launchpad-dev team mailing list archive

[Martin Pool <mbp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

2009/8/15 Martin Albisetti <argentina@xxxxxxxxx>:
> Hi,
>
> I've been working on a mockup for the branch index page for 3.0.
>
> The mockup is here: http://people.canonical.com/~beuno/branch-index.png

Hi,

As discussed in another thread, changing the owner and name are really
disruptive changes and they should be controlled by something
different to the regular pencil icon.

The yellow pencil icon is a bit awful.  Nobody recognizes it.  I like
yours better.

I'd think about putting them as 'move' or 'rename' next to the branch url.

> I had a few things in mind when I did this:
>
> - Deleting a branch was... weird. Elliot Murphy has a long-standing
> bug about this

I agree it was weird; it looked like you were deleting the title.

Maybe if we have a pattern that buttons to delete or change the
privacy of the overall object are in the top right above the portlet
that would be good.  I hesitate to just put them in a portlet because
people learn portlets normally hold unimportant subsidiary
information.

I think you should show privacy up there too, and if it's public say so.

> - Proposing for merge is the main action for that page, and the
> current display is very noisy

Yes, it is very noisy.

I think getting rid of the third-level tabs is great.

Why are you showing "default reviewer"?  It's not that important; I'd
be more interested in knowing where it's going to go.  But even then,
it's a bit weird to show the default value and then in the next screen
ask you where you want to send it.

If you could cut out that dialog entirely that would make more sense eg

  Propose for merge into [bzr trunk] [Go]

and then that immediately takes you into the mp page, where you can
ask for review from more people or write a cover letter.  However,
that's a bit nontrivial, and you might get the same problem we get
with bug status changes at the moment that they send an initial
content-free notification mail.

I like where you're going with the example commands.  I think this
needs to lead off somehow into also telling people how to fork this
branch and publish their own fork, and maybe even how to start their
own project.  A link into help would be a start, or an expander that
shows more examples inline would be good.  It's important this be
easily reachable for new users but not clutter things for experienced
users.  Saying "push this branch" is not so good to show
unconditionally as most people won't be able to write to most
branches.  You could do something with making it conditional on the
viewer being able to write.

So some thought is needed there.  Perhaps for now a prominent "how to
use this branch" that goes to Help would be enough.  I suspect telling
people just two commands will just get them confused.

If a branch is under review, which is pretty common, I'd like to see
some details about that inline here.

Some 3.0 mockups use a grid of different aspects and that might be
good here, with the aspects being:

 * recent commits
 * tree contents (hard to do architecturally)
 * links to mps, bugs, specs,
 * how to use it
 * metadata

There's not very much metadata.  If you put that in a small section
across the top, then had a column each for links to other objects and
recent commits that could be good.

If you could edit the description in an ajax control people might use
it a lot more.

> - Portlets where too busy as well
> - Needed 3.0ization
>
> There's a few things missing here:
> - How to get to the "source code" (loggerhead)

Yes, that should be prominent.

> - Where to display the technical babel (branch/repository formats,
> stacked on). This needs to be moved out of the way, as the current
> information is not human-understandable, and is rarely something users
> are interested in

A perfect candidate for a portlet.

> - Bugs and blueprint linking
> - Displaying the recent revisions

Hope that helps,

This area is developing really nicely and I'm looking forward to
seeing it in 3.0-scope.
-- 
Martin <http://launchpad.net/~mbp/>