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  • lessbloat 4:48 pm on November 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    I put another user through the media scenarios this morning. This time I asked that they adjust alignment and size.

    You can download the video here.

    My observations:

    Step 1: Login

    No problems.

    Step 2: Publish already uploaded image

    No problems.

    Step 3: Preview post

    No problems.

    Step 4: Publish 2 images to a single post

    4:00 – Even though the 2 images she added were not set to align right, they appeared to be aligned right when inserted into the post. Is this a side affect of the user aligning the first image right in Step 2?

    Step 5: Download additional images

    No problems.

    Step 6: Upload new images & publish gallery

    7:40 – User gets confused that she doesn’t see the gallery images she just added, and says, “What just happened here?”.
    7:50 – User tries to click back button to get back to media modal (cancels it). User is looking for a way to get back to the gallery settings page.
    8:05 – “What just happened here? I’m not even sure if I added them to the gallery or not. I’m confused…”.
    8:50 – She gets frustrated and decides to start over with this step.
    10:38 – She decides to add the images with “Insert into post”, instead of using “Create a new gallery”. She thinks this (the media library) is her gallery.
    12:17 – One of the descriptions that she entered did not show up in the editor.

    Summary

    • She did great, until she got to the gallery step. There appears to be a general confusion around how adding images to a gallery is different from just selecting images and adding them to the editor. The generic gallery div that shows up in the editor after you add a gallery to the post seems very confusing for users.
    • Once you set one of the images to align right, each subsequent image you add is aligned right when inserted into the editor (even though you don’t specifically set the new image to align right).
    • The generic gallery div (with the camera icon in it) appears to be confusing users. We should definitely add a description to that div – something like “Your gallery images will be displayed here”. I think we should also display the “edit gallery” button in that div at all times (not just on click). The user was searching around for a way to edit the gallery she just added, but gave up after a while and decided to start all over instead. :-(
    • One of the captions she entered didn’t make it to the editor.
     

    • JerrySarcastic 7:06 pm on November 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Kinda tough to watch her flail as soon as she sees the generic gallery div; I agree that it is not very helpful for new users. How about a div that shows the actual gallery thumbs (ghosted out) so a visual indicator that the gallery has been added correctly is present.

      • Helen Hou-Sandi 1:40 am on November 17, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        There were TinyMCE views that enabled this kind of display and were doing it for galleries, but they had to be backed out due to issues caused too late in the release.

    • Bart Dabek (WebCultured.com) 2:11 pm on November 23, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Hi Dave, what’s the workflow for inserting custom sized images with random order? You guys omitted those parameters from the current UI?

  • Helen Hou-Sandi 12:21 am on November 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    Coming soon: Weekly updates 

    Part of the duties of a team rep for each area of contributors is to be responsible for a weekly update on the group. At this moment, there is not an established UI team rep, but as a core development team representative, I’m happy to step in until new elections are done sometime in the near-ish future.

    Part of our UI group discussion at the Community Summit was about how we can make these weekly updates both informational and effective, especially when it comes to attracting and retaining contributors. Here’s what we’re thinking:

    • A breakdown of what we did this week, such as discussions held (with links to IRC as applicable), patches uploaded/worked on, and what’s changed in core in a more prose-y manner.
    • Links to ideas from the community at large, which would likely be blog posts on other sites, including your own. Discussion would be encouraged over on those posts rather than here – the creator should be able to really take ownership and pride in their idea and be centrally involved in the discussion. The idea is to both expose some of the great ideas that are happening and open up a platform for idea generation that isn’t “from the top” or carrying the official weight that gets associated with a post on the Make P2s, which are largely status-driven rather than hypothetical.
    • Weekly IRC chat summary with anything not covered above.
    • What needs to get done this week, including any assignments that have been made and ones that need volunteers. We’re thinking this will be a great step toward exposing more ways to get involved in case you’re still figuring things out.

    Thoughts? Love it, hate it?

     

    • karmatosed 10:11 am on November 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I really like this idea be great to keep up with things. The last point will help greatly in finding ways in for me and others also so that’s really cool. Not everyone can every time get to the IRC meeting so it’s a great way to keep up to date and involved.

