UI module owner

[Benton, Kevin]

> David Miller wrote:
> >> Absolutely. However, "a completely re-designed UI" is not a goal -
it's
> >> a means to some end. What is the goal we are trying to reach which
> >> requires we completely redesign the UI?
> >>
> >> If we decide that there is no such goal, then we don't need to
redesign
> >> the UI, and we don't need a UI module owner (as much).
> >
> > The goal is ease-of-use (people constantly complain that Bugzilla is
too
> > hard to use) and interoperability with mobile and accessibility
devices.
> 
> I spent some time today working on the personas. It'll be interesting,
> when we are discussing them, to see which if any personas might use
> Bugzilla on a mobile device.
> 
> Taking the accessibility one for a moment: if the goal is "make
Bugzilla
> accessible" (to people with which sorts of disability? Do we include
> deaf-blind quadraplegics?), why is a _complete_ UI redesign required
to
> achieve this?
> 
> Also, for the ease-of-use goal: do we have any more specific data than
> "people complain Bugzilla is hard to use"? Is the entire UI so poor
that
> a complete redesign is required? Or would we be better off finding the
> tasks that people find hardest, and incrementally improving the UI in
> those areas towards a defined goal?
> 
> (The answer to these things may be yes; but they are questions we need
> to ask.)

I agree.  I also think we ought to consider our overall goals.  I've
lost track of how many times we've seen the "custom fields" discussion
flare up, yet I haven't seen anyone discuss how to comprehensively
integrate those fields into the UI.

I think it'd be good if we had a real poll of some sort asking users
what they think the most important improvements to Bugzilla would be
first before getting overly drawn into the UI specifics.  I can tell you
that some of the customizations we have are:

ChangeStatusToNewOnReassign (as an optional field)
Commitment
DesignStage
ErrataToRev
FoundInRev
FixedInRev
NoOpSys
ReassignOnClosure
ReassignOnReopen
ReassignOnResolve
ReassignOnVerify
rep_platform (as an optional field)
ThirdPartyEmailGateway
InitalCCList
...

Finding a good way to display those customizations reliably without
messing up the other displays was a challenge, but not a big deal.
Doing that for custom fields may be more difficult though I can think of
a display model that might work that would involve allowing admins to
decide where custom fields appear relative to other fields.

---
Kevin Benton
Perl/Bugzilla Developer/Administrator, Perforce SCM Administrator
AMD - ECSD Software Validation and Tools
 
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