Re: [tlug] Feedback needed (i.e., website design): KISS

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Daniel Son writes:

 > Agreed here, but my problem is I extensively use javascript

Why?  If your *content* is dynamic, that's better done on the backend,
and just send POOH (plain old "obsolete" HTML).

If your *presentation* is dynamic, then you do need Javascript and/or
AJAX.

OK, your presentation is dynamic, but does it *need* to be?

Responding to your OP:

 > I am working on a small project that I see as a software catalogue
 > searchable by features and functionality. There is still lots of
 > data to put into the database (working on it really hard), but I
 > would like to get as much feedback as possible about the following
 > topics:

 > 1) what's people experience using the resource;

After one search (Database Engines, both GPLv2 and GPLv3 mandatory
attributes), I can say the following:

1.  The UI should not change between "Categories" and "Filters".  You
know how to open a subtree with one click, use that technique in
filters.

2.  GPLv2 and GPLv3 are mutually exclusive.  Why can I make both
"mandatory"?

3.  The entire tab, not just the words "home" and "new search", should
be clickable.

4.  A failed search should not trigger "help", that's blaming the
victim.  They know what they want, it's your database that doesn't
have the content from their point of view.

5.  Help should not trigger an alert, ever.  It should not direct the
user back to the home page, which they presumably have already read.

6.  Help should be context-sensitive.  At the very least, use of
multiple mandatory criteria should trigger a "use fewer mandatory
criteria" explanation.

7.  IMO the WinFTP-style interface for choosing attributes is a waste
of screen space.  You provide a huge number of attributes, but users
are unlikely to set as many as a dozen.  That means at least half of
the second column is wasted space.

8.  There should be a way to negate attributes, especially you'd like
to negate things like the GPL which may be incompatible with a license
you've inherited with some of your code.

OK, make that two searches (web dev frameworks, optional ws-addressing
attribute).

9.  In a category with less than 10 entries, I shouldn't have to
specify *any* attributes, but I get "help" saying I have to.

10. Don't pop up an alert to tell me I need to allow popups.  Google
manages to get past this by popping up a tab or new window.  This is
much more managable for your users who want to do detail comparisons
than popup frames.

11. My browser window is 1000px wide (at current fontsize >160
characters), I shouldn't need a horizontal scrollbar to see either the
whole results table or the whole feature grid (especially since the
content of the latter is actually only about 200px wide).

12. Axis2/Java and Axis2/C should sort next to each other by default.

13. Axis2/Java and Axis2/C should point to each other, and their
content should be similar.

14. AlchemySoap points out of the search space at something called
EasySOAP.  This undermines any claims you might want to make to
completeness.

 > 2) Accuracy of the information that is already there (need to do some 
 > extra work on it anyways)

"Codehouse XFire" seems to be misspelled, should be "Codehaus XFire".

 > 3) Anything to add (categories, well lots of them are being added in any 
 > case; products: (see categories); functionality: i am working on few 
 > extra features)
 > 4) browser specific bugs (main testing is done using firefox, but other 
 > browsers are tested as well, just not as frequently)
 > 5) any other bugs
 > 6) anything else ...

I think you have a lot of UI design work to do before you worry about
the database contents and browser bugs.