Make WordPress Core

Opened 12 years ago

Closed 12 years ago

Last modified 12 years ago

#23716 closed defect (bug) (invalid)

Discuss theme locations as meta box vs. checkboxes

Reported by: lessbloat's profile lessbloat Owned by:
Milestone: Priority: normal
Severity: normal Version:
Component: Menus Keywords: 3.6-menus
Focuses: Cc:

Description (last modified by DrewAPicture)

Relocating a side topic discussion that started on the make/ui P2, and then moved to the wrong ticket.

To summarize chips last post (and kick us off here), here are the concerns Chip would like to address:

1) When assigning pre-defined custom menus to a Theme's defined Theme Locations, the process now requires considerably more steps, clicks, page refreshes, and time

2) When looking at the "Select a menu" dropdown, there is no way to determine if all Theme locations have an associated custom menu assigned

3) When editing a given menu, in the Theme Location field checkboxes, there is no indication that a given Theme Location already has a custom menu assigned to it

4) With long-ish custom menus, the "Theme Locations" field is buried "beneath the fold", resulting in no initially visible UI for assigning the current menu to a Theme Location

5) Overall, the page now seems to emphasize adding/editing custom menus, and seems to deemphasize assigning custom menus to Theme Locations, and the latter is arguably the more important role/task for Appearance -> Menus

3.6-Menus Tracking Ticket: #23607

Change History (23)

#1 follow-up: @chipbennett
12 years ago

Just for traceability: under what ticket were the UI changes we're discussing first committed?

#2 in reply to: ↑ 1 ; follow-up: @lessbloat
12 years ago

Replying to chipbennett:

Just for traceability: under what ticket were the UI changes we're discussing first committed?

#23119. But that ticket is off limits. ;-) I'm trying to spare anyone from having to navigate through the 239 comments on that beast of a ticket.

#3 in reply to: ↑ 2 @chipbennett
12 years ago

Replying to lessbloat:

Replying to chipbennett:

Just for traceability: under what ticket were the UI changes we're discussing first committed?

#23119. But that ticket is off limits. ;-) I'm trying to spare anyone from having to navigate through the 239 comments on that beast of a ticket.

That's okay. I'd just like to skim, to make sure I'm not bringing up issues that were already covered/discussed/decided. :)

#4 @lessbloat
12 years ago

My thoughts with regard to your concerns are:

1) When assigning pre-defined custom menus to a Theme's defined Theme Locations, the process now requires considerably more steps, clicks, page refreshes, and time

I agree, this does take a bit more time. Again, there is no perfect scenario here. I see 5 options. each has pros and cons, but we have to pick one of them.

1) Meta box - left column at the top

PRO's

  • It's in your face, you can't miss it
  • When switching themes, you can update all of your theme locations in one spot.
  • It's familiar for existing users

CON's

  • It's unnecessarily in your face. ;-)
  • It pushes menu item options down the page
  • It's awkwardly grouped in that left column when everything else is a menu item option
  • It forces users to take a third step (outside the flow of creating the menu) at the end of creating a menu, where they then have to select a theme location.

2) Meta box - left column at the bottom

PRO's

  • When switching themes, you can update all of your theme locations in one spot.

CON's

  • Chances are, it would get pushed past the fold for some users
  • It's awkwardly grouped in that left column when everything else is a menu item option
  • It forces users to take a third step (outside the flow of creating the menu) at the end of creating a menu, where they then have to select a theme location.

3) Meta box - right column at the top

PRO's

  • It's in your face, you can't miss it
  • When switching themes, you can update all of your theme locations in one spot.

CON's

  • It's unnecessarily in your face. ;-)
  • It would through the balance of the page all off
  • It pushes the menu editing screen down the page
  • It's awkwardly grouped in that right column when everything else is related to editing a specific menu
  • It forces users to take a third step (outside the flow of creating the menu) at the end of creating a menu, where they then have to select a theme location.

4) Meta box - right column at the bottom

PRO's

  • When switching themes, you can update all of your theme locations in one spot.

CON's

  • We actually tested this placement and it failed, because people were clicking the "theme location" "save" button incorrectly thinking that it was saving the changes to their menu.
  • Chances are, it would get pushed past the fold for some users
  • It's awkwardly grouped in that right column when everything else is related to editing a specific menu
  • It forces users to take a third step (outside the flow of creating the menu) at the end of creating a menu, where they then have to select a theme location.