    • McGarityDotMe 11:59 am on November 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      All of this helps me out, as I’m trying to get my feet wet and understand more about sub-groups like this I’m interested in participating with. The IRC chats have been where I’ve started, but that’s often like jumping into the deep end of a pool after a swim lesson. :) I especially like the last bullet point, as it’s not immediately clear to this n00b what’s in flight, what’s about to start, etc.

    • lessbloat 12:19 pm on November 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Yep. +1 to all of it. :-)

    • Jane Wells 1:56 pm on November 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I was going to post this proposal to the team reps blog, and will, but since you posted this, I’ll pre-empt myself and post my thoughts here as well.

      I’ve been thinking more about this since our team reps discussion at the summit, and I’m still thinking we should re-jigger the UI group. When we talk about core UI, it really seems like that discussion should be happening as a part of the core project, rather than sidelined as a separate group. When I started the UI group, it was because we weren’t a project that really had design contributors yet, and I wanted to change that, but it would have been disruptive to try to get that started on wpdevel (as it was called then). Now that it’s make/core, and now that there are a number of designers (members of this group) participating actively in core, I think it’s time for a change to recognize that core UI is not a separate project, it is an integral part of core.

      At the same time, there are design needs across the WordPress project, like for events, documentation, site improvements, etc. Just as developing a system of team reps was intended to put other contributions on a level with core, I believe it’s time to rethink the UI group altogether.

      What I’d like to see is the stuff going on as “the UI group” currently to be treated as a regular core component (with component owner, if that’s still the plan post-summit) rather than an entirely separate group. I’m thinking the same thing about Accessibility. If something isn’t a separate, sovereign group that gets to make decisions (in this case, UI decisions still are ultimately made by the core team/release leads, not by a standalone UI group), then it should be an active part of the main group. In other words, I think it’s time for UI contributors to level up to the main core team. Updates about what is happening with core UI would be part of the regular core team updates.

      Then, we’d create a Design Corps of all the designers (graphic, interaction, web, print, you name it) that would be contributing to the project as a whole, rather than just core, and to all design needs, not just UI. Each of the contributor groups would have its own embedded contributing designers (like the core ui contributors), while the design corp *group* would be a place to share resources, discuss design problems across teams, and for team reps to post requests for design assistance when needed. This would solve several problems (other groups don’t have design resources, and they see the UI group as limited to CSS or usability).

      I will admit that this is basically a ripoff of how Automattic handles design (just as our new contributor group blogs and team reps are a ripoff of Automattic’s team updates system). The Automattic design group system has been in play for three and a half years now, and I think it works really well. It allows designers to be integral members of project teams, while also being part of a broader design group.

      Anyway, I’ll be proposing this to the team reps for consideration, but would like you guys to be thinking about it, too. @lessbloat and @chexee, as UI Group members who have experienced the Automattic model first-hand may be the best able to comment on whether it is a good model.

      • Helen Hou-Sandi 2:40 pm on November 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        +100000000000 to the overall direction of this group within the project as a whole. Siobhan’s post about handbooks earlier is in a similar vein – UI isn’t a separate handbook, but a component of each contributing area’s handbook. I also think it would be really helpful to promote areas beyond the core web application for folks to actively contribute to – it’s definitely different than ideas for, say, a website. I see plugin developers especially liking having a way to join forces with UI/UX-minded types :)

        P.S. Hey everybody, do get involved in the handbooks if you’re able and willing!

        • Siobhan 6:47 pm on November 17, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

          Yes! Handbooks are cool and awesome and people should get involved!

          Also, I think a design corps group is an excellent idea. I have been thinking that we’ll need design people to help out with making the handbooks look beautiful and I had no idea where to look. This would solve the problem for me :D

      • lessbloat 5:17 pm on November 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Love it. I think that’s a great idea.

      • Mel Choyce 8:06 pm on November 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        This sounds like a great way to create more opportunities for designers to get involved. Awesome idea!

