[Wikimedia-l] the hidden toolbox

[Andrew Gray]

NSince sending that last email, I've been thinking about why the toolboxes
are effectively hidden. (I don't disagree they are - to a new user, having
a link in a collapsed toolbox is functionally equivalent to it not existing)

One possible problem is that the collapsed toolbox has, visibly, very few
cues to distinguish it from a link. There's the triangle, but that can
easily be mistaken for a pretty bulletpoint. If we changed it to (eg) Page
tools menu / Print/export menu / Languages menu... would that be more of a
cue? No easy way of telling how people use it without looking over their
shoulders, though.

- Andrew.

On Wednesday, 19 September 2012, David Gerard wrote:


> > I don't know if a collapsed toolbox is the best way to do it (perhaps a
> top
> > drop-down, like the gadgets option, would be better) but it's an attempt
> at
> > solving the overload problem.


> That there was a plausible reason to hide functionality doesn't mean
> it actually works out to be a good idea, and it arguably not working
> out to be one is the point of this thread. It turns out that if you
> obscure functionality, people don't know it exists and their use of
> the site is hampered. We do need to convert readers to editors, after
> all.
>
>
> - d.
>
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-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk