Good to hear. We should shoot for doing some testing next iteration.
In fact, I think we can use the same protocol we used last time
(although we should confirm with Gary when he's back from vacation) so
volunteers could start doing testing right away. Let's confirm the
relevance of the protocol with Gary and then add it to our wiki page.
Thanks for the update Paul!
-Daphne
On Sep 17, 2008, at 9:37 AM, Paul Zablosky wrote:
Daphne,
Now that issue Fluid-1335 (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 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 --
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]
cell (510)847-0308
Daphne Ogle
Senior Interaction Designer
University of California, Berkeley
Educational Technology Services
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
cell (510)847-0308
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