Layout Customizer Keyboard Interaction

[Anastasia Cheetham]

On 20-May-08, at 3:20 PM, Allison Bloodworth wrote:

> In Yahoo!, iGoogle, & Facebook there is no message if the user tries  
> to move a portlet too far up, down, to the right or to the left.  
> There is just no drop target so when released it just jumps back to  
> where it was.

I checked with Gary on this one - his intention in the mock-ups ( http://wiki.fluidproject.org/x/9Q8a 
  ) is that the drop target remain where it last was if the portlet is  
dragged over a locked portlet, and that if it is dropped, it would  
successfully drop in the 'last known' location (i.e. not snap back).  
(see thread subject "Finishing the Layout Customizer" on May 15, 2008)

Gary and Allison, which way should we implement this? We need to know  
what to implement in order to have it ready for user tests.


> while an error message helps when it may be unclear why there isn't  
> a drop target (e.g. with a locked portlet), I don't think an error  
> message is necessary in the case Michelle describes. What do others  
> think?

Could we have some guidance on this one too?


>
> On May 20, 2008, at 10:53 AM, Michelle D'Souza wrote:
>>
>> In the keyboard interaction for the Layout Customizer, there is a
>> warning message that is shown when trying to move a portlet above a
>> locked portlet. The warning message text in the mockups is: "The box
>> cannot be placed any higher in this column."  I assume that the
>> warning message would also show if the user tried to move the last
>> portlet in a column down or the user tried to move a portlet in the
>> rightmost (or leftmost) column right (or left).
>>
>> The actual text will, of course, be customizable. What I'm wondering
>> about is whether I require four different messages - one for each
>> direction - or whether a more generic message would be reasonable.
>> Perhaps something like: "The portlet cannot be moved in that
>> direction." Which shows up in response to the direction key that the
>> user has just pressed.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Michelle


-- 
Anastasia Cheetham                   a.cheetham at utoronto.ca
Software Designer, Fluid Project    http://fluidproject.org
Adaptive Technology Resource Centre / University of Toronto