A request for feedback about: Usability of the Interface

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#1

As you may be aware, I am working on a TW of documents and photos related to Central Street Gallery in Sydney in the 70’s and 80’s.

I am nearly all the way through documents and then will do the negatives and positives.

However, I am looking for some feedback as to usability of the interface so far. I am especially interested in hearing suggestions of types/means of access I haven’t even thought about. I know that there are many diverse knowledgeable people in this community and we all have our favorite access methods.

The TW can be found at http://cultconv.com/CentralStreetArchive

All feedback appreciated.

bobj

#2

What are you thinking of when you say “access methods” and “types/means of access”

#3

I observe on your wiki;

Number of tiddlers 841
Number of tags 2146

I think you should use less tags.

#4

@Bob_Jansen You have similar data objects/entities that I use. I found my implementations evolving—and it is still evolving. TW too is a bit of moving target. I am getting behind on the use of new features, while I master the concepts and attempt to improve the presentation.

I see some of my early implementations in your solution. Example: parent menu items providing sub items that are lists. Eg. Your People menu item. This appears fine when the list is short. Once I had a long list it became less useable. Instead I implemented a “People” tiddler that listed people. This tiddler provided the user with a search/filter field. As things grew I wrote various templates to provide different types of lists. First was just a list and my next 2 are tables with pagination, showing more than just a name. This cleaned up the menu and provided a way to summarize people data.

It’s great you’re reviewing ViewTemplates. Instead of putting all your content in the text field, you can use custom fields that your template uses to present the tiddler.

Review this photograph tiddler (link below) to see what I did. Aside: I implemented spotlight lightbox plugin (shout out to the author here). This plugin added the ability to open a photo fullscreen. With this implemented in a template, it’s only implemented in one location.

https://clsturgeon.github.io/MemoryKeeper/AlexanderGrahamBell/AlexanderGrahamBell.html#1906%20-%20Bell%20receives%20honorary%20degree

#5

That might be a valuable opinion if it were wrapped with some context.

If treating this TiddlyWiki like a database of entities and attributes, it makes a lot of sense for their to be more attributes that entities.

If more tags than tiddlers is a bad idea, why? What are the issues here?

#6

The issue here is that it appears there is a heavy dependance on a single attribute, the tags. A live example.

There are a number of different issues;

  • Tags are now dominating the interface of some tiddlers
  • With many different tags it is hard to separate them (we have called this polluting the tag space)

But we need a few more tools to help users.

#7

If tags are what make the most sense for data entry (I.e. really convenient) and for filtering, then stick with them if that’s what works best.

If they are cluttering the interface when viewing, then consider altering view templates to organize tags (even if just putting them in a details element) to make things less overwhelming for view-only folk?

#8

That is one approach. I think there are others.

Possibly the easiest is to use fields, even list fields to store attributes and leave tags for adhock use.

In a way its possible to have more than one kind of alternative tags fields.

Here I have argued what we should avoid, yes I have not spelt out “how to”. I also think we need to enhance or document these alternatives including similar interface elements.