mvahowe
commented
6 years ago (It's "create new bundle" not "create new entry" because clicking the button does not create a new entry and this is just the kind of nuance that seems to be bad for the blood pressure of some archivists. ie "I clicked this button to create a new entry but I can't see it in DBL!!!!!!!!!!")
I've mentioned some of this before, but I now feel that I've used Nathanael (and watched others use it) enough to get beyond first impressions. None of this is showstopping, but I think we could make some of the labels a little clearer.
The red "draft" button always confuses me. Red, for me and generally in Western cultures, means "danger" or "error" when, in this case, it's the whole point of the application. I also find the > thing confusing since any update is obviously going to be more recent, and because it sounds like there's uncertainty about what an update is. And, in any case, DBL.Local will not allow multiple rev0s for a given entry id (which I think is a feature), so there is only ever going to be a maximum of one draft per entry.
In every other system I've used, "Save as (ctrl-shift-S)" means "Put the data, unchanged, somewhere of my choosing." In this case, the data is changed, radically, and the user doesn't get to choose where it goes. "Save as" seems to me to be an alternative way to say "Export as" (although I think I prefer Export as.)
I think I'd prefer to replace both those buttons with a menu called "Create...". That menu could, eventually, grow to include other options. The "draft" option would be called something like "Create Update" and the "Save as" option would be called something like "Create New Bundle Based on This One". (I can think of shorter descriptions, but I think making things really clear is probably the way to go here.)
Then, rather than the > rev X thing, I'd prefer something like "Update to rev X".
There's lots of scope for disabling options in various contexts, and the semantics of that get complicated (eg should users be able to fork a bundle they don't own? I think the answer is "yes" but I'm not sure.) However, a good place to start would be disabling the "Create Update" option if there's already a Rev0, and also if the bundle revision is not the latest one locally. (Right now users can't see earlier revisions but that needs to change as soon as we let users download earlier revisions.)
One day I'd like DBL.Local to help to construct menus like this, but I think the above would prepare the UX ground for this, and also make for a cleaner and more self-documenting experience in the short term.