      • studionashvegas 11:13 pm on November 17, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Multidisciplinary groups like what you’re suggesting are very common in the agency setting, and (from what I’ve experienced) seem to work very well, as all of the parts know what’s going on (which leads to a more cohesive experience).

        +1

      • karmatosed 11:53 pm on November 17, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Sounds like a great idea and gives lots of scope for getting involved which is really cool.

      • Amy Hendrix (sabreuse) 2:26 pm on November 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Yay! Destroy the silos!

      • Chelsea Otakan 10:12 pm on November 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        The Design Corps within Automattic work pretty well, IMO. We are a tight group and do our best to communicate well with each other.

        I really like the concept of spreading out the UI group to include design across the WP community. A lot of designers want to pitch in, but their skills might not be the best fit for core, but there’s currently no formal way to pitch in anywhere else.

        In short: Jane said all the things already :) Sounds great to me! Weekly check in post for each group would be helpful.

      • Sheri Bigelow 4:39 pm on November 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        +1 I like the proposal. Seems to me developers would be more likely to reach out to a multifaceted design group vs. the current setup which is pretty intensely focused on Core UI.

    • acsearles 4:35 pm on November 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I’ve sat on the sidelines for a long time, wanting to get more involved but not knowing where to get my feet wet. I’ve been following along, reading what I can and trying to stay up-to-date on the happenings of this group. So, I think this could help more people have an easier entry point into contributing. So I can continue to keep watching and when I see some low hanging fruit I’ll be able to pick a few things off. Eventually, as I get more of a grasp about what’s going on, I’ll be able to contribute in a more substantial way.

      Jane, I also really like the idea of designers becoming apart of other groups that are working on other projects. I know that in my line of work I do best when working on a team of people with different skill sets, then coming back to the group of designers to share ideas and critique.

      Sounds like so many good things came out of the summit. I’ll be excited to get started. And hopefully we can see everyone in Birmingham at our next WordCamp. Which reminds me, @saracannon, we need to get that started really really soon.

      a

    • RDall 5:44 pm on November 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I really like where this is going… I also agree with what Jane said as well… The UI group should be more then just the core dev… As I have struggled to find a place that I can contribute too that both use my strengths and fits WordPress needs as well…

  • Helen Hou-Sandi 2:56 pm on November 15, 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    A summary of the Community Summit discussion on the UI group has been published. Thanks to @sabreuse for her wonderful note-taking! Feel free to discuss the notes, and do hold us accountable for our action item. Weekly summaries will also begin very soon.

    http://make.wordpress.org/summit/2012/11/06/core-ui-team-discussion/

     

    • karmatosed 3:03 pm on November 15, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      That all sounds really cool. I will openly admit I really want to contribute to the UI team but had a hard time finding a way to and was a little daunted. I have contributed in other areas but found the UI team a bit harder to find a way in with. Having projects that can bring those of us new to the team into things would be great. I look forward to hopefully finding a way to get involved.

      • Helen Hou-Sandi 3:06 pm on November 15, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Do you mind describing what you’ve tried or thought about trying so far? Just for data/things to think about as we constantly evaluate what we do.

        • karmatosed 4:27 pm on November 15, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

          Sure, my first starting point was watching the blog and getting to know the blog posts. I found the discussion very lively which was really cool. I then started attending the dev chats and tried to get involved in the dashboard but every time I did something seemed to have been agreed outside of the chats or was already assigned as a task so it was hard to find a way in to contribute. I was made very welcome I’d like to make that clear and nothing I’m saying is against anyone, I just got lost from the welcome to the doing :)

          I have in a few cases responded to things in discussion threads though, so I have tried through that but would love to do a bit more than just comment.

          I do front end code and design so was open to either as a contribution. It totally may have been the time I tried to join in and that everything was already allocated by then, however it seemed that an extra hand wasn’t needed and everything was already tasked up.

          I am involved in the BuddyPress side of things and have a past in Open Source so aware of the ‘get stuck in’ nature of contributing and love it. I’m not usually a wall flower over things so found it odd how hard it felt trying to start.

