Re: new plan to replace flags with Readiness Markers

Ahhh! This email escaped from me before it was done!!

I was about to write a section about the open text field:
*      2) an open text field where editors can leave comments about what is
needed. *
          Rather than trying to organize information about what each page
needs into a pre-fab list of checkboxes (that everyone has to learn about
before it becomes accurate or useful), we decided to have an open box where
people can write whatever is appropriate. "Needs an example". Or "I changed
this foo thing, but I'm not sure. Will someone check it?" Over time if we
see a need to have something more, we can add some kind of flag system
later.

We will use the readiness marker to also add a class to the body element of
each doc page, like:
<body class="almost-done">
That way we can use the class to style the page however we want. We can put
a colored stripe down the side of the page, or put a diagonal banner across
a corner, or whatever. The body class alone provides everything needed to
make the state of the page clear to the end user.

We might want to consider adding the state to the text of the page as well,
for accessibility reasons. We should think this through. It's not needed in
cases where there is no screen reader.

I'm hoping that having the readiness state clearly displayed on each page
will
1) help improve the trustworthiness of our content, and
2) encourage people to help edit the content. If it says "almost ready",
you can click & see in a clear box what's needed. Sign in, edit, change the
state, and save — and when you save, the color coding state for the whole
page will change. Exciting!!

We also want to figure out how we can better make lists of things. I want
to see all HTML pages that are Almost Ready. I want to see everything that
was moved to In Progress last week, etc.

Questions? Comments?

Jen


Jen Simmons
designer, consultant and speaker
host of The Web Ahead
jensimmons.com
5by5.tv/webahead
twitter: jensimmons <http://twitter.com/jensimmons>



On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 2:44 PM, Jen Simmons <jen@jensimmons.com> wrote:

> On today's call, we had a long and fruitful discussion about the flags on
> the site, and the plan to change them. We revised the revised plan. Here's
> what we decided:
>
> *A) Remove the mediawiki template that provides the current flag system. *
>
> This will keep the existing data in the database, but hide all evidence of
> it. Flags will no longer be displayed on a page for a regular user, and the
> flag form checkboxes will no longer show up for someone who's editing the
> page.
>
> This will fix the problem that's been happening — people being scared away
> from the site by a long list of RED THINGS that SOUND SCARY but are
> actually quite hard to understand. Rather than trying to implement a
> complex educational process to teach everyone what all those flags mean, a
> decision was made long ago to simplify them. Today we realized rather than
> replacing them with simpler editor-focused technical to-do-list terms, we
> should be replacing them with end-user-focused information about the
> quality of the content. Thus will will:
>
> *B) Add a "Readiness Marker" — two new fields to all Doc pages:*
>
> *     1) a drop down select with five choices: *
>               > Ready to Use
>               > Almost Done
>               > In Progress
>               > Coming Later
>               > -unknown- (default)
> *      2) an open text field where editors can leave comments about what
> is needed. *
>
>
>
> There was a lot of discussion about the fact the current flags kinda-sorta
> don't even work right now. If you click on a flag term, it should go to a
> list of all content with that flag — and it doesn't. Of course, as smart
> developers in the meeting people's started thinking through how we could
> make this work... but a decision was made that this is not a priority and
> we have other things that are more pressing to work on (like getting the
> compatibility tables done). So we will *not* be working on any kind of
> flag system that makes lists of content anytime soon.
>
> It was agreed that we do need better ways for contributors to find tasks,
> and more easily find a set of pages to edit. We agreed that this should be
> approached from a design perspective (let's first ask: what kind of lists
> do people want? what kind of tools could be helpful? what is it people are
> looking for?) and then come up with a plan to choose technology to fulfill
> that need (which might include a new set of flags), instead of focusing on
> the flags alone and forcing a solution that might not meet the needs at
> hand.
>
>
>
>
>
> Jen Simmons
> designer, consultant and speaker
> host of The Web Ahead
> jensimmons.com
> 5by5.tv/webahead
> twitter: jensimmons <http://twitter.com/jensimmons>
>
>

Received on Tuesday, 22 April 2014 18:53:00 UTC