Dashbard UX enhancement suggestions

[nebulon]

@d19dotca what you guessed here was mostly our strain of thought where the buttons end up. For us the restart was mostly useful when the app does not work and it actually needs a restart. I still think this is the case from the point of view of this part of the dashboard. Having to restart an app after config file changes, is why we've put the restart action also into the filemanager and webterminal (although apparently this isn't obvious).

The stop/start action on the other side was put where the uninstall is, as we thought if the system is low on resources and one option is to purge rarely used apps, one could also stop the app instead of uninstalling altogether. I think here our thinking does not align. I will experiment to see if putting a stop/start button on the top is good (I don't think a dropdown with also a restart action is helpful here though, as I still think it is not the right fix having to restart apps frequently)

[nebulon]

Since this thread contains a few suggestions by now, lets dive a bit into the other initial ones.
The usermanagement indicator does make sense and we will see how to add that.

For the action icons, which currently are shown on hover on desktop, I am also not satisfied with how they are done now, but to better understand what is a good solution, we have to understand what actions are common and useful here.
Currently they show:

• app configure
• logviewer
• app info
• (optional) app admin panel

Are those actually the correct actions and are they frequently enough used to warrant a top-level button?

Would we go with one button, as suggested, I am not sure if it is good to add a dropdown menu for those, since it just adds an additional required click and might make things harder on mobile/tablet. So I am not sure if I like that suggestion more than what we currently have.

[marcusquinn]

@nebulon If it were me I'd go:

[dot dot dot button always showing]

• Admin (when applicable)
• Info
• Settings
• Logs

Short, sweet and conventional.

Hover is always a nuisance on touch-screens. All other UIs I can think of that have a tile navigation seem to have gravitated to the convention of the 3 dots showing in the top-right.

One tap/click shows, another tap or tap/click away hides. That's the way all OS menus work. When in doubt, I always follow the same conventions that operating systems use.

50% grey is good for visual accessibility contrast.

[robi]

I'd add an update action button so we don't have to do extra clicks to update apps. The popup prompt for backups can still happen.

Especially if the app is stopped. Start it up, update it and stop it.

[marcusquinn]

@robi OK, so:

[dot dot dot button always showing, up arrow when available]

Admin (when applicable)
Info
Settings
Update (when applicable)
Logs

[infogulch]

Agree 3-dot menu >>> hover for mobile. Even on desktop I sometimes found myself confused which icon is which and misclicking (e.g. click info for logs, & vv) when I'm only half paying attention; a menu with text label would solve that nicely.

I like the update button idea.

[jdaviescoates]

@robi said in Dashbard UX enhancement suggestions:

I'd add an update action button so we don't have to do extra clicks to update apps.

+1

I'd still really like to see a filter for apps that have an update available too.

[nebulon]

@hexbin

While you're at it, could you check why the focus on the tiles (keyboard navigation) has no visual effect?

hm at least in firefox here the a tag element does get the system default focus outline. The tabfocus order is a bit strange though, as it also cycles through the action buttons which are hidden withou hover at the moment.

[hexbin]

@infogulch said

when I'm only half paying attention

Important point that makes me nervous about stop/restart buttons too easily to be (mis)clicked.

Please do also have in mind that you lovely people here are power users. We should always cross-check ideas with a persona who is a non-frequent administrator.

That is one reason why I tend to find non-disruptive changes. Mapped to the (absolutely valid) requirement to reduce searching for the fuctions (stop / restart) - would it be feasible to have redundant additional links on several tabs?

[hexbin]

@nebulon said

at least in firefox here the a tag element does get the system default focus outline

Technically correct - but aren't we kinda hard trying to make that invisible?

(Spoiler: it's the chat tile that has the focus)

[d19dotca]

@hexbin said in Dashbard UX enhancement suggestions:

makes me nervous about stop/restart buttons too easily to be (mis)clicked

I think that's a fair concern. That's actually part of why I was suggesting earlier the option of an Actions dropdown menu... it'd do two things: 1) keep the number of buttons down and more importantly 2) prevent mis-clicks since to restart or stop you'd need to make two separate clicks because they'd be covered by a general Actions button that needs a click too.

I guess it may not hurt to also have an "Are you sure?" prompt, but I think 3 clicks (at least how I"m envisioning it) seems maybe a bit much too.

My two cents:

• If we go with a parent Actions button that covers the Stop and Restart buttons from mis-clicks, then it's good as-is at that point.
• If we keep both the Stop and Restart buttons in the top button row though where they can be easily misclicked, then I think we should have an "Are you sure" type of pop-up to prevent those misclicks.

[nebulon]

@hexbin said in Dashbard UX enhancement suggestions:

Technically correct - but aren't we kinda hard trying to make that invisible?

Ah I see, indeed this is way to sublte here. As such our stylesheet does not configure that, so it appears to be a bad match with the current custom and system style.

[robi]

Ideally we'd rarely have to visit troubleshooting tools and start/stop buttons as the app monitor would handle that more intelligently for us.

Until then, making things more obvious and adding additional distinguishing visual elements such as the triangle pointing right and square box for start and stop respectively.

[nebulon]

Regarding the fix for the app item action items, which are currently shown on hover, we have done a few tests with the three dots icon and a dropdown. It didn't make too much sense to us and also it kindof looked strange and not very intuitive.
Now the current version is a bit simplified from this. It will show a single button in the top-right corner as suggested here. This is always shown now for admins. Clicking that will bring up the app configure/info view which has an improved toolbar on the top right, containing all the actions.
This change has the same amount of clicks required as the dropdown now and also works better on mobile/tablet.

You can see the stop/pause action also being more prominent up there now.

[nebulon]

Also the grid item focus is now adjusted to look like, but I am not yet sure if I keep it as such

@hexbin the actual system and browser native focus is still untouched and I think given that we haven't done any visual focus handling, you will see similar issues on other products unless you adjust your system settings for the native style. I also think that not interfering with the native one here is correct, as if I adjust my system for example to have a style with high contrast (this is on linux gnome) then the native focus rendering is also adjusted well, which I think is what we want.

[marcusquinn]

@nebulon Nice. If it's a button now, rather than a drop-down, that makes more sense to use an icon representing the destination.

Personally, I'd prefer the single-cog icon here and for the Service menus, if you'd consider that?

• https://fontawesome.com/v4.7.0/icon/cog

[nebulon]

@marcusquinn agreed, using the single cog now

[hexbin]

@nebulon Awesome improvements!

given that we haven't done any visual focus handling

Unfortunately it's a very widespread bad habit among web designers to unconsciously style only :hover states. By omitting :focus, accessibility is actively reduced. Not blaming anyone. You might want to check if your CSS files serve this finding.

The defaults are not always a good fallback. Not many people actually know that they could adjust their system (not even many among those who rely on assistive technologies). When we avoid touching the way the defaults do the styling (e. g. outline) we can still do a lot for accessibility

[hexbin]

Now that we've satisfied some basic power users' needs - mind if I get back to the original motivation (description field, login type)?

At least once a week I have to tell an app-using team member that it's not their fault and to stop blaming themselves (no, you are not "too stupid").

It would be such a blessing to help non-admins help themselves.

[nebulon]

@hexbin said in Dashbard UX enhancement suggestions:

The defaults are not always a good fallback. Not many people actually know that they could adjust their system (not even many about those who rely on assistive technologies). When we avoid touching the way the defaults do the styling (e. g. outline) we can still do a lot for accessibility

so we are on track here, I've added the darker outline, but the native one is still inset of that. I have not restyled this (not visible in the screenshot, as real focus went to the screenshot tool )