          I really don’t mean that comment against anyone as know nothing is perfect and it’s as much down to me as it is anyone when contributing comes in. It was just hard to find a place to ‘get stuck in’ that wasn’t already occupied.

          I’d love to work out a way to get involved though as feel whilst I do give to a side project (BuddyPress), I want to give back to the core project also. Maybe some clear areas / teams would help those of us circling around wanting to get involved but not seeing a way in beyond commenting? I know it’s never an easy solution and grateful that it’s being reviewed so hopefully more people (myself included) can step up to get involved.

          • Helen Hou-Sandi 11:57 pm on November 15, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

            Thanks for responding :) On the UI front, I’ll keep an eye out for you in UI chats (and make sure to pipe up, especially at the roll call part – we’re trying to get better about that so we know who’s around). Right now we tend to get bogged down in what’s needed specifically for the release as we approach RC and release stages, but even just getting used to regulars is helpful.

            • karmatosed 10:09 am on November 16, 2012 Permalink

              Thank you and yes mid cycle is totally understandable of being a hectic time.

  • lessbloat 8:49 pm on November 14, 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment  

    To change things up, I tested a different set of scenarios this morning. I asked the user to add:

    • A regular post
    • A post with a gallery
    • An audio MP3
    • A video from Vimeo

    You can download the video here.

    My observations:

    Step 1: Login

    No problems.

    Step 2: Preview your blog

    No problems.

    Step 3: Add text post

    1:25 – I said “enter the description of “welcome to my blog” – and she didn’t make the connection that I wanted her to add it to the editor (that’s my bad).

    Step 4: Where would you click

    No problems. She correctly chose “Media Library”.

    Step 5: Add gallery post

    4:25 – User was confused – thought she’d see the images she just added in the editor (instead the generic gallery camera block was there). So, she tried to go through the process again.
    5:18 – “Okay, so I don’t feel like it inserted it, cause it doesn’t show the media”.
    5:50 – She click away to the media library, and tries to add the images in the media library to a gallery (we’ve seen this before with one of the other users).
    6:45 – She decides to publish it anyway, and view what it looks like.

    Step 6: Add Audio post

    7:10 – When asked to add a MP3 file to a post (from a URL I gave her), she clicked the “Add Media” button, then clicked “Embed From URL”, and pasted in the URL. When she pasted in the URL, it said http://http://URL.mp3 (with 2 http://’s).

    Step 7: Add Video post

    8:04 – When asked to embed a video from a URL, she clicked the “Add Media” button and used “Embed From URL” to paste the link.

    Step 8: Preview your blog

    No problems.

    Summary

    • This user was confused that she didn’t visually see the gallery images that she had added to the post. If we can’t show a preview of the actual images, could we add a one line description like, “Your gallery images will be shown here”, either just above or just below the camera icon?
    • Are we confusing users by having a top level link called “Media Library” in addition to the new media modal “Media Library” link? This is the second time I’ve seen a user resort to clicking on the main left nav “Media Library” link when trying to figure out an issue within a specific post.
    • If the user pastes a full URL into the “Embed From URL” box, and “http://http://” results, can we just auto-remove the extra http:// with JS?
    • When I asked her to embed a video from a URL, she clicked the “Add Media” button, and tried to embed the Vimeo video URL through “Embed From URL”. I think that’s pretty logical seeing as a video is “media”. How difficult would it be to parse “Embed From URL” for the video embed URL’s, and then treat them different (so that instead of a link being added, the video embed magically happens for them)?
     

    • John Blackbourn (johnbillion) 10:13 pm on November 14, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      If the user pastes a full URL into the “Embed From URL” box, and “http://http://” results, can we just auto-remove the extra http:// with JS?

      How difficult would it be to parse “Embed From URL” for the video embed URL’s, and then treat them different

      I think these are two good arguments toward doing an AJAX call to insert this data into the post content instead of just inserting it with JavaScript. That way we can, for example, run esc_url() on the embed URL and change the behaviour for oEmbed-supported URLs.

