Re: [orion-dev] User Experience Call

[John J Barton <johnjbarton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 9:37 AM, Kris De Volder <kdvolder@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> A few items on my list:
>
> 1. Navigation sucks. Every time I try to use the navigator, I loose my editor.

Kris did you try the new 'open in new tab' option?  (I always use open
in new tab with orion).

> 2. Searching is confusing.

Which version are you using? This was fixed recently for me.

>  - I have little confidence in the search results and
>    generally don't know how enter queries that will find what I'm looking for
>   (e.g can I just search for a verbatim String and find *every* occurence of it?
>   It seems not, because the text gets cut up into 'words' and we are searching
>   for words?)
>  - The indexer gets confused by linked folders on my local drive. (e.g. it
>    doesn't remove the contents after I delete the link).
>  => When I was using orion before to edit / work, I tended to just use
>   the editor (which I actually like better than the standard eclipse one :-)
>  But I went to eclipse to search for stuff in my workspace.
>
> 3. git ui.
>  The UI is ofputting to me. So much so, that I really didn't bother much
>  trying to use it. I just use local git commandline and other tools
>  like gitg that I'm accustomed to using.

In my experience the git-status page is better than the command line
for commit related tasks. The UI shows the state without having to
type "git status" over and over.

The git log page is also helpful because of the branch annotations and
cherry pick options.

The git repositories page is way too slow and verbose. The git
(single) repository page is also verbose, but it is faster; the log
listing is slow and too long. There does not seem to be a way to fetch
new branches from remote.

I think there is an important role for git GUI. Many users new to git
struggle. Many users only need one simple workflow.  If Orion can
provide a few workflows with Git it will be a big help.  I doubt any
GUI will help experts, git is just too complex.

> 4. logging in again, and again... and again is annoying to me as well.

+1

> 5. I don't like to use favorites, so the empty area on the left side of the editor
>  is a waste of space (maybe put a navigator, or remove it alltogether,
>  having it empty is useless) Yes, I can close it. But still.

+1

> 6. The default editor font is too big.
> 7. It needs to be more easy to work with multiple editors (I can open multiple
>   browser windows, close stuff I don't want (favourites), configure my browser
>   to hide its own navbars etc. Then carefully put these windows side-by side...
>   But this is really too much work to setup a spit screen editor environment.

This is a result of relying on browser tab management. I see no motion
by browsers to improve this.

>
> Kris
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>> I probably won't be able to join the call, but here are some things
>> that I notice:
>>
>> 1. When opening the splash screen for the first time after restarting
>> my browser, there is a 4-5 second wait for the page to appear.  I'm
>> not exactly sure what is happening during this time, but it is not
>> waiting to download scripts since this happens when I run Orion
>> locally.  I've seen this on Chrome, but not Firefox.
>>
>> 2. The git UI is cumbersome compared to a command line (I know we
>> have
>> had this discussion before, but I am just reiterating).  The git UI
>> is
>> not optimized for the workflow that I typically use.  Eg- Pull from
>> remote A, rebase onto my master, push to remote B.  On the command
>> line, this take 3-5 seconds depending on the size of the pull.  In
>> Orion, this takes 20-30 seconds while waiting for each page to
>> reload.
>>  I am not necessarily suggesting that we optimize for this particular
>> workflow.  Rather I am saying that there are so many potential
>> workflows that I cannot see how the UI can possibly handle all of
>> them.  But, I do have to say that the new git diff view is very, very
>> nice.
>>
>> 3. Frequent logouts.  I tend to run Orion locally and I find that
>> every time my machine wakes up, I need to log in again.
>>
>> 4. In the git status page, the commit message box is not editable
>> until there is at least one staged change.
>>
>> 5. The "Get plugins" page should have a link to go to the plugins
>> settings page directly, without requiring the user to click on a
>> plugin.  Eg- I want to be able to go directly to
>> http://orion.eclipse.org/settings/settings.html without needing to
>> first go to
>> http://orion.eclipse.org/settings/settings.html#,category=plugins,installPlugin=http://mamacdon.github.com/0.3/plugins/bugzilla/plugin.html
>>
>> That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
>> --a
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 1:41 PM, Simon Kaegi <Simon_Kaegi@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> wrote:
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > I'd like to hold a call next Tuesday at 12pm Eastern time (e.g.
>> > same time of
>> > day as our regular Thursday call) to discuss user experience as
>> > well as
>> > ideas around theming. For an initial meeting Susan suggested
>> > bringing "a
>> > list of the 10 things that bug you the most as a user" and I think
>> > that's
>> > fine for a first call. Please feel free to ping additional ideas on
>> > the
>> > list. User experience is incredibly important and depending on the
>> > need this
>> > call might be made a regular bi-weekly chance to discuss.
>> >
>> > I unfortunately do not have an Eclipse bridge number at the moment
>> > but am
>> > getting help from the Foundation to set things up. I will send an
>> > update
>> > either before the call or failing that we can use my personal
>> > bridge.
>> >
>> > -Simon
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > orion-dev mailing list
>> > orion-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
>> > https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/orion-dev
>> >
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