[Zope-PTK] PTK and Usability

[Johan Carlsson]

> Johan Carlsson wrote:
>=20
> > Have there been any usability tests made on the PTK GUI design
> > and scenarios?
>=20
> We've done no formal usability testing;  much of the design stems
> from our experience building and managing sites such as www.zope.org,
> and from consulting engagements which have used the framework.

It might be a good idea to invest in a usability test, and it doesn't
have to be very expensive.=20
I have shown PTK to a college with some experience in Zope=20
content management (not much at all) and she was very=20
confused. And I also am confused by the way PTK works sometime,
but on the other hand, I'm a experiences Zope Management User.

A setup with 5-15 novice users, let them use the PTK and what=20
 there doing without interfering or helping, might give you
valuable information for changing some UI and scenarios.

It would also be possible to do a heuristic evaluation with
help from HCI-professionals.

=20
> Because the "skin" of the portal is entirely customizable (and
> soon the content objects, too -- please see=20
> http://cmf.zope.org/rqmts/proposals/skinning_content), you
> are free to experiment with other UI designs.  If you develop
> a superior alternative, please package it up and make it available
> to the community on the "dogbowl" site (http://cmf.zope.org).

I will probably make a generic PTK design (that I've named "Form 1A")
that I could release to the community.
I only have to learn how to make skins ;-)

Another thing that would be useful is a web designer starters kit for =
PTK.
That is documentation and templates for common web design tools.
I am looking at making a Dreamweaver Template/Library starters kit for
my own needs. It's hard to do web design on PTK because it so factorized
to UI-snippets (DW Library might solve that).

Regards,
Johan Carlsson