    • John Blackbourn (johnbillion) 10:17 pm on November 14, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      The “Embed From URL” button text is also misleading, as it doesn’t actually embed anything. It just inserts a link. This is especially noticeable (and especially poor behaviour) if you try to “embed” an image from a URL and end up with just a link to it.

    • sanchothefat 2:38 am on November 15, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Hi, this might be of interest – I’ve written a plugin that extends the functionality of the ‘Upload/Embed from URL’ tab.

      It runs the URL through the oEmbed class and if there’s a hit it treats the embed like an attachment which when inserted into the post is inserted as the link within an [embed] shortcode so it has a fallback and CSS hook rather than just a plain text URL. Maybe that approach would help with the kind of confusion described?

      The code is fairly straightforward using existing filters/actions.

    • karmatosed 10:13 am on November 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      This user was confused that she didn’t visually see the gallery images that she had added to the post. If we can’t show a preview of the actual images, could we add a one line description like, “Your gallery images will be shown here”, either just above or just below the camera icon?

      That makes me think of the avatars you have of people in conversation on github. May be a nightmare to do but some area showing thumbnails would make galleries less hidden.

  • lessbloat 9:00 pm on November 13, 2012 Permalink  

    One more for your viewing pleasure. This time I made sure to update my local install to trunk. :-)

    You can download the video here.

    My observations:

    Step 1: Login

    No problems.

    Step 2: Publish already uploaded image

    No problems.

    Step 3: Preview post

    No problems.

    Step 4: Publish 2 images to a single post

    No problems.

    Step 5: Download additional images

    No problems.

    Step 6: Upload new images & publish gallery

    7:12 – “Upload more files” button FTW! Adding that button made a huge improvement. Nice job Koop!
    7:40 – In the gallery view, she didn’t see the “Describe this image…” boxes below each image.
    8:10 – There may be a bug here. Select an image. Add a caption in the right column. Click “Insert into post”. You’ll get an image inside of a caption short code (which doesn’t look right).

    Summary

    • This test was a huge success in my book.
    • She didn’t see the “Describe this image…” textboxes below each image. Should we focus() on the first “describe this image…” box when you land on the gallery screen?
    • A possible bug at 8:10 when adding a caption.
     

  • lessbloat 5:50 pm on November 13, 2012 Permalink  

    Here’s one more user through the media scenarios.

    You can download the video here.

    My observations:

    Step 1: Login

    No problems.

    Step 2: Publish already uploaded image

    No problems.

    Step 3: Preview post

    No problems.

    Step 4: Publish 2 images to a single post

    4:45-5:05 – She got stuck because she couldn’t find (or remember where) the link was to add the two selected images into her post (since both actions are gray).
    5:35-6:30 – She recommends changing the “Batch import” button so that it’s blue.
    6:40 – Immediately after clicking “Batch insert” she says, “Huh… Wait a second, hmm… Okay. Mmm…. Why? Why are there two steps now?”

    Step 5: Download additional images

    No problems.

    Step 6: Upload new images & publish gallery

    10:30 – User doesn’t appear to see “Select files” button (it’s gray and kind of blends in), when instructed to upload files, and attempts to click the “Upload files” link on the left.
    11:20 – Oops… I didn’t grab the latests version of trunk (with Koops patch to add a “upload more images” button). This likely would not have been an issue. I’ll update trunk for future tests.
    13:20 – now we’re back on track. No additional problems
    15:00 – Until she views her post after adding a gallery (2 images, both with descriptions), and her descriptions are missing. Not sure what happened here.

    Summary

    • It seems like each step of the flow should have a blue primary button. This user experienced difficulty both when multiple images were selected (and “Create a gallery” & “Batch insert” are both gray), and when she was told to upload an image (She didn’t notice the gray “Select files” button).
    • She didn’t seem to understand why there was a second step after clicking “Batch import”. From memory, another user we tested experienced the same confusion. She just expected the images to be added to the post.
    • The two descriptions she added when in gallery mode were not there when she viewed her post.
     

  • lessbloat 3:34 pm on November 13, 2012 Permalink  

    I put another new user through the media scenarios. This time I pushed her through the regular “add post” flow instead of using QuickPress.

