[ckan-discuss] CKAN UI improvements #1 - Package Page

Richard Pope richard at memespring.co.uk
Thu Dec 2 11:02:54 GMT 2010 

On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 7:37 PM, Richard Cyganiak <richard at cyganiak.de> wrote:
> On 1 Dec 2010, at 17:34, Richard Pope wrote:
>>
>> Updated version here taking in to considerations Richard's feedback:
>>
>> http://ckan.org/wiki/UIRedesignPackage
>>
>> - Merged the first two columns in the downloads table
>
> Hm, a slight concern is that you can sometimes have multiple resources with
> the same format, e.g.,
>
> Format   Description
> CSV      List of primary schools
> CSV      List of secondary schools
> CSV      List of special schools
>
> Making the first column the download link might be a bit confusing, people
> might think that it's a link that explains what CSV is, rather than a link
> to the resource. I guess I would prefer:
>
> Description                 Format
> List of primary schools     CSV
> List of secondary schools   CSV
> List of special schools     CSV

Agree.

>
> where the description is the link to the resource. Only problem I can see
> with that model is when there is no description -- in this case it would
> probably have to default to some sensible text:
>
> Description                 Format
> List of primary schools     CSV
> List of secondary schools   CSV
> List of special schools     CSV
> [No description]            Excel
>
>> - Moved the source link back to the top at original size, but kept url
>> shortening,  added 'source:' and lined up with title so hopefully
>> still clearer
>
> Yup, works for me.
>
>> - Changed the API section so it is the same light grey as tables
>
> I can live with this.
>
>> - I'm not 100% sold on 'collections' but will leave it in for now and
>> see if anything else comes up. Whatever it ends up as I think it needs
>> to explain that these things are essentially curated collections of
>> packages.
>
> +1 for that explanation. Do you think that simply leaving it with the
> current terminology “Groups” would be too much of a problem? And maybe:
> “Groups are collections of packages, curated by CKAN users.”
>
> Best,
> Richard
>
>
>
>>
>> Unless anyone else has any major suggestions/alterations I'm going to
>> sign this bit off and move onto the next section.
>>
>> cheers,
>>
>> Richard
>>
>> On Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 4:52 PM, Richard Cyganiak <richard at cyganiak.de>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Nice. I like where this is going!
>>>
>>> On 1 Dec 2010, at 13:45, Richard Pope wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Comments/discussion - I've changed the name to 'Questions and
>>>> comments' and added the number of items to the button.
>>>
>>> Works for me.
>>>
>>>> Downloads / resources - I've gone with 'Downloads and resources' as
>>>> the title, so as to accomodate  RDF etc, and added an explanation
>>>> under the table.
>>>
>>> I like the title, and the explanation helps. The table itself still
>>> doesn't
>>> make much sense -- it still labels everything as “Download” regardless of
>>> whether it's downloadable, and the URL column is still mislabelled (it
>>> doesn't contain URLs).
>>>
>>>> API / datapkg - I've added a visually obviously separate section for
>>>> code related stuff and included some examples for using datapkg.
>>>
>>> Looks much too big and heavy to me. Either put it on a separate tab
>>> (“API”),
>>> or collapse it by default, or make the block much smaller. I don't see
>>> the
>>> point in printing the full JSON and RDF URLs -- links would be
>>> sufficient.
>>>
>>> I'm glad that groups are back. I'm not a fan of renaming the feature to
>>> “Collections”, but I'm ok with it as long as that change is also made in
>>> the
>>> URL scheme and in the API.
>>>
>>> I still want the homepage URL back in a prominent position. “View more
>>> information at http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/...” in a small font misses the
>>> point. Look, some of us use CKAN *as a directory of links*, essentially a
>>> library of bookmarks. This URL is one of the most important pieces of