5) A checkbox for each theme location inline for each menu

PRO's

  • It removes the "theme locations" meta box from the left column, making the actions one takes in that column nice and clear. This also pulled the menu item options up, making them more visible.
  • It reduced the visual clutter on the page. Forcing the user (especially a new user) to grok what was going on when they were presented with options to add menus, and edit menus, and add menu items, and set theme locations all on the same UI, was just too much to ask. For you it makes sense sure. It's the way you've been doing it all along. But for most users it was a terribly confusing experience.
  • It reduces the steps (page reloads) to get set up with a new menu from 3 down to 2.

CON's

  • We're moving functionality that existing users will have grown used to.
  • When changing themes, you've got to hop into each individual them to set the theme location.

Weighing my options, I'd be comfortable with either 5, or 2.

2) When looking at the "Select a menu" dropdown, there is no way to determine if all Theme locations have an associated custom menu assigned

All of the theme locations are listed out under each menu. When you load the page, the menu you edited most recently will be auto loaded. If another menu is set as a theme location, you will see it in grey next to the theme location:

http://f.cl.ly/items/3t1j44361h3V3o1r0n3s/already-set.jpg

So, yes, you will always see at-a-glance which theme locations have menus assigned.

3) When editing a given menu, in the Theme Location field checkboxes, there is no indication that a given Theme Location already has a custom menu assigned to it

Not true. See my answer in 2.

4) With long-ish custom menus, the "Theme Locations" field is buried "beneath the fold", resulting in no initially visible UI for assigning the current menu to a Theme Location

You're right. Again, it comes down to weighing the options out of the 5 listed above.

5) Overall, the page now seems to emphasize adding/editing custom menus, and seems to deemphasize assigning custom menus to Theme Locations, and the latter is arguably the more important role/task for Appearance -> Menus

I agree that we are emphasizing adding/editing custom menus. You can't set a menu to a theme location if you can't figure out how to create a menu in the first place. ;-)

Would love to hear others chime in with thoughts.

Last edited 12 years ago by lessbloat (previous) (diff)

#5 @DrewAPicture
12 years ago

  • Description modified (diff)
  • Keywords 3.6-menus added

#6 follow-up: @chipbennett
12 years ago

It's unnecessarily in your face. ;-)

I note that you list this as a "CON" throughout. This is perhaps the paradigm gap that differentiates our viewpoints.

The way I see it: custom menus are created once, but they are then used many times. Once users have created a menu, it's there. Menu creation is done. From then on, they use that menu.

You seem to agree, based on this comment:

My worry with this would be, how often do you customize menus? My guess is that many (dare I say most) users will do it once to add menus while first customizing their site, and then only very occasionally revisit to make small changes.

But the resultant UI places all prominence on creation/editing of menus, rather on the more-frequent activity of assigning menus to Theme Locations.

The two primary was that custom menus are used after creation are:

  1. Assigning them to Theme Locations
  2. Assigning them to Widgets

Number 2 is a different configuration screen, and thus off topic.

That leaves number 1. And I must disagree that having the number one most-frequent use of a custom menu "in your face" is a "CON".

This new UI inverts the relationship between custom menu and Theme Location. Under the previous UI, and as designed/intended, custom menus are assigned to Theme Locations. However, under the new UI, Theme Locations are assigned to custom menus.

You seem to recognize this relationship with this comment:

The theme location drop down allows you to select from multiple menus, which tells me it belongs on the menu management screen, not the add/edit screen (which should be all about a single menu).

And yet, the resultant UI puts the Theme Location inside the metabox for individual menus - which is, essentially, exactly what you were arguing against earlier.

(Glancing through #23119 so far, I think you were on to the right idea, with the WP_List_Table approach. Or even @DrewAPicture's suggestion of a tabbed screen.)

#7 in reply to: ↑ 6 ; follow-up: @DrewAPicture
12 years ago

Replying to chipbennett:

But the resultant UI places all prominence on creation/editing of menus, rather on the more-frequent activity of assigning menus to Theme Locations.

