UX considerations & decisions

[ctapobep]

UX Tenets

These are just general rules. Neither of these rules should be taken to their extreme, otherwise they start to conflict with each other.

1. There should be as few of visible elements as possible. This is important as the screens shouldn't scare new users, and it should be easy to figure out what in general you can do on the page - rather than see all the possible buttons.
2. Actions should require as few clicks as possible. This conflicts with the Tenet 1 because if we hide elements deeper to free up the UI, then we add more and more clicks to get there. By introducing shortcuts and searchable List of Actions (as a dialog) we can marry these two tenets.
3. Elements that are likely to be used should be more visible than less popular ones. Ideally there should only be one main action on the page - every page should be targeted towards a specific goal. But the reality can be messier.
4. Same kind of action should be located in the same place and named identically on different screens and in different modes. This allows user not to rediscover all the actions on every page - it's all familiar. This tenet may conflict with the Tenet#3 since what's important for one page may not be important for the other.

Note, that UX requirements may change with time. When the whole world uses the tool, it's more likely that the new people will overcome the barrier of more complex UI. But if it's a yet unknown tool, then we better make sure it's easy to figure it out.

UX Decisions

If we don't have permissions to some action, should we see the clickable element? #

For now, it's not clear which approach is better. But let's set up some rules and follow them until we change our mind:

Visible but disabled:

1. All inline edits show up as plain text, without the underlying
2. If element is hidden in a menu, it's disabled and there's a tooltip explained why it's disabled. Since they're disabled, they (hopefully) won't be very visible
3. If element opens another screen where user can edit the information, then the element is shown but the screen it opens - that one is disabled for editing. This way user can still see the data even if they can't edit it.

Hidden:

1. If element is a pure action (doesn't expose any info) and it's visible on the screen (isn't hidden under a menu), then it's not shown. This includes buttons that show up on hover.

Discussion

There are 2 conflicting interests:

1. Tenet#1 says we should make UI without extra elements
2. Tenet#4 says elements should reside in the same positions in different modes.

Why don't I have permissions?

Let's say there are 2 reasons not to allow for actions:

1. User finished with some Peaksel Injection and "closed" it, signifying that no one should edit it anymore.
2. User lacks the permissions
3. User is signed out

If we don't show the element, then it's not always obvious how to acquire the permissions. If we do show the element but disable it instead, then we can explain user the reasons.

It's all colorful and overloaded, where's the important stuff? (Tenet#1)

If we show all the possible actions, and just disable them, then it may be too much for the poor user (Tenet#1) and they may get confused.

E.g. there can be quite a lot of editable elements (like inlined, underlined text edits) which overload the UI, so making it simpler can have a big effect on the simplicity of the screen.