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

David Read david.read at okfn.org
Thu Dec 2 11:44:21 GMT 2010 

Richard C and Richard P - these all looks like excellent iterations to me.

David

On 2 December 2010 11:02, Richard Pope <richard at memespring.co.uk> wrote:
> 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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> richard at memespring.co.uk
> memespring.co.uk
> ++44 7976730458
> memespring (flickr/skype/etc)
> memspr (aim)
> */
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