Question: Usability - Show Vs Peep, Editing Attributes, And Histories
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gravatar for Peter
7.8 years ago by
Peter260
Peter260 wrote:
Dear all, I've just been sitting down with one of our biologists who is learning to use (our local) Galaxy, and he ran into a few little issues, some of which should be fairly easy to address. This is intended as constructive feedback, and if anything is unclear please say and I'll try to elaborate. *Show data vs peep* When wanting to look at an entry in the history, he would always click on the title (which toggles the peep view), berate himself, then click on the small eye icon. This is something that I used to do when first learning to use Galaxy too. Viewing data is a very common task yet the icon is tiny compared to the name, which is the most natural thing to click on. Does this confuse most newcomers? I realise it would upset existing users, but have you considered switching this functionality? *Editing attributes (of a history entry)* Several of the history entries had automatic names set by the tools, and as a result some of them had the same name. We therefore wanted to rename these entries, via the "pencil" icon for "edit attributes". The attributes page has five (independent) blocks, each with their *own* save or action button. He edited the name, and clicked on save - Galaxy went back to the main view but nothing had happened. Why? He'd clicked on the wrong save button. The first thing I'd change is quite small: He'd clicked on the most prominent save button, the "Change data type" block save button which happened to be on the bottom of the visible screen. Part of the issue is that the "Edit Attributes" block's save button is not last, but second last. It is therefore somewhat hidden. So I'd move it below the auto-detect button to ensure it is at the end of the block. The second thing I'd suggest (and this applies to Galaxy in general) is moving the save/commit/execute buttons to the right of the frame. That way all the text and options are left aligned, but the "do it" button stands out on the right (which is a common convention in software in general - think of wizards and dialogue windows). Finally I'd suggest (assuming it is possible) making the text of any primary button (e.g. save/commit/execute button) bold to help it stand out from all the options or buttons. *Saving histories* When the user had finished one task, and was about to start another, I suggested we make a new history. There is no explicit "Save History" option (since it happens automatically), so the correct action was to click on "Create New". We were then left with two "Unnamed histories" and everything was fine - but never the less a bit nerve racking for the novice as there is no indication that the old history was saved. I would suggest if the current history is still unnamed, having a prompt along the lines of "You current history will be saved as: XXX" where XXX is the current name (default being Unnamed as now), giving them a chance to (re)name it. *Renaming current history* There is no obvious way to rename the current history from the "main" page. Currently the only way I've found to do this is go to "history options", "saved histories". I would suggest adding a rename entry under the "history options". Regards, Peter
galaxy • 1.1k views
ADD COMMENTlink modified 7.8 years ago by Dannon Baker3.7k • written 7.8 years ago by Peter260
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gravatar for Dannon Baker
7.8 years ago by
Dannon Baker3.7k
United States
Dannon Baker3.7k wrote:
Thanks for all the feedback! We've not yet discussed it all as a group, but I'd like to offer a quick solution for easily renaming histories. In the history panel, just above the first dataset listed, you should see the name of your current history in lighter text, which if you click on it, should swap to an inline edit box where you can change the name. -Dannon
ADD COMMENTlink written 7.8 years ago by Dannon Baker3.7k
Huh - that's really obvious and easy once its been pointed out. Maybe it had just been a long week and I missed it. I think the other points still stand though (multiple save buttons etc), but yes, for the specific task of editing the history name I'm happy :) Peter
ADD REPLYlink written 7.8 years ago by Peter260
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