    You can download the video here.

    I’m not going to summarize this one. This lady was unable to complete a single step. It’s frightening to watch, but I’d encourage you to do so anyway. The sad truth is that this is what some of our users go through (what percentage – I don’t know) when trying to use WordPress for the first time.

    While this test won’t be particularly helpful in testing media, it is eye opening, so I thought I’d post it anyway.

    I’ll re-word some of my instructions, and try another new user this afternoon.

     

    • GrahamArmfield 3:58 pm on November 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Wow, that is so revealing. Perhaps this underlines that some people don’t automatically understand the concepts of what’s going on and how WordPress works as a site maintenance tool from the ground up.

      You know that I’m interested in accessibility issues and acknowledge that there’s been a lot of work done to improve the situation for 3.5. It would be really interesting if you could run some user tests with people who use AT – such as screen readers and voice recognition software.

      Thanks
      Graham

    • esmi 4:06 pm on November 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Can I ask what AT software she was using and what her level of expertise with that software was?

      • GrahamArmfield 4:09 pm on November 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Esmi, I don’t think that the woman in the video posted by lessbloat was using AT, she was just having problems with the tasks. My point was that it would a useful excercise to run some user tests with AT users.

        Graham

    • karmatosed 10:33 pm on November 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Wow that really showed up some presumptions in the UI.

      I’m not sure some of the test questions weren’t also the problem, that’s always a really tricky part of user tests though.

      I found it interesting where her train of thought was going during this. She was certainly trying to find the solution with a lot of ‘maybes’ and ‘I’m way ahead’ – the determination and searching on pages was also telling.

      Maybe it’s something that needs exploring looking at the precidence / menu placing of elements. Media also maybe doesn’t really say ‘what it does on the tin’ for all users. Just thinking around the test video in these thoughts.

      I notice she goes back to the dashboard a few times. That’s a successful ‘hub’ for her, as she returns there and even reads through things. I think at that point though she’s got herself a bit confused so agree the test derails a bit.

    • F J Kaiser 10:56 am on November 14, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I wonder what happens what a user says to the scenario shown in this [1] trac ticket. Would be kool to see what patch is really needed.

      [1] http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/21563

  • lessbloat 8:53 pm on November 12, 2012 Permalink  

    This morning I ran another user through the same media scenarios that I had tested previously.

    You can download the video here (warning, it’s 27 min long – 69MB).

    My observations:

    Step 1: Login

    No problems.

    Step 2: Publish already uploaded image

    2:44-5:19 – I copied over the instructions from the last test, as such didn’t specifically tell him to go to the media library – so he had issues finding the “two cows” picture I had mentioned.

    Step 3: Preview post

    No problems.

    Step 4: Publish 2 images to a single post

    8:14-10:00 – Found his way to the “media library” instead of using “QuickPress” as instructed.
    10:20 – Got back on track.
    10:48 – He was unsure as to whether he should click “Create a new gallery” or “Batch insert”
    11:15 – After he clicked the “Batch insert” button, he was unsure what he should do next – “Now am I waiting for this to be done?”
    11:42-14:40 – Tried multiple times previewing his post in QuickPress before publishing it (and lost his work each time).
    14:50 – Finally figured it out.

    Step 5: Download additional images

    No problems

    Step 6: Upload new images & publish gallery

    19:50-22:10 – When asked to upload multiple images, he uploaded one at a time, and after adding one, couldn’t figure out how to add the other image.
    22:14 – Let’s try it again. He again has issues figuring out what to do after adding one image. “I don’t think I could have added them both at the same time, I don’t know”
    22:48 – He repeatedly tries to click “Upload Files” after already uploading one image, but it does nothing.
    23:10 – Again forgets to hit “Publish” before trying to preview his image :-(
    23:37 – Starts over again. And get’s it after attempting to upload both images at the same time.
    24:55 – He added a description to both images from the “upload” screen, and immediately clicked the “Create a new gallery” button – his second description did not save.
    25:25 – Again forgot to click publish, before trying to preview, but quickly recognized his error, and was able to salvage it by clicking the back button.

