Factory Joe says:
Administer
Wow, that's a lot of options! Yikes!
Ah, phew! Great to see the "hide descriptions" link...! Maybe they should be hidden by default and then turned on per section instead of all or nothing?
Well, "per section" might be overkill - you can click on a section in the navigation menu to narrow down. However "off by default" on /admin with the function of that link reversed sounds good to me.
| Comment | File | Size | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| #3 | hidden.png | 100.9 KB | catch |
| #3 | shown.png | 164.93 KB | catch |
| #1 | admin_compact.patch | 721 bytes | catch |
Comments
Comment #1
catchWell that was easy.
Comment #2
gábor hojtsyHow many people do you expect to notice the "hide descriptions" and "show descriptions" links? The page with descriptions is longer and possibly looks more complex but at the same time aids beginners. Hiding descriptions was supposed to be for pro users, who know what each point means without reading their meaning.
Comment #3
catchWell I'm not too fussed to be honest, but it was one of only about two things in the review I agreed with, at all, and I wanted to see where it was set.
The only thing I'd say is that descriptions also appear as titles when you mouseover the links, so they're not completely suppressed.
Anyway, here's screenshots. If anyone wants to "by design", that's fine too.
Comment #4
dwwI think it's reasonable to show the descriptions by default (to aid people who are newly viewing the page) and to let advanced users hide them if they so please. That seems like a very reasonable approach to a complex thing. There are better ways to simplify the admin UI and make it less intimidating than to just hide the descriptions by default.
The mouse-over behavior doesn't help someone learn their way around the admin UI. It's like playing a giant game of concentration -- you mouse over stuff, read the description, go to the next thing, etc. Then, when you're "done", you have to remember "now, what friggin' link was it that i rolled over that mentioned that thing about XXX...?" This would be immensely frustrating and evil for a newbie. If they're lucky, the find the "show descriptions" link, but if not, they run away screaming about how impossible Drupal is to use.
Flip side: if an advanced admin is lucky, they find the "hide descriptions" link and get more links packed into their "above-the-fold" view of /admin. Great. Worst case if they don't, they have to scroll more often to find what they want. Not the end of the world.
Comment #5
robloachI think showing them by default leads new users through the administration section. If they don't want the descriptions, they can turn them off. Of course, this is coming from a Drupal user of a couple years, not someone new to Drupal.