GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 658463
Editing mode is awkward
Last modified: 2011-12-19 12:31:43 UTC
I just tried gnome-contacts on Fedora 16 for the first time: gnome-contacts-0.1.3-1.fc16.x86_64 Playing with the interface, I tried editing a contact. And then, I couldn't find how to go back to the regular mode, out of editing. After a while, I gave up, and clicked the button labeled « Close » in the bottom right corner to close the application out of frustration. Except it didn't close the application, the action was in fact « close the editing mode ». This is absolutely not what I would have expected, and I wouldn't have found it other than purely by chance, as I in fact did. At the very least, the button should have a more descriptive label, but all in all I felt like the whole edition experience was awkward: the UI for the current contact is « replaced in place » without any real indication like a « Editing $contact » title, it isn't clear at first what the two avatars are for (it took me a minute to realize there was a « Local contact » and a « Jabber », I still have no idea why there is a difference and what to change in which one).
I agree with most of this. 'Finish Editing' might be a better label for the button.
Allan: Do you want us to change this for 3.2? Then we need to request a string freeze break requeust.
As for the multiple buttons. I agree that the UI is a bit hard to use, especially since most of the buttons look the same due to lack of avatars. However, the basic way that contacts work with folk is that we link together different sources of information (rather than copying that information into one place and having it go stale). The Jabber button is the information that you get from the IM account, and the local data is your local addressbook.
(In reply to comment #2) > Allan: Do you want us to change this for 3.2? Then we need to request a string > freeze break requeust. Yes I think we should, actually. (In reply to comment #3) > As for the multiple buttons. I agree that the UI is a bit hard to use, > especially since most of the buttons look the same due to lack of avatars. Indeed; I'd anticipated that we would have avatars more than we do. > However, the basic way that contacts work with folk is that we link together > different sources of information (rather than copying that information into one > place and having it go stale). The Jabber button is the information that you > get from the IM account, and the local data is your local addressbook. I think the question is whether we should only display info from one account at once. I've got some ideas here but that discussion should wait I think.
(In reply to comment #3) > As for the multiple buttons. I agree that the UI is a bit hard to use, > especially since most of the buttons look the same due to lack of avatars. > However, the basic way that contacts work with folk is that we link together > different sources of information (rather than copying that information into one > place and having it go stale). The Jabber button is the information that you > get from the IM account, and the local data is your local addressbook. I can understand that there is technical difference between the two (and more) account types. But couldn't that be treated as an implementation detail, merge everything and present only one unified « contact » to the user? Just like Empathy (or Telepathy or Mission Control or... I don't really know) allows linking several contacts, couldn't Gnome-Contacts « link » the local, Jabber email, AIM, MSN informations into one « contact », and depending on what the user is editing, Gnome-Contacts/Folks will be able to decide where to store that information?
(In reply to comment #5) ... > But couldn't that be treated as an implementation detail, merge everything and > present only one unified « contact » to the user? ... Yes I think that is probably a good idea.
We do merge everything when displaying the contact. That is what folks is all about. However, it is not really possible to do this in the UI for editing. How would the UI look when some email addresses are from one source and some from another? If you add an detail, where is it saved, Etc. Such a unified UI would not be very easy to understand (not that the current one is ideal of course). Android phones do the same thing, merge when displaying, separate when editing. Of course, they imho do a better job of presenting what the different parts are, unfortunately they do that mostly by using icons that are copyrighted and thus hard for us to use.
'Finish Editing' doesn't work for the Note though, I think "Back to contact" is better.
(In reply to comment #7) > We do merge everything when displaying the contact. That is what folks is all > about. > > However, it is not really possible to do this in the UI for editing. How would > the UI look when some email addresses are from one source and some from > another? Does it matter to the user where the emails are coming from? > If you add an detail, where is it saved, Does it matter? I mean, it seems to me like there are basically two types of sources. First, the « specilaized » sources: a Jabber account will only hold Jabber-related informations, same for MSN account, etc... So if I add a Jabber address to one of my contacts and one of my sources is a Jabber account, then add to this one. After all, if I'm adding a Jabber address to a cntact then I want to be able to chat with him on, maybe on another computer that doesn't use Folks/Gnome and where I would simply connect with an instant messenger. Then there are more « generic » sources, e.g a Google account, the LDAP from my company, etc... In those cases, I would say that if the user is adding a detail that would not fit better in one of the specialized sources, then perhaps Gnome-Contacts could present the user a list of the generic sources (if there are more than one) with the local source being the default (or whichever is the default one). Does that make any sense? > Etc. Such a unified UI would > not be very easy to understand (not that the current one is ideal of course). One problem with the current one is that it says « Local contact » when it's really the « Local details » for the contact. At least that helped make it more confusing to me, I had no idea what a « local contact » meant.
Its now "Back to Contact" instead of Close on the button
We now have inline editing, so the first part of this bug (relating to the back button) is fixed. We are displaying the location of where the details are stored - this is because editing abilities vary according to location. I also think it's useful for people to know where the different contact details are coming from. Closing as resolved - please comment if you think otherwise. :)