Thomas Hanley

Hi Ray,

Maybe I have misinterpreted what you are trying to achieve?

I thought you just wanted the chat window's background colour to have it's colour set independently from the background colour of the main (underlying) Moodle site?

->Click here to enter the chat now:

Pops up a new chat window with a different background colour:

The above CSS allows you to do this. Or is it something else you wish to achieve?

~thomas

Hi Olli,

Glad you feel that my input was useful. I can see that developing such interface and user experience guidelines will be a big job, so somehow the task needs to be broken into smaller chunks.

I haven't spent as much time as I would like on developing our Moodle site (as I have been working on the content or a real-world process which Moodle will reflect). Recently though I have begun development work and to be honest I have found it frustrating.

I am in the position of creating a Moodle site from scratch. For me the first thing I have done is structure the information (information architecture is the flash way of saying this!). The site is a mixture of information (about a process) and then Moodle courses to provide training on aspects of the process. So I have sketched out roughly what activities are needed.

This information structure then translates into the site navigation. For me this is of critical importance in terms of usability. There needs to be a clear global way of navigating through the space ie there needs to be a global menu system. The last thing I want to do is present users with a difficult to understand navigation system which will frustrate and alienate them. My users are 90% teachers and they are under alot of time pressure, they do not have time to 'learn' how Moodle works because it is different to every other web site that they have used. I realise that there is this arguement that Moodle is not just a website that it is a VLE or a web application and therefore different. However, to a user this is irrelevant. The most basic thing Jakob Nielsen ever said (repeatedly) is that websites should follow conventions ie behave just like other websites. Of course it must be technically alot more complex to develop consistent navigation for Moodle as opposed to a website with limited interactivity. Particularly as it is modular, open-source, many developers etc. However, it is still critical that this happens.

I realise that Tim Hunt is working on Moodle's navigation and I can't wait to see what he comes up with! Using Moodle 1.94 I have found it problematic to create a basic standard navigation system *which is present on every screen* and therefore unified, holistic; a standard, unchanging way of navigating that is clear for users. There are things like the 'Main Menu' which is present only on the front page, then it disappears, there are different types of navigation that compete with each other (jump menu), the 'my menu block' cannot be set to display courses in non-alphabetical order without hacking PHP. I can't easily change the width if the course names are long! Then there is the navigation within the courses themselves which is not well-designed either and hard to use (ie hiding and revealing topics seems to confuse users).

The recent themes debates have been interesting also (although addressing the theme issue doesn't address navigation really). For me the navigation issues are the most fundamental. Yes I would like to have more control over layout in the content area between the header and the footer but this for me is secondary.

Anyway, I am beginning to rant now so I had better stop ; )

~thomas

Hi Minh-Tam,

Thanks for your work on this, looks good to me. Anything that makes Moodle more flexible by giving users control over the information that matters to them is a positive thing I feel.

Sorry I can't comment on any tech implementation issues as I am not a developer. XHTML & CSS is my limit ; )

I have been focussing on the centre column of myMoodle, not on the myCourses block, though, so I think it's a little different.

Sorry didn't realise that you were referring to the centre column of myMoodle.

For me the global navigation issue is where I am focussing as I am at the start of implementing our Moodle site. I know Tim Hunt is working on this, so maybe I will direct my comments towards him.

~thomas

Hi Minh,

I think what you have suggested is a really good idea as there is no one default for sorting courses which will please everyone. I require the 'my courses' block to sort based on the order I have determined in the course settings area of Moodle.

I am using Moodle 1.94 and I have found that courses are sorted alphabetically, not descending by ID.

Our teachers have asked if it would be possible to rearrange their courses on myMoodle, similar to the way topics can be rearranged in courses. That way they could determine their own order, and have the most frequently used course on top, or the most important one.

I would totally agree that it would be best to allow teachers (or students) to have control over the sort order. Have you put your idea forward through the Tracker?

This issue is discussed here:

http://server3.moodle.com/browse/MDL-13436

~thomas

Hi Kerrie,

I use Moodle 1.94 and Standard Theme. To remove the language drop down you have to edit header.html. Full details here:

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=51688#p534695

~thomas