Page Width Mayhem

Re: Page Width Mayhem

by Chris Kenniburg -
Number of replies: 6
Another thing that needs to be addressed is the randomness of the Course Index appearing on some pages and disappearing on others. For instance, it is present on:
Lesson
  • Activity page
  • Settings Page
  • Overrides page
  • Reports page

But disappears on anything in the More drop down for the Lesson Activity.  So the pattern I see is the top level items in the secondary navbar will have the course index present and anything in the More drop down needs a new navigation because it might have the course index and might have breadcrumbs but I cannot know for sure until I use the product for a couple of years to learn each and every pattern for each and every activity BECAUSE...

With Forums the course index disappears on advanced grading page which is in the top tier of the secondary navigation which breaks the pattern.  

I am only pointing this out because these are some of the things that drive people crazy while attempting to learn how to use Moodle.  Not only do they have to figure out how to change the curriculum to take advantage of an LMS but they also must learn the LMS tool.  When things change on every new click it makes it frustrating because the teacher is expecting something to be there and it is randomly removed.  

The pattern they are trying to build in using Moodle randomly brakes for no apparent reason.  Patterns help people feel comfortable with a tool.  People do not like exceptions to patterns.

You might not think this is a big deal because it might not come out in studies because these broken patterns just lead people to say the tool is confusing.  And they are right.  They cannot form a pattern to make it make sense.

Moodle 4 is heading in the right direction but these are serious shortcomings.  

These things must be consistent:

  • breadcrumbs
  • narrow width / full width (It was rocking with narrow on main course page which read like a todo list and full width on all activities which allowed work and room to present materials. It also provided clear context within a course between the main page and activities.)
  • Course Index present or not.  It should be present on any activity page and only hidden if the user moves into a course admin page. 
I am in favor of removing convenience links in the Secondary Navbar Menu More Drop Down such as Logs for the activity which sends you to the main course Reports page.  Any link within the secondary menu at the activity level should ONLY link to something within the activity and maintain the same Secondary Menu items for the user.  Magically being transported to the root course Reports page or elsewhere is not expected and especially aggravating when the breadcrumbs to get you back are removed.  The novice user will have no clue where the Logs link took them and it is frustrating to find their way back with No Course Index, No Breadcrumbs, and a completely new secondary navbar menu items. 


It's like being blindfolded and thrown into a van and dropped off in a foreign city.  A bit dramatic but I hope my point on consistency is heard.  This is the stuff we placed high hopes on for Moodle 4.  

This screencapture highlights what happens to an average teacher working on a large course and they Click on the Logs link in the More Menu.  https://watch.screencastify.com/v/kIib8bAxNPzLY1xqMOZE

Average of ratings: Useful (3)
In reply to Chris Kenniburg

Re: Page Width Mayhem

by Bob Gilmore -
Regarding the More secondary navigation drop down, the whole thing seems to need some work still. Obviously we're not even in QA testing yet, so this is to highlight the issue hopefully before it goes into production.

Im finding an activity I frequently do is bounce from a graded activity to the gradebook and back again. In boost (and Chris's excellent Fordson theme), its currently one click to get to the gradebook (two if the side menu is closed or I use the cog) and then usually two clicks to get back to the activity again - Click the topic in the side menu > Click the activity in the topic.

This isn't great, but its consistent.

The new gradebook is both harder to get to and leaves me stranded. There is no side menu to get back to the topic / activity, so you have to go to the course page first. The browsers back button works fine in this use case, but we've been training people not to use the back button for quite some time now.


Just making sure that the side menu is always shown is the simplest fix, but I wonder if what is going into the More menu should be reconsidered:

* Should items that related to the course as a whole and not the current activity actually be in there?
* How could breadcrumbs be built that take you back to the previous activity if you use the More menu to jump from an activity level to a course level module, such as the gradebook?
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Bob Gilmore

Re: Page Width Mayhem

by Eric Bryant -
I'm wondering how many use the "Ctrl" + "Click" to open the link in a new tab so one doesn't have to make multiple clicks. When helping instructors with their grade book, I quite often have them open multiple tabs vs, forward and backward movements between the assignment and the grade book or whatever they are working on at the moment. It would be nice for the UX to be able to do this automatically via a setting, but it's already built into Windows and MacOS, so no need to reinvent the wheel.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Eric Bryant

Re: Page Width Mayhem

by Bob Gilmore -
I use multiple tabs a lot, but my tab management is pretty terrible.... I end up with a lot of open tabs fairly quickly in a session, and i find it takes a lot more time to work out which one i should switch too, or accidentally close the wrong ones at the wrong time.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Eric Bryant

Re: Page Width Mayhem

by Bob Gilmore -
I should also note that this post is specifically about the disappearing UI elements (side menu and breadcrumbs). You can just click on the assessment links in the gradebook itself, which drop you back on the activities results page, but all of my teachers assume that's a sort control and never try it or a link to the single view in the grade book and discover it by mistake when they click it.

My opinion here is that it actually should be a link to the single view for that assessment, but thats just my preference.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Bob Gilmore

Re: Page Width Mayhem

by Nathan Lind -

I'd love to see easier navigation planned for future Moodle versions, including your idea to have a way to return to the activity from which you came after jumping to the gradebook. Thanks for thinking about this before it is too late. 

Nathan

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Bob Gilmore

Re: Page Width Mayhem

by Bob Gilmore -
Just wanted to comment here and say the missing side menu now consistantly appears on every More menu item Ive tested.

Great stuff.
Average of ratings: -