The two primary was that custom menus are used after creation are:

  1. Assigning them to Theme Locations
  2. Assigning them to Widgets

Number 2 is a different configuration screen, and thus off topic.

That leaves number 1. And I must disagree that having the number one most-frequent use of a custom menu "in your face" is a "CON".

Do you have some kind of data to support this assertion that changing theme locations is somehow a more frequent task than editing menus? For regular, non-power-users?

This new UI inverts the relationship between custom menu and Theme Location. Under the previous UI, and as designed/intended, custom menus are assigned to Theme Locations. However, under the new UI, Theme Locations are assigned to custom menus.

Yes, yes it does.

The theme location drop down allows you to select from multiple menus, which tells me it belongs on the menu management screen, not the add/edit screen (which should be all about a single menu).

And yet, the resultant UI puts the Theme Location inside the metabox for individual menus - which is, essentially, exactly what you were arguing against earlier.

There are a couple of things in play here:

  1. Global vs individual menu settings. Before, you had a mix of global and individual settings that required multiple steps and experienced knowledge to configure. Adding & managing menus and setting locations were global, editing the menu title and items, auto-add pages were individual. Now, editing the menu title, items, location and auto-add pages are individual. The concept of adding a new menu was merged with the menu-editing UX and menu management stayed global but became more discoverable.
  1. The 1:1 vs 1:many locations paradigm. With menus, there's always been (and still is) a 1:many relationship. You can set one menu to many locations. And with locations, it's 1:1. One location, one menu. The previous UI put emphasis on the locations side of the paradigm and completely ignored the menu side, which was odd because it was a menu-specific setting in a global context. The UI change makes that menu-specific setting individual rather than global.

#8 follow-up: @lessbloat
12 years ago

Replying to chipbennett:

I'm done theorizing... We could go back and forth like this endlessly. I'm a practical man. Let's just test it. ;-)

I'll revert the theme locations as a checkbox (placing them back in the top left corner). I'll run 2 more users through, and if neither user experiences difficulty, then we'll leave it that way.

Sound good?

#9 in reply to: ↑ 7 @chipbennett
12 years ago

Replying to DrewAPicture:

Do you have some kind of data to support this assertion that changing theme locations is somehow a more frequent task than editing menus? For regular, non-power-users?

Common sense?

Users - normal, average users - switch Themes frequently. As far as I know api.wordpress.org data (and probably, wordpress.com data) still support that assertion.

An average number of Theme switches greater than 1 will all but guarantee that users assign custom menus to Theme Locations more often than they create menus.

This new UI inverts the relationship between custom menu and Theme Location. Under the previous UI, and as designed/intended, custom menus are assigned to Theme Locations. However, under the new UI, Theme Locations are assigned to custom menus.

Yes, yes it does.

The theme location drop down allows you to select from multiple menus, which tells me it belongs on the menu management screen, not the add/edit screen (which should be all about a single menu).

And yet, the resultant UI puts the Theme Location inside the metabox for individual menus - which is, essentially, exactly what you were arguing against earlier.

There are a couple of things in play here:

  1. Global vs individual menu settings. Before, you had a mix of global and individual settings that required multiple steps and experienced knowledge to configure. Adding & managing menus and setting locations were global, editing the menu title and items, auto-add pages were individual. Now, editing the menu title, items, location and auto-add pages are individual. The concept of adding a new menu was merged with the menu-editing UX and menu management stayed global but became more discoverable.
  1. The 1:1 vs 1:many locations paradigm. With menus, there's always been (and still is) a 1:many relationship. You can set one menu to many locations. And with locations, it's 1:1. One location, one menu. The previous UI put emphasis on the locations side of the paradigm and completely ignored the menu side, which was odd because it was a menu-specific setting in a global context. The UI change makes that menu-specific setting individual rather than global.

Interestingly, reading through the other ticket, it seems that more people liked the tabbed interface, and that the tabbed interface tested the best. But (without any supporting UI testing), one person opined that a tabbed interface was "too heavy" and the idea was subsequently dropped.

