Hi,
Chad recently mentioned that based on opinion of wikimedia users, most of users prefer simple options, I guess we could create a feature, perhaps a checkbox "Display advanced options" to user preferences, move lot of current settings which aren't really supposed to be changed by people who do not understand how they work and implement various new options in that.
The advanced options could allow users to customize their recent changes feed and many similar pages, hiding certain links, or toggling various stuff. This would be great benefit for regular users since the option would be more clear and contain only stuff they likely want to change.
I think we should move following to hidden section:
Anything related to unified logins, new users do not need to use this Image size limit etc, most of regular users do not even understand what is this for Advanced options (whole section) Watchlist token, most of regular users do not even understand what is this for Search: Disable AJAX suggestions, Enable enhanced search suggestions (Vector skin only) Whole misc
Instead of these options we could fill the space with description of remaining options
When user check the "Advanced" they would of course see all options + some extra new options
I guess this would be benefit either for advanced users as well as newbies / computer illiterates
On 6 April 2012 12:41, Petr Bena benapetr@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
Chad recently mentioned that based on opinion of wikimedia users, most of users prefer simple options, I guess we could create a feature, perhaps a checkbox "Display advanced options" to user preferences, move lot of current settings which aren't really supposed to be changed by people who do not understand how they work and implement various new options in that.
I think sweeping the problem under the carpet just like that is a good idea. I don't oppose hiding some preferences by default, but only if we consider also these issues:
*1 Changing preferences directly from where they are used (like from special pages) *2 Make sure we are not going to add new preferences just because they are not shown by default anymore *3 Make sure each preference label is understandable, amending with longer description where needed. There must be enough information that *any* user can understand what the preference does after reading the provided information. *4 Not call them 'advanced' but something that indicates they are rarely used and only relevant to minority of users. In other words, the criteria for hiding must be the number of users, not difficulty of understanding the preference. *5 Have sane defaults, obviously.
Re 5: For example I hate that I must everywhere change enhanced recent changes to be the default. -Niklas
On 04/06/2012 07:01 AM, Niklas Laxström wrote:
On 6 April 2012 12:41, Petr Bena benapetr@gmail.com wrote:
Hi,
Chad recently mentioned that based on opinion of wikimedia users, most of users prefer simple options, I guess we could create a feature, perhaps a checkbox "Display advanced options" to user preferences, move lot of current settings which aren't really supposed to be changed by people who do not understand how they work and implement various new options in that.
I think sweeping the problem under the carpet just like that is a good idea. I don't oppose hiding some preferences by default, but only if we consider also these issues:
*1 Changing preferences directly from where they are used (like from special pages) *2 Make sure we are not going to add new preferences just because they are not shown by default anymore *3 Make sure each preference label is understandable, amending with longer description where needed. There must be enough information that *any* user can understand what the preference does after reading the provided information. *4 Not call them 'advanced' but something that indicates they are rarely used and only relevant to minority of users. In other words, the criteria for hiding must be the number of users, not difficulty of understanding the preference. *5 Have sane defaults, obviously.
Re 5: For example I hate that I must everywhere change enhanced recent changes to be the default. -Niklas
This is an interaction design proposal, so I'm bringing in Brandon Harris, the WMF's senior designer. Brandon, could you comment on this?
On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 08:01, Niklas Laxström niklas.laxstrom@gmail.com wrote:
Re 5: For example I hate that I must everywhere change enhanced recent changes to be the default.
I hated it even more when I was looking for the "enhanced watchlist" and discovered it is not in the "Watchlist" section of the preferences page, but instead, on the "Recent changes section" under the description "Enhanced recent changes (requires JavaScript)", which doesn't even mention the watchlist... https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=35768
Helder
What about people changing the options, then not findign them to change them back? Yes, if they managed to misconfigure their account, they should be able to reset it noting that they did something wrong there, but many itmes that's not the case.
If users would check show advanced, then this would be checked until they would uncheck it. So if they changed the advanced stuff, they could simply go back and reset it.
On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 2:16 PM, Platonides Platonides@gmail.com wrote:
What about people changing the options, then not findign them to change them back? Yes, if they managed to misconfigure their account, they should be able to reset it noting that they did something wrong there, but many itmes that's not the case.
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On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 6:16 AM, Platonides Platonides@gmail.com wrote:
What about people changing the options, then not findign them to change them back? Yes, if they managed to misconfigure their account, they should be able to reset it noting that they did something wrong there, but many itmes that's not the case.
Most of these sorts of config displays have a "reset to default values" switch.
On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 10:07 AM, Chris McMahon cmcmahon@wikimedia.org wrote:
On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 6:16 AM, Platonides Platonides@gmail.com wrote:
What about people changing the options, then not findign them to change them back? Yes, if they managed to misconfigure their account, they should be able to reset it noting that they did something wrong there, but many itmes that's not the case.
Most of these sorts of config displays have a "reset to default values" switch.
Yeah, we've had a link saying "Restore all default settings" for years now.
-Chad
Yet some people still shoots itself in the foot by enabling the 'external editor'.
I'm not opposed to the concept of Advanced options, but beware of the ingenuity of fools when making the system.
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