[xwiki-devs] [Discussion] New WYSIWYG GUI Propositions

[Sergiu Dumitriu]

Guillaume Lerouge wrote:
> Hi fellow XWikiers,
> I've been spending some time thinking about the new User Interface we might
> want to build for the new WYSIWYG editor. I've posted the ideas I gathered
> so far on this page :
> http://dev.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Design/NewWysiwygEditorInterface .
> 
> I'd be glad to get some feedback either on the list or in comments right on
> the page in order to see whether any given approach clinches or clashes with
> your own conceptions of a great rich text editor.
> 
> Please bear in mind that I'll probably be adding content to the page on a
> regular basis in days to come in order to account for the feedback received
> - if any.
> 
> In case of an absence of feedback, well, I guess we'll be able to assume
> safely that the new WYSIWYG editor doesn't matter that much in the end and
> stop its development altogether ;-)
> 
> Looking forward hearing from you guys (and girls),

Option 1: -1. Bad UI design, I don't like toolbars. Reminds me of 
http://thor.info.uaic.ro/~sergiu.dumitriu/hci/L7/img/SciWriter_19.jpg

Option 2: +0.5. Cleaner, more organized than 1. Still, as the screenshot shows, the Insert menu is 
already too big.

Option 3: +0.55. Modern, goes the new MSOffice way. This is good, as in theory it enhances 
productivity and offers a more intuitive way of organizing things. The ugly colored screenshots have 
the major disadvantage that they are not flexible. No other option fits in the Import area.
A big -1 because enough people are annoyed by the new MS Office and the so called "ribbon". +1, 
since this negative trend is caused by the normal rejection of new and different things, and it will 
fade away soon. Small observation: are the actions visible enough? (save, undo...).

Anyway, all options require a careful thinking of what goes where, how many entries to have, and how 
are they organized. I'd be in favor of keeping the customization features to a minimum. If you leave 
a lot of make-up tools in there, people will be tempted to spend time on making things big red and 
blinky, instead of better organizing the content.

-- 
Sergiu Dumitriu
http://purl.org/net/sergiu/