On Fri, Mar 30, 2018 at 10:32 PM, Vincent Massol <vincent(a)massol.net> wrote:
Hi Caty,
On 30 Mar 2018, at 07:51, Ecaterina Moraru
(Valica) <valicac(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Hi devs,
Here are some ideas about how the repository application used on
extensions.xwiki.org could look like if we were to provide multiple
display
layouts for extensions, require the contributors
to add custom icons,
colors and screenshots.
http://design.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Proposal/exoGrid
In terms of design I tried to make it look as a proper application store,
but it will be heavily influenced on users providing ratings for
extensions
and contributors on providing quality icons /
colors/ description /
screenshots.
In terms of interaction, the biggest change would be a revamp of the
search
functionality. Currently users are using it, but
it's a generic search,
focused on text results.
Let me know what you think,
Nice!
I have some comments:
* You dropped the concept of “Recommended” extension which provided an
interesting definition which is lost and there’s no longer a way for users
to view Extensions that match a quality criteria. “Top Extensions” is not
about quality but about how many persons have installed an extension (they
don’t even need to use it.
* You said “top sponsoring companies”. However there’s only one. See
http://dev.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Community/Governance
* You used “Top Extensions”. I think it would be more accurate to say
something like “Most Installed Extensions”.
My purpose was to use the terminology found in the majority of application
stores. Thanks for the detailed / XWiki specific notes. My intention was to
have a generic proposal, not a very accurate one. Still, I don't know if
users care about the nuances or if they would identify / understand faster
terms that are used worldwide.
"Top" could also mean the extensions that have the best ratings. Or a
combination of installs and ratings.
* In the search you show a “Price” facet but this
won’t be easy to
implement because only free apps are available on e.x.o and indexing other
repos would mean some custom solr index/system and I think that’s probably
too complex to do.
The example was E.X.O, but I tried to think about what facets would be
interesting for the Repo app in general, and in some cases the stores could
have paid apps.
* I’d like to keep the LT view.
** It provides a much nicer view when you need to filter and find
extensions - it’s harder to find what you need if your eyes need to travel
horizontally and vertically.
** And doing a search will be a lot slower and refresh the page.
** It scales less well since you need to click on the next page to view
more.
The LT view could be accessed from the "Browse" button. LT are not that
common in other stores, it's more an XWiki component.
Regarding scalability of the LT, it all depends on the number of entries we
display. If we have a step of 10-15 entries (like the one displayed in the
mockups), the Grid view (3 + 4 + 10*) accommodates more entries than the LT
view (10+2), in our example. Also depends on the information we display in
the LT. Our current LT shows a lot of data vertically, but the question is
are those data important / needed for the user (Created, Last Modified,
Authors, etc.). There are also issues with our e.x.o LT: Ratings can't be
sorted / filtered, Authors can't be filtered, so even if the LT displays
more info, sometimes we disable those functions because of various reasons.
The Grid displays simplifies a lot the showed data. I agree that is not
that accurate / complete as the LT, but that was the point, prioritizing
usage and ratings.
* One idea is to have the “Search” page as a Browse
page and have two ways
of displaying it (either a LT view or a Boxed view with search).
* Globally my worry is that while the boxed view seems nicer visually, I
think it’s less usable in practice. The improved search view is very nice
though compared to the search view we have now. So IMO we need to find the
right balance of LT view and Box view.
The proposal tried to showcase how it could look like more like an
application store, applying the same display patterns that users expects
from a store, but sure the LT can still be part of the Browse functionality
and allow advanced filtering.
Thanks,
Caty
Thanks a lot
-Vincent
Caty
P.S. Proposal ideas iterated with Marius, Alex and Eduard.