User feedback

[christf]

Yesterday I ran a workshop with this whiteboard. I would like to capture the user feedback I collected after the session.

We used the whiteboard (latest image from dockerhub) to gather ideas in a group of 3 people. We mainly used the textbox-feature, not the sticky note feature. The session went well, however we did at one point switch to etherpad to collaboratively capture our thoughts. While doing this we were using bigbluebutton as a video conferencing software which also contains a chat and etherpad. Browsers were Firefox (on Windows and Linux) and Chromium (on Linux)

Particularly feedback was:

• the board was stable and easy to set up
• the icons were confusing a bit. Some people where trying to use sticky notes other were trying to use text. This is a problem because when moving an object that was already placed on the canvas you must select the very tool that was used to create it. The mouse pointer thing cannot move objects.
• the canvas was too small in the end. zooming and panning would have been extremely helpful. That would have allowed us to build clusters around a certain topic, move to the right, create the next cluster there, then move a bit down to create the next cluster there
• It was difficult to hit the buttons for moving/closing text boxes. Especially with a touch interface this was a problem (I used an old ipad as input device). Therefore moving boxes was cumbersome
• The icons for closing and moving look so similar that it is difficult to see which one is which. Mistakes there are usually frustrating even if undo covers it.
• the mouse pointers of each participant already have little descriptions on them. It would be helpful to allow the users to change theirs to their name. That way you can see who is doing what.
• the export functionality is a bit fiddly. The png has transparent background. PDF would be nice. For that it would be helpful to specify boxes for different pages.
• It would be nice to set the formatting options inside each object instead of the title bar on top. That would clarify the scope of the change
• Arrows would be helpful
• one of the participants knew Miro. They found the background unpleasant and would have preferred white as well as the ability to change the background to something else.

[cracker0dks]

Thanks for your feedback. Here are my thoughts:

• Confusing icons is a vaild point, maybe we should combine notes and sticky notes somehow
• Don't know about the small icons... I'm not a fan of making them bigger
• The description of the mouse can be changed by using the username get parameter in the url, maybe we should make it changeable in the UI
• The background of the export png can be changed through the config by setting: drawBackgroundGrid to true. PDF export with different boxes is a bit to complex I think
• You mean arrow symbols ? Different drageable symbols would be nice yes.
• The background image can also be changed through the config file backgroundGridImage maybe we should add a white background as well.

[christf]

Thanks for being open about it. In all fairness towards the initial feedback, I only set up the default board and did not customize it. It was only after the session when I found the drawBackgroudnGrid and backgRoundGridImage parameters. Changing those works like a charm. Thank you for suggesting these as well. In general I foiund the board to work well, sorry for not making that clearer in the initial statement.

I quite like your idea of changing URLparameters from the gui. That way the user will not have to guess what can be changed. This could also help when creating a new board. Codimd (the collaborative markdown editor, it is not a whiteboard) does something similar and even provides an index page to display all own notes.

The confusing icon bit also refers to the "move" and the "close" button. They look very similar. I am not sure what exactly it is but having worked with the board for 2h I feel there is some potential improvement there. Also maybe moving items could be done by the pointer or a move tool - no matter what type the item is?

You mean arrow symbols ? Different drageable symbols would be nice yes.

Yes. When I need to draw something I will use codimd and the graphviz plugin but that is not something non-IT-folks will expect or be able to work with.

Don't know about the small icons... I'm not a fan of making them bigger

There can be many reasons for not making them bigger - what exactly are your reasons/concerns?

Also, what are your thoughts on moving the change text size / color options into the elements themselves instead of the top title bar?

[cracker0dks]

Adding the text and color option to the items itself would make it more complex but improve usability I think so don't know really (This is also the case for bigger Icons).

I changed the remove icon for the text fields and added a white background option. I don't really have the time atm for more improvements but a changeable username through the gui would be nice in the future.