Layout Customizer Keyboard Interaction

[Allison Bloodworth]

Hi there,

My responses are below...just let me know if you have other questions.

Allison

On May 21, 2008, at 5:49 AM, Anastasia Cheetham wrote:

>
> 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.
I think we are saying the same thing here, but I may be answering a  
different question which I didn't think had to do with locked  
portlets. In the situation I was describing, if you try to drag the  
last portlet in a column (for example) below itself, it will "snap  
back to the last known location" at the bottom of the column. The  
same thing if you drag the far right portlet to the right of itself,  
the top portlet above itself, etc. It will go back to where it was  
when you "drop" it (since there is no valid drop target in that  
situation). In general, if there isn't a valid drop target the only  
thing the portlet can do is go back to where it was originally. If  
there ever is a valid drop target, the portlet will always be dropped  
in that location. The difference in the situation I describe is that  
there *is no* valid drop target so the only place the portlet can go  
is back where it was. Does this make sense? Feel free to IM me if we  
need to discuss further. I don't see Gary on IM right now but he of  
course could also clarify.
>
>
>> 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?
Daphne and I talked about this and she agrees with me that there  
should be no error message in this situation.
>
>
>>
>> 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
>

Allison Bloodworth
Senior User Interaction Designer
Educational Technology Services
University of California, Berkeley
(415) 377-8243
abloodworth at berkeley.edu




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://fluidproject.org/pipermail/fluid-work/attachments/20080521/4459dc84/attachment.html>