Revision of Repository Object Creation Forms

1 Description

This feature is a follup-up of the Add new course - form discussion. We would like to propose a revision of the creation froms for all repository objects. These forms offer often a number of alternative ways to create an object. Multiple forms are displayed on the screen - this makes the interface very complex and hard to understand.

We would like to reduce the complexity. Only the first form should be displayed, all other options are only represented by a header and are collapsed. Maybe we even collapse the first form, too.

If the user selects a collapsed header the form is expanded and the formerly expanded form is collapsed. This way only one form is displayed at a time.

2 Status

• Scheduled for Release: Release 4.2, originally scheduled for 4.1
• Funding: ILIAS-Verein
• Development: Feature is to be developed by Leifos and all developers

3 Additional Information

• If you want to know more about this feature, its implementation or funding, please contact: Alex Killing / alex.killing at gmx.de

4 Discussion

JF 25 Jan 2010: We also discussed whether we want to have guideline that recommends that the first creation form should only contain a title and description field. But we would need exceptions for such a guideline, e.g. creation of file objects.

JF 28 March 2011: Alexander presented the current implementation of the new creation screens using accordeons. This has to be completed for all components. We still have to decide on which screen a user is redirected after an object has been created. Revision of creation screens may be completed during the beta phase of 4.2.

Pascal, June 29th
During my studies in human computer interaction design I made a practical thesis related to this topic. Maybe it's helpfull:

Matthias Kunkel, 29 June 2011: Suggestions to improve current implementation in v4.2.0 Alpha3:

• Tab boxes should not use the whole width when the form box uses only a part of it. The outer box should follow the width of the inner form.
• The active "Option" tab should have a coloured background to indicate directly that this option is active now. It might even be the same bg colour like used for mouseover option.
• I suggest to use "Create New Course" instead of "New Course" to make clear that this option is creating a new course while the others are reusing an existing one! At the end, all of these options will make a "new" course at this location of the repository.
• Copy options should offer a Cancel button, too.
• Submit button for option New Group should be "Add Group" (similar to course or category).

5 Follow-up