    Summary

    • Some uncertainty as to whether he should click “Create a new gallery” or “Batch insert”
    • Some uncertainty after he clicked “Batch insert”, as to what he should do next.
    • Tried half a dozen times to preview his post (by clicking the “View my site” link in the welcome area) before clicking “Publish” (in QuickPress). Can we add a “Are you sure you want to leave this page” warning?
    • He didn’t realize that he could upload multiple images. Is there something we could add (description, or illustration) indicating that this can be done?
    • When he wanted to upload multiple images, he did so one at a time, and got stuck after adding the first one (not being able to go back and add another).
    • Adding a description, and then immediately clicking “Create a new gallery” results in the description not being saved.
    • There were enough things that popped up in this one, that I’m going to run another user through this evening.
     

    • Andrew Nacin 12:23 am on November 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I know you’ve found it tempting, but we need to stop factoring QuickPress into the testing equation. It introduces far too many variables and results in us testing the wrong thing — we care about the main post editor, not the rarely used, sub-optimal workflow. And, we already know it’s a far-from-perfect feature, so feedback on it isn’t too helpful. Can you hide it via Screen Options on your testing install so users don’t accidentally discover it?

      • lessbloat 1:19 am on November 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Sure thing. I’ll start a new test in the morning.

    • Michael Adams (mdawaffe) 7:11 am on November 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I also got very confused about how to insert photos (using the main post editor).

      http://cl.ly/image/0q1S1V0k1i1O/Insert%20Multiple%20Images%20-%20Now%20What.png

      • Gallery v. Batch?
      • No primary action?

      Thoughts:

      • Collapse “Create new Gallery” and “Batch Insert” into one (primary) button: “Next →”. Right now, I see largely the same UI no matter which of the two current buttons I click.
      • On that “Next” screen, do one of:

        1. Two buttons: “Insert as Gallery”, “Insert as Individual Images” one of which (Gallery?) would be primary
        2. One button: “Insert” and have a checkbox (or radios?) in the Gallery Settings for “Insert as Individual Images”.

  • lessbloat 7:27 pm on November 6, 2012 Permalink  

    Ran another user through to specifically test @mattwiebe’s new color picker patch.

    Here’s the video.

    6:14 – she immediately clicked the blue color swatch and was off to the races…

     

  • lessbloat 5:39 pm on October 16, 2012 Permalink  

    I ran a user through a couple of new media tasks this morning.

    Here’s the video.

    And here are my notes:

    Step 1: Login

    No problem

    Step 2: Publish already uploaded image

    No problem

    Step 3: Preview post

    He didn’t publish the post, and as a result got confused about how to preview the post (for the sake of this test, we’ll ignore this, I’ll try and clarify my instructions for future tests).

    Step 4: Publish 2 images to a single post

    No problem

    Step 5: Download additional images

    No problem

    Step 6: Upload new images & add captions

    • 7:18 – Looks like he stumbled upon a bug here. If you add a post through quick press, and then attempt to use the “upload/insert” button to add pictures to a second post, the modal doesn’t display.
    • 9:10 – He got himself into the same mess by posting a “clear post” and then trying a second post with an image. Oh man, this is hard to watch…
    • 10:00 – And again, he tries saving a draft, and then using the new image modal (with no success).
    • 10:40 – He was finally able to do it from within posts.
    • 11:40 – He tries again and succeeds from QuickPress
    • 12:20 – He makes a note that as he clicks into the caption box, the “Describe this image” text doesn’t disappear.

    Step 7: Publish new images as a gallery

    • He had to look closely to find the “Add to gallery” button (even though it was blue).
    • 17:00 – He was kind enough to do these last 2 steps over again (and made it through without any major difficulties).

    Recap

    • Overall, only one major hiccup (See bug at 7:18).
    • He had to really look for the “add gallery” button. His instinct was to continue using the “Insert into post” button. Anything we should/could change here?
    • Also noticed captions aren’t showing up for non-gallery images that are inserted into a post.
    • When adding a caption under an image (in the new media modal) as he clicks into the caption box, the “Describe this image” text doesn’t disappear.

