Latest Content Display 2
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In a previous blog entry, I discussed the idea of a display for "Latest Content" to go along with other content browsing methods, such as by title, popularity, author, keywords, etc. Though I wasn't sure whether to interpret the lack of response to my individual replies to each of the comments on that entry to mean "yes, we agree with you 100%!" ;-p, I have since tried to make some new mock-ups that incorporate some of your opinions as well as include a new idea that I thought of: using tooltips for info such as the submission data.
I thought tooltips would be a good way to include the submission information on that page without creating a link that was either ambiguous (linking the date) or space-occupying (adding the word "details" after the date). However, it propably precludes the idea of opening all the submission info up at once for all the modules on that page.
Here are the 2 mock-ups that I've made, one for "newly revised" and one for "newly published". Although I made only those two (leaving out "newly revised (all revisions)") in order to be able to post this blog entry before leaving tonight, I must say I like the simplicity (and hopefully, clarity) of just having those 2 browse modes.
The two different pages have different tooltips styles. Aside from padding, width, and line break differences, the tooltips in the mock-up for newly revised content always appear in the same place relative to the table cell, whereas the tooltips in the mock-up for newly published content appears at the end of the link. Neither follow the mouse, which was done for the purpose of allowing the user to click on the link inside the tooltip.
The other thing I like about using tooltips is that if they are used here, I think I would like to use them to display the course description in browse_course_titles as well, because I'm not satisfied with the way the descriptions are displayed there. I think that page is currently pretty crammed and unreadable (yeah, I know, I designed it).
Anyway, let me know what you think of these mock-ups.
** UPDATE **
I made newer versions that follow the mouse, as per Kyle's request, yet still allow for clicking on the tooltips link if the mouse is moved quickly enough off the link towards the tooltip:
Re: Latest Content Display 2
I'd also suggest losing the parentheses in the version column. The little link is different enough from the number that, with sufficient horizontal spacing, it shouldn't need to be set off like that, and it seems to me it would be easier to read without the parentheses.
Basically, it looks just fine, but with this and the language stuff I'm starting to get a little worried about the grand scheme of content browsing. It may be getting to the point where just listing all our browse methods on a page isn't helpful enough to the user. Manpreet? :)
Re: Re: Latest Content Display 2
I removed the parentheses from the mock-up so that you can see how it looks. I personally prefer the parentheses, but don't feel strongly enough about them to put up a fight.
Yeah, browsing of course still needs work, but while we're waiting for Manpreet to revamp the thing and/or for us to add the browsing feature that everybody has been requesting from the beginning ("by subject" or something similar a la del.icio.us), I don't really mind all these different browsing avenues, especially since they don't really require much change to the current layout of the /content/ page. They just add more ways of finding things, and aren't really any worse than, say, browse by title or browse by author.
Otherwise, I like the information displayed on the two pages. I think its a good combo.