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:
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Dashboard
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Site Home Page
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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!
Comments (3)
Mar 24, 2008
Mathieu Plourde says:
The design here implies that MyWorkspace becomes invisible, since it gets rid of...The design here implies that MyWorkspace becomes invisible, since it gets rid of the tabs to navigate between sites. MyWorkspace becomes a dashboard view for all users. We do desperately need a dashboard view for our users, but there are some widgets that will have to stay visible at all times, like "My Sites" for instance.
I like the fact that the site tools (Logout, Help, Create a site, etc.) are separated from the course tools. It liberates some space in the left navigation bar (Site Info and Help can go away). But I think the top part of the page should always stay the same, except when the user is not logged in. Any tools that are course-related should be under the top banner, to show to the user that these tools are only relevant to that specific space.
In the Site Home Page mockup, the navigation is now at the right of the page. I think this is a mistake. From a user point of view, it should be the first level of navigation. Putting it to the right of the page gives it a widget feel, something like all other widgets.
Another thing. In the Dashboard view, when an instructor wants to add tools to his/her site, he/she wants to have access to the list of available tools. We could accomplish that by having a two column design were users could drag and drop the tools from one box to the other, and change the order at the same time. There could also be a popup bubble that explains the particular tool when hovering an info button.
These are my first reactions, but it's a really good start. We could make some of these features happen faster if we don't try to reinvent the Sakai interface and do a step by step process.
Mar 24, 2008
Nathan Pearson says:
I'm not sure what you mean by "MyWorspace becomes invisible"? "there are some w...I'm not sure what you mean by "MyWorspace becomes invisible"?
"there are some widgets that will have to stay visible at all times, like "My Sites" for instance."
Yes, the Dashboard is technically a Site.. it just looks a little different in that I'm not including the sidebar, meta-header, or quicklinks to tools. But from a technical perspective, it's the same thing – not unlike MyWorkspace today. Only difference is that the template looks a little different. Plus, the taxonomy (or perceived taxonomy) in relation to sites is that the Dashboard is a hub (or starting point) and sites are spokes.
So from that perspective, like sites, the dashboard too will be highly configurable at the system admin. level so that institutions can set the amount of control or freedom they grant to their users.
"In the Site Home Page mockup, the navigation is now at the right of the page. I think this is a mistake. From a user point of view, it should be the first level of navigation. Putting it to the right of the page gives it a widget feel, something like all other widgets."
The sidebar can be moved to the left or the right (as is in the demo) by changing the layout in the "Change Layout" button.
"Another thing. In the Dashboard view, when an instructor wants to add tools to his/her site, he/she wants to have access to the list of available tools. We could accomplish that by having a two column design were users could drag and drop the tools from one box to the other, and change the order at the same time. There could also be a popup bubble that explains the particular tool when hovering an info button."
Yeah, I'm thinking about something along those lines. You should come up with a mock-up and add it to the mix
I'll post more of what I'm working on in the coming weeks.
Mar 25, 2008
Mathieu Plourde says:
1) I guess my question should be: At what level will we use a Dashboard? As soon...1) I guess my question should be:
At what level will we use a Dashboard?
2) Navigation on the right: perfect, as long as it can be frozen to the left.
3) I'll try to come up with a mockup of the tool selection process.