revolution first impressions

Hi,

I thought i would have a first look a the new modx and i am very excited by a lot of things. Everyone involve should be very pleased with the work done. I really appreciate that everything has been designed to be modular and expandable. I am sure it going to be 100 times more powerful than the old modx code.

ok so now the negative - all my observations are superficial so please take with a HUGE pinch of salt

I am pretty scared that modx is drifting away from what it attracted me to it in the first place - its simplicity. I know its only an alpha but the interface really looks pretty scary! It`s got the whole windows 95 vibe going on. The System Settings page it a good example of this, it just seems very over engineered and techy. First off why is it called system settings and not site settings? its a pain to find anything because as its just essentially a long paginated list, the tab based nav was so much better. Throughout revolution you can really feel the developers influence. I don`t think its focused enough on the end user.

The 0.96 manger interface is brilliantly simple, it would be a real shame to throw it all away. Sorry, but i don`t find the new interface very intuitive at all. While its a very professionally done it does feel cramped,confusing and looks a little dated already

just my 2 cents.

Questions/Statements:

1. Which alpha are you using?
2. The layout is currently in ExtJS 2.1 default gray styling. We’re currently working on restyling it. We are also looking for people experienced in styling ExtJS.
3. It’s not called Site Settings because settings in System Settings apply to the system - not just the site, which is a subsection of the system.

alpha 4

Well, with regard to your qualms with the System Settings page...

We’ve made it an Ext grid for a few reasons:

1. It allows you to add your own custom System Settings.
2. It allows 3rd party developers to easily have their own system settings in their packages manageable post-install
3. If you click the + icon, you get descriptions of most settings.
4. Each setting is grouped by "Area", which makes it pretty clear what part of the system those settings are applicable to.
5. Straight HTML is pretty inflexible, and doesn’t allow for inline searching, like this grid does.

My first impression was similar, but the more I use it the more I am getting the hang of the new interface. It is in apha and I would guess there will be more work on it before being released. I would not go as far as saying a win95 look (ouch!). It does seem to be loosely influenced on eclipse (in my opinion). The interface has more to it in order to accommodate the additional features and new concepts, but it is still remarkably similar to the 096x interface. Not sure what to compare it to in order to call it looking dated. Even in alpha it is the sharpest looking interface I know of (with the same full feature set).

modx is developed by developers, so the influence is natural. However, they are making an open effort to work on hearing every ones views (see the recent posts in this forum). To be honest, I have not looked at the new UI from the end user pov yet, but off the top of my head it is better organized for the end user and the document edit page seems simpler. We (the user base, not the developers) can all do some more user testing and make some objective observations and help iron out any rough edges.

yep, sorry reading my post back i was perhaps a little harsh and it is an alpha after all.

I think you will find a lot of modx users are web designers, not developers who just want a simple to use CMS for ourselves and our clients - 0.96 fits this bill almost perfectly. If the interface had been like revolution to be honest i would have carried on looking (i have made over 20 sites with modx now)

I think my main problem is alpha 4 throws away a lot of structure, i know the good old file & folder metaphor is not fashionable these days but it = simplicity.

with regards to the site settings, if things are grouped by area anyway why not have permanent links to these areas at the top anyway? I don`t like the way you have to guess which page the setting you want to change, is on. 

if anyone want see some brilliant simple user interface design check out http://goplan.info/ I know modx is a lot more complex, but i think this is the style and level of simplicity you should aim for. Wordpress is another one that springs to mind.

Quote from: g5604 at Oct 06, 2008, 06:20 PM

I think my main problem is alpha 4 throws away a lot of structure, i know the good old file & folder metaphor is not fashionable these days but it = simplicity.

I’m not sure what you’re talking about here. There is still the normal file/folder view in 096 - all Revo changes is the look a bit, and adds an ability to drag within.

with regards to the site settings, if things are grouped by area anyway why not have permanent links to these areas at the top anyway? I don`t like the way you have to guess which page the setting you want to change, is on.

You can search for the setting. Adding a ’permanent link’ to the top would create major problems for people in small browser windows, since there are quite a few areas. It would also hamper flexibility, since you can create areas in Revolution.

I find Revo much easier to find settings, since I can just search for them, rather than having to memorize what tab they’re under.

what i mean by the lack of structure is in regards to the manger navigation which, is no longer in a hierarchy. For instance in 0.96 its always easy to tell where you are because the tabs highlight it vertically  eg. the nav shows Resources > manage resources > template variables The whole interface feels more consistent and not just a bunch of navigation components bundled together.

Quote from: g5604 at Oct 06, 2008, 06:35 PM

what i mean by the lack of structure is in regards to the manger navigation which, is no longer in a hierarchy. For instance in 0.96 its always easy to tell where you are because the tabs highlight it vertically eg. the nav shows Resources > manage resources > template variables The whole interface feels more consistent and not just a bunch of navigation components bundled together.

The tree in the left is still hierarchical. In fact, now the left frame includes trees for viewing Elements (formerly Resources) and Files hierarchically as well as Resources (formerly Documents).

@G5604: I had a similar reaction when I first saw Revolution because I was used to 0.9.6. Once I spent a little time actually doing things in Revolution, however, I found it infinitely easier to naviage than 0.9.6. The elements tree is *so* much better than having to click on Resources | Manage Resources | Snippets | snippet name. Now, I just right-click on the actual element (chunk, snippet, module, template, whatever) and select "edit."

System Settings seem to have lost some of their "area" setting in recent builds. I’m not sure what you have, but if you know anything at all about what you want to change, the search box will get it for you (try "friendly" or "alias" or "editor"). I almost never look at the area settings, although I think it’s a good thing that they’re there, and it’s way better than having to wade through the tabs of mixed text and settings disappearing off the bottom of the screen in 0.9.6 IMO.