>>> information on the page, perhaps second only to the title.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Richard
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 6:49 PM, Richard Cyganiak <richard at cyganiak.de>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Richard,
>>>>>
>>>>> Great to see work on the UI of CKAN happening!
>>>>>
>>>>> On 30 Nov 2010, at 13:44, Richard Pope wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> First up here are a few suggestions and a mockup for the package page:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://ckan.org/wiki/UIRedesignPackage
>>>>>
>>>>> Nice!
>>>>>
>>>>> Some comments:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Comments - Suggest move to a separate tab and rename discussion as per
>>>>>> Wikipedia.
>>>>>
>>>>> Not sure about this. On Wikipedia, the discussion page is not for
>>>>> discussions about the topic of the article but about discussing the
>>>>> article
>>>>> itself. On CKAN, my impression is that comments about either of those
>>>>> are
>>>>> encouraged. Or not? And if the comments can contain useful information
>>>>> about
>>>>> the dataset (“it's full of errors and not actively maintained, don't
>>>>> waste
>>>>> your time with this”), then they shouldn't be hidden on a separate
>>>>> page.
>>>>>
>>>>> So I guess some clarity about the purpose of the comments field is
>>>>> needed
>>>>> first.
>>>>>
>>>>>> Getting the data - 'resources' is unclear term, just call it
>>>>>> 'downloads?'
>>>>>
>>>>> That would be a step in the wrong direction IMO. It's not just
>>>>> downloads
>>>>> but
>>>>> all sort of other things too -- API endpoints, documentation, example
>>>>> links.
>>>>> See [1] for a proposal that deals with this in a better way IMO -- by
>>>>> moving
>>>>> the description to the first column, it becomes much clearer what the
>>>>> resource is (download or something else).
>>>>>
>>>>>> Groups - Confusing having groups and tags on this page, suggest remove
>>>>>> groups for now focus on tags as primary method for organising /
>>>>>> grouping.
>>>>>
>>>>> Please don't do that. Groups don't have to be visually prominent, but
>>>>> you
>>>>> would make my job as the manager of a CKAN group MUCH harder by
>>>>> removing
>>>>> this information completely from the package page. I agree that tags
>>>>> are
>>>>> certainly much more important for the average user, and should be
>>>>> displayed
>>>>> more prominently.
>>>>>
>>>>>> Title - Name of package gets lot in the buttons (edit etc) and the
>>>>>> package
>>>>>> slug id
>>>>>
>>>>> The package ID shouldn't be as prominent as it currently is, but should
>>>>> still be shown somewhere to enable tools like datapkg where one needs
>>>>> to
>>>>> know the package ID.
>>>>>
>>>>>> API / package slug - Create new API section the explains the slug id
>>>>>> and
>>>>>> how to access via datapkg etc
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes good idea. Don't call it “package slug” though!
>>>>>
>>>>> Please keep the package URL (homepage) more prominent. I'd vote for
>>>>> keeping
>>>>> it where it is now, under the big title. I often use CKAN as a sort of
>>>>> directory for going to the web pages of certain packages.
>>>>>
>>>>> +1 to the other points.
>>>>>
>>>>> Some other points that I would like to see addressed in a redesign of
>>>>> the
>>>>> package page UI:
>>>>> http://ckan.org/ticket/818
>>>>> http://ckan.org/ticket/816
>>>>> http://ckan.org/ticket/814
>>>>>
>>>>> Again, thanks for working on this! I'm very much looking forward to
>>>>> seeing
>>>>> some of these improvements go live on the site soon.
>>>>>
>>>>> Best,
>>>>> Richard
>>>>>
>>>>> [1] http://ckan.org/ticket/817
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> /*
>>>> richard at memespring.co.uk
>>>> memespring.co.uk
>>>> ++44 7976730458
>>>> memespring (flickr/skype/etc)
>>>> memspr (aim)
>>>> */
>>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
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>> richard at memespring.co.uk
>> memespring.co.uk
>> ++44 7976730458
>> memespring (flickr/skype/etc)
>> memspr (aim)
>> */
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>
>



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