[Zope3-dev] UI effort at Sprintathon

[Paul Everitt]

On lundi, oct 21, 2002, at 10:37 Europe/Paris, Martijn Faassen wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> More sprintathon news!
>
> I'd like to suggest we split off a team to discuss and implement
> a Zope 3 UI at the sprintathon; the UI issue seems to have stalled
> and we will have some good people with ideas about the UI at the
> Sprintathon (for instance Alexander Limi). This is not so much about
> a cool looking design but about UI functionality for the various target
> audiences for Zope 3 (ranging from programmers to content managers).

I agree with this point.  Based on lessons learned from the UI 
mini-sprint in Brazil, I think it's important beforehand to set 
specific and realistic targets for what should be done at the sprint.  
It's very easy to expand the scope, especially when someone like me is 
around. :^)

The first question, which you've hinted at: should this UI sprint focus 
on a ZMI for Zope 3, or focus on building ZMIs for Zope 3?

> A team of 3 or 4 people perhaps assisted by a few programmers for 
> technical
> support could get quite a bit done in a short time. What could such a 
> team
> work on?
>
> First, it's important to focus on the target audience. While
> it's a content management sprintathon Zope 3's UI is immature enough to
> allow a focus on basically any target audience (or even all; I imagine
> by default there are some common style elements shared by all the UIs).

I agree, choosing the audience is another critical point.

> I suggest an important target audience is Zope 3 developers -- make it
> as easy as possible for us developers to come up with easy to use
> user interfaces.

I'm a little lost on this point.  Are you saying this UI sprint would 
work on a ZMI for developers, or on the ways developers create UIs for 
various audiences?

If it's the latter, then the UI team will need people versed in Zope 3 
arcana.

> Without actual programming:
>
>   * beginnings of a style guide
>
>   * CSS stylesheets
>
>   * sample HTML

Very good list.  Shane suggested a good item also:

   * suggested approaches to modularity and replaceability

I'll also add:

   * contemplate localization

To make much progress on this range of issues, I think we should do 
something ruthless and say that, in this first step, it will look 
exactly like the current ZMI.  Once we supply the list of deliverables, 
we can experiment with modular and replaceable ways to improve 
usability.

> Then to put this actually into use, so us programmers can start 
> applying
> it:
>
>   * adapting zope 3 so it will use the core styles (this includes 
> simple
>     adaptations of most objects as well as general navigation 
> interface).
>
>   * implementation of some more complicated user interfaces as examples
>     for other user interfaces.
>
>   * Perhaps a good project is to work on an easy TTW way to create and 
> manage
>     views composed mostly out of page templates and some python scripts
>     in Zope 3. I'm thinking about a pattern in use in Silva here, but 
> I'm
>     sure CMF people will have some input. But this is just my 
> suggestion.

You don't mean that these would be done during the sprint, do you?

> I'm *not* one of the people going to be on the UI team, by the way; 
> I'm a
> programmer who thinks UI is important, but I'm not a UI designer. I 
> hope
> someone will step up and be the UI team project leader. Note that this 
> also
> means project leader before and after the sprintathon, not just during,
> unless you can find someone to take over from you.

I agree, it's best for someone to show some ownership on this.

--Paul