News from March, 2008

In the next few weeks, I plan to outline the details of the UX Improvement Project. Stay tuned.

Nathan

I've been steadily chipping away at creating a little place here on confluence, and now that I'm pretty much done, I'm proud to announce that the UX Improvement Initiative has officially been launched!

To summarize things:

• The UX Improvement Initiative is going to make Sakai's user experience awesome!

• We'll make improvements through a series of projects that will target Sakai's UX problem spots. Once a project is formed, we'll keep it open until it doesn't need anymore design. (Where's the skeptical raising one eyebrow smiley when I need it?)

• Projects will get two months of design time, and if they need more, we'll give them another two months at some later time.

• The first project that's been selected is: Improving the CLE 1. The kick-off for this project is planned for Monday, March 17th. I've scheduled a kick-off meeting on the Sakai001 bridge for 9:30 AM MST.

• I encourage anyone who is interested in participating in this project to contact me so I can add you to the team! I'd like to keep the kick-off meeting to 1 hour and will send an agenda to the team this Friday.

• Also, if this project isn't your cup of tea, but you'd still like to get involved in the initiative, let me know and all I add you to the Directory!

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Warm regards,
Nathan

PS: I've done my best to keep the content as brief as possible. But if you're just not up for the read, feel free to drop me a note with any questions you might have.

This project is planned to start on: Monday, March 17, 2008

I've scheduled a kick-off meeting for team members at 9:30 AM MST.

To dial-in, use Sakai001:

IP Address: 156.56.240.9
Telephone: 812-856-7060
Conference Code: 348
PIN: 72524

Not a team member yet? No problem! Drop me a line and let's talk.

For more information on the types of folks this project needs, take a look at the Thinking about getting involved? section of the UX Initiative Summary.

Also, take a look at the Project Profile to learn more about this project. And if you have any questions, just drop me a note.

Cheers,
Nathan

For those of you who plan to call in, here's the agenda:

MEETING PLANNED FOR: MONDAY, MARCH 17, 2008 @ 9:30 AM MST
DURATION: 1 HOUR (more if necessary)

Introductions
Say hello to the team.

Project Summary
I'll go over the scope of the project along with the project goals.

Review Schedule & Deliverables
I'll cover the design schedule and design deliverables. If anyone wants to chime in a discuss development or other items, feel free.

Discuss Roles & Expectations
I'm hoping this will be the meatier part of the discussion. I'd like to know where everyone sees themselves fitting in so we can get our expectations aligned.

General Q&A
If necessary, I'll answer any last minute questions you might have.

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I'd like everyone who showed an interest in this project to attend as I think it will be a nice way for us to get to know one another. But if you can't make it, please RSVP me to let me know. Thanks!

Nathan

This week was spent laying the groundwork for the CLE. The design work covers:

• Dashboard views vs. site home page views
• Re-thinking how users navigate sites
• Re-thinking how users access tools
• Putting more thinking and detail into widgets (synoptic tool)
• Setting the stage for more efficient and robust preferences, permissions, and other configurations
• Getting jiggy with Web 2.0
• And a few other goodies...

To learn more, take a look at this week's flash presentation.

Also, you may want to download these screens as they'll be the focus of the presentation:

Dashboard	Site Home Page

Note: All designs are for "presentation only"! Any icons, photos, or other copyrighted materials used were done so for purposes of mock-up and will not be used in the final designs. Also, keep in mind that these designs are wire frames (rough sketches) and colors, style, etc. were intentionally omitted.

Enjoy!

General brainstorming... don't read too into it.

Object Model	Layout Schema	Layout Rules
Componants Overview	Widget Schema

As per recommendations made during this project's kick-off meeting, here's a few highlights (comments I heard and paraphrased here) from my interviews with folks in the community:

• Sakai lacks cohesion as a product. Not only are tools different in their interactions and other design patterns, but the product on the whole lacks a clear metaphor that guides the user's understand of how to best start and use it.

• Some folks recommended a start-up guide or wizard to get user's going. Also, video walk-throughs were discussed.

• Many people commented on Sakai being too "tool oriented" and that users need to hunt for obscure functionality across a myriad of tools to complete basic tasks. Very frustrating!

• While there's talk of a so called "flexible framework" (referring to Sakai being more than just a LMS/CMS – but a CLE, Portfolio, anything really!), in truth it's not. It's very difficult to make any modifications and the out-of-the-box offering is too cumbersome for those that just want to get up and running.

• Sakai analogy: A camel is horse designed by committee.

• Sakai is passe in its thinking. It lacks not only the Web 2.0 bells and whistles, but the "spirit" of Web 2.0. It's does a very basic and fairly out-dated thing.. and not that well.

• Tools that are important include: Resources, Gradebook, Announcements

• Saving state vs not-saving state?? Contentious issue!

• Consistency is still a big problem.

My summary: Overall, I heard lots of frustrations relating to nuanced issues within tools as well as issues when user tasks span multiple tools. Inconsistency was high on the list of complaints, but my sense is that if "good design" principles were applied to each tool, consistency would be less of an issue. In other words, consistency is a symptom of a broader problem – poor design. For example, the Wiki tool is designed quite well, and folks generally like it. Yet, it's quite inconsistent from other tools.

As for why the first project revolves around the portal (or CLE as I'm calling it – to which I'm referring to all things that are non-tools)? Simple: Before getting lost in details of any one tool, thinking about Sakai from a high-level will help set the stage for filling in the details later. That's why I agree with the original project goals which centered on the site setup. That's a good place to start since to setup a site, one must fist envision a site. That process touches so much of Sakai that I can't think of a better place to start.

Here's the first rendition of the "Creating a New Site" flow. Also, I cover the Site Settings area and propose a few new ideas!

Topics covered in this design include:

• Create a site flow
• Proposed template concept
• A wizard-esque widget called the Site Assistant that helps new users create their sites
• General site settings which allows site owners to change colors, add a logo, etc.
• Exploring how and where the user's profile should fit into a site
• How a site might present its members in the site settings area – possibly only available to site owners.
• Briefly discuss my plans for a robust permissions system
• A feature rich site data import/export feature
• And last but not least, a way for site owners to copy an existing site while doing a little site management

To learn more, take a look at this week's flash presentation.

Also, don't forget to checkout the companion screens as you watch the video.

Enjoy!

Dashboard (Start Here)	Create a Site - Course Confirmation	Create a Site - Course Form
Create a Site - Non-Course Form	Create a Site - Sneak Peak at Templates	Create a Site - Select an Option
Site Settings - Copy Sites 3 (Error Message)	Site Settings - Copy Sites 2	Site Settings - General
Site Settings - My Profile	Joe's New Site - Site Assistant update	Joe's New Site - Using the Site Assistant
Joe's New Site	Site Settings - Copy Sites 1	Site Settings - Import/Export
Site Settings - Success Message	Site Settings - Add a Member	Site Settings - Members Tab