    Thoughts?

     

    • Bart Dabek (WebCultured.com) 8:39 pm on October 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Other then dev chats where are people voting on next areas to work on? The entire widgets screens need quite a bit of work.. more and more users are using WP as a CMS and the old sidebar mentality for widgets is quite outdated and get’s quite unusable on bigger sites… sorry to be hijacking this thread…

      • lessbloat 8:59 pm on October 16, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Hey Bart, welcome.

        Other then dev chats

        That’s where decisions get made for WordPress. :-)

        where are people voting on next areas to work on

        Priorities are determined at the beginning of each cycle. We’re mid 3.5 cycle now. The best thing you can do (if you’d like your voice heard) is start contributing. Feel free to hit up the #wordpress-ui IRC channel with questions you may have on getting started.

      • toscho 11:54 pm on October 17, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        I asked in dev chat to improve the widgets area when the goals for 3.5 were set. The answer was: No, maybe later.

        There are many things to work on: preview, overall layout, hooks … but it is hard just to start somewhere without some proper planning.

        • Helen Hou-Sandi 3:46 pm on October 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

          We’d love to tackle widgets, but with everything else that was already slated for 3.5, there was no way to fit it in. Not being a part of the current cycle doesn’t mean it can’t be worked on, though. It would be really nice to see more folks writing up ideas they have (whether it’s words, wireframes, code, or all of the above), much like @ipstenu did on her site. I’m guilty of having ideas and never writing about them :)

          • toscho 4:31 pm on October 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

            I am too busy with WPSE. :D

            One idea I had:

            1. Remove the the narrow sidebar column on the right hand.

            2. Add a new meta box between Available Widgets and Inactive Widgets named Preview.

            3. Themes can register different templates for the preview.

            4. When a template (front-page, single, page …) is loaded in the Preview, overload dynamic_sidebar() and make those areas a drop target.

            You might remember that discussion. We would need more hooks on the widget admin page, maybe we could reuse some code from the customizer, and backwards compatibility is another issue. Too much for some quick shots. It would require a lot of time, and my experience with patches is very … discouraging.
            I would love to contribute, and I am quite familiar with the current code, but I will not start writing something without knowing that my patches are welcome again.

            • Helen Hou-Sandi 6:21 pm on October 20, 2012 Permalink

              And I have a full-time job with an agency (admittedly with about a day a week of company time to do core things, provided we’re not extremely busy, but don’t imagine that I only spend 8 hours a week on community things) :) We’re all busy, but if you really want to see something happen, there has to be at least some dedication to even just asking about it on a regular basis, or finding like-minded folks who also want to tackle the same idea.

              I’m not sure I really understand why you feel your patches are not welcome? I think widgets also happens to be one of the cases where patches are awesome to give things a tangible try, but, much like the work on the media overhaul, really needs to start with thoughts about user workflows and what that means the UX should ideally be, without necessarily thinking about what is currently there. Iterating on what we have is good, too (what patches often are), but it can be helpful to get a whole new take on something. Even if your particular idea doesn’t become the exact final product, all ideas help shape what happens.

    • JerrySarcastic 7:17 am on October 21, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I actually had the same problem when adding a gallery the first time. Even though the blue button should dominate, I clicked the “insert into post” button as well, and I *should* know better. :) Is there a way to simply hide this button/drop-down? It just doesn’t need to be there.

      By the same token, it would be good to hide the alignment settings when inserting other media (audio, text docs, etc.) as that is not needed for these files.

      Is there a way to show/hide some of this stuff conditionally? Based on the file extension or (in the case of galleries) if more than one image is selected?

    • mtourtellott 2:58 pm on November 3, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Having just finished a couple WP sites for small business people, and spending the vast majority of time on designing workflows that they could easily comprehend. Is there a design thread/discussion that is talking about work flow design? That would help inform your smaller conversations on icons and widgets. It looks by this discussion that your trying to do some user testing, is there somewhere that you are collecting this information for study and organization?

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