Splitting Up Tools

This is a project page that bundles several feature wiki pages which belong to a larger development activity for multiple ILIAS components currently using the space provided by the "Tools-Slate".

1 Aim of Project

Discussion on this topic have been initially triggered by an issue concerning the behaviour of the Page Editor Tool Slate (see the follow-up issue for the current state of affairs). The discussions lead to the understanding that the issue was of a conceptual nature: We have crammed too many different elements under the concept "Tool". The aim of this project is to find a conceptualy sound way to differentiate between the different kinds of elements currently bunched as "Tools" and to find good solutions for each one of them. Currently we have differentiated one group and three special cases. The special cases are specified specifically by being "cross-sectional" , i.e. they could be seen as a separate axis on a two dimensional matrix.

• Entries having a specified node in the navigation because they are linked to a ref_id (e.g. Tools-Slates of the Learning Module or the Org-Units).
  • The Mail could be seen as also falling under this category, even if it doesn't have a ref_id, because of its equivalent behaviour. It could be said to be a node of the "Communication"
• Crossectional Tools / Special Cases:
  • The Editor
  • The Help
  • The Assignment Tasks

• Reduce the complexity of the tools in the mainbar and try to remove specialcasing.
• Generate a common understanding about priorities.
• Improve visibility of interface elements in tools.
• Utilize the space claimed by the mainbar to provide a rich user experience.
• To not introduce new screen areas.
• To test solutions for the issue that the different elements of the interface are not all equally important, but that it is very hard to agree on their importance.

2 Involved Maintainers and Stakeholders

• Maintainer and Development: several
• Concept Working Group:

• Organisation: Seiler, Yvonne [yvseiler], Kergomard, Stephan [skergomard]

3 Timeline

4 Related Feature Requests and Status

5 Further Results

• As we believe this to be the right way forward (see Page Editor as Mode for more information), we decided to create a plugin in order to evaluate the experience of the ILIAS Page Editor as a mode. You can find all the information on Github: https://github.com/ILIAS-eLearning/ilias-plugin-EditorAsMode
  • We have created a Test-Suite on Testrail for the plugin: https://testrail.ilias.de/index.php?/suites/view/709
  • Don't hesitate to contact Kergomard, Stephan [skergomard] or Seiler, Yvonne [yvseiler] if you have further questions.
• We considered different strategies to reduce the complexity of the tools concept:
  • We could try to move the elements to the content section of the page. We could remove them completely. We could create a new special page area. We could move the elements to a new window. We could introduce a Modus. We could use existing Mainbar-Slates (Sub-Menus).
  • We have had a closer look at a few of those solutions:
    • If we remove the elements shown in the  Tools completely, this would help us to simplify the interface, but it would mean to remove features and would reduce our target group.
    • Modes would allow us to hide interface elements we don't need, it would be a good fit for experts, it would allow to make central elements visible in the mainbar, and the pattern is already known and proven in ILIAS. The change from one mode to the other must be indicated very clearly in the interface and the number of modes should be limited to not get lost between them.
• If you want to dive deeper into the rabbit hole of our reflections. Please see the corresponding page on Milanote.
• Open Questions:
  • We suggest to also use the solution applied to Mail described in Transfer the mail tree into a Combined Slate for the Compentece Tree and the OrgUnit Tree. There is an open question on how to deal with the trees when they become really long and don't easily fit on one page.

6 Additional Information

Working Group is Part of the Page Layout Revision III. All dates and protocols of the discussions are in this group.

7 General Discussion

Please discuss specific questions of feature requests on the related feature wiki pages. This discussion section is only for a general discussion of the project and its realisation.

Statement Technical Board,, 2022 Apr 6:

We see how this significant project impacts the strategic aims to make ILIAS a more adaptable learning environment as well as usable for everyone. We thus consider this development very beneficial for the project. Still, we do not see that the coaching of the TB would have a considerable impact on the further progress of the projects, as most answers regarding technical implications related to this endeavor are already considered and published.

Statement UX/UI/A11y-Experts, 2022 Apr 6:
The tools as they are today leave the users with quite a few questions. The conceptual work done during the last few years has created strong indications that splitting the tools up into different groups of tools with different strategies for the UX/UI should improve the situation considerably. It is a very important project, but the working group that already works on these issues will continue working, and thus the project can be advanced outside of the frame of the Big Projects.