Regarding the 1:1 vs 1:many relationship: the previous Theme Locations metabox met that need perfectly, and remains better than the current implementation in that regard. It was very easy to see:

  1. All the available Theme locations
  2. Menus assigned to all available Theme locations
  3. The same menu potentially assigned to multiple Theme locations
  4. The ability to change one or all Theme Location menu assignments, in one step

#10 in reply to: ↑ 8 @chipbennett
12 years ago

Replying to lessbloat:

Replying to chipbennett:

I'm done theorizing... We could go back and forth like this endlessly. I'm a practical man. Let's just test it. ;-)

I'll revert the theme locations as a checkbox (placing them back in the top left corner). I'll run 2 more users through, and if neither user experiences difficulty, then we'll leave it that way.

Sound good?

I'm honestly not trying to cause problems, or engage in endless theorizing, nor am I wanting to rush any decisions. I'm merely raising issues that I think were overlooked in the change.

If reverting and testing two more users will resolve the question, that's fair.

#11 follow-up: @chipbennett
12 years ago

And here is the test I would propose:

  1. With 3 existing custom menus, none assigned to Theme Locations
  2. Assign each of the 3 menus to 3 different Theme Locations

Compare workflow with "Theme Locations" metabox with workflow with "Theme Locations" checkboxes in edit-menu metabox.

#12 @cais
12 years ago

  • Cc edward.caissie@… added

#13 in reply to: ↑ 11 ; follow-up: @lessbloat
12 years ago

Replying to chipbennett:

And here is the test I would propose:

  1. With 3 existing custom menus, none assigned to Theme Locations
  2. Assign each of the 3 menus to 3 different Theme Locations

Compare workflow with "Theme Locations" metabox with workflow with "Theme Locations" checkboxes in edit-menu metabox.

I'll let you test that one. I'll test the scenarios we've been testing all along.

#14 in reply to: ↑ 13 ; follow-up: @chipbennett
12 years ago

Replying to lessbloat:

I'll let you test that one. I'll test the scenarios we've been testing all along.

You're the UI team. I'm suggesting that an obvious use-case is being missed in the UI testing, and you propose that I - not part of the UI team - test that use case? Really?

#15 in reply to: ↑ 14 @helen
12 years ago

Replying to chipbennett:

User testing means testing the same workflow (script) across all tests in order to do comparisons. So, yes, it would be helpful for you to test a different script/workflow and give your feedback based on trying out the different flows, even if you're coming in with preferences already. Not sure what being involved in UI has to do with it - user testers certainly are not involved in WP core UI.

#16 @JerrySarcastic
12 years ago

  • Cc fittingsites@… added

#17 @toscho
12 years ago

  • Cc info@… added

#18 @jkudish
12 years ago

  • Cc jkudish added

#19 @lessbloat
12 years ago

I posted the results of the 2 user tests over on the Make/UI P2.

This is tricky. I feel like the theme locations as checkboxes works best with our set of testing scenarios. However, as listed above, there are some downfalls to making the switch:

  • We're moving functionality that existing users will have grown used to.
  • When changing themes, you've got to hop into each individual them to set the theme location.
  • When existing users with many menu items, load the page, their theme locations setting will be gone (pushed down below the fold).

Is theme locations as checkboxes enough of an improvement to warrant these downsides?

But, I can't see us keeping the theme location metabox in the top left position. 3 out of 3 of the users we've tested experienced the same difficulties with this layout (the first user in this round, and both users here).

Thoughts?

Last edited 12 years ago by lessbloat (previous) (diff)

#20 @DrewAPicture
12 years ago

I think there's another upside to moving the location settings into the same area as the auto-add pages option: The settings are grouped and if we were to add the nav_menu_settings action proposed in #18584, that section would be extensible.

With the locations meta box, menu-specific settings were scattered all over the UI. This change brings them all together in the menu editor where they intrinsically belong.

#21 follow-up: @DrewAPicture
12 years ago

  • Milestone Awaiting Review deleted

We've opted to restore the Theme Locations meta box functionality as a secondary tab in the Menus UI. See #23770.

#22 @helen
12 years ago

  • Resolution set to invalid
  • Status changed from new to closed

#23 in reply to: ↑ 21 @chipbennett
12 years ago

Replying to DrewAPicture:

We've opted to restore the Theme Locations meta box functionality as a secondary tab in the Menus UI. See #23770.

I like the potential of where this is going!

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