have worked through all the reorderer
examples that previously were giving me problems. They all now feel
much smoother now and the targets appear much more where I expect
them. It will be interesting to see what the user tests reveal --
although we won't really have a proper comparison between the old and
new behaviours.
Paul
Daphne Ogle wrote:
Hi Paul,
Your experience is similar to what we found in user
testing. http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Layout+Customizer+User+Testing+-+Round+2.
We think the performance was a large issue in the user not being able
to tell where the portlet was going to be dropped. And it was a
difficult to seperate out intended interaction from the lag and
jerkiness happening (more in Firefox 2 than 3). The development team
is working hard to make these interactions smoother. We'll run
another set of user tests once they feel we are ready and we should be
able to get some good data.
Thanks for the comments and bringing this up!
-Daphne
I have been playing with the reorderer examples on the daily build
page <http://build.fluidproject.org/> and getting a feel for the
behaviour of the avatars and the targets. The behaviour is not quite
what I expect as I move things around, and I'm wondering whether I'm
taking an idiosyncratic view of things. The problem is that the drop
target doesn't seem to appear where I expect it to. I position the
avatar squarely over where I want to move the element, and yet the
target is one position off to the left or right (or above or
below). I have to move the avatar farther than (I feel) should be
necessary to get the target to appear where I want it. It makes the
whole interaction sort of weirdly sticky for me. What it comes down
to is that I feel I should be able to predict where the target a irst
I thought that this was just a performance issue, but now I know what
causes it.
Here's the explanation. What I'm trying to do is position the avatar
where I want to drop the element, but the target isn't following the
avatar. The target follows the /pointer/. So with a fairly large
avatar -- such as a portlet window, or a multi-line list element, it
makes a huge difference where I grab the element. If I grab the top
edge of the list element, the target will appear in relation to the
top edge of the avatar. If I grab the bottom edge, the target
follows the position of the bottom.
But I never pay attention to where I grab the thing. My eyes are
tracking the outline of the avatar, and I sort of expect the target
to appear where I have the avatar centred -- and that's not happening.
So it raises the question in my mind. Is it just me, or do others
have the same experience of the movements of the following their
expectations?
Of course my experience means nothing. I know that we can only
settle an issue like this with user testing. So here's the real
question: Do users have the idea that they are influencing the
position of the drop target by the location of the avatar, or do they
have the feeling they are shoving it around with the pointer, while
ignoring the outlines of the avatar? And do we have any user testing
results or research data (possibly from some outside source) that can
tell us this?
I spent a little time this afternoon trying to train myself to be a
better drag-and-dropper, using the four reorderer examples
<http://build.fluidproject.org/> -- either centring the pointer
carefully on the element I'm grabbing, or following the pointer image
rather than the avatar outline. I'm learning, but it doesn't feel
quite natural.
Comments? Am I marching to a completely off-the-beat drummer here?
Daphne Ogle
Senior Interaction Designer
University of California, Berkeley
Educational Technology Services
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
cell (510)847-0308
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