Usability issues - Tabs
From MoodleDocs
Identification of the tabs
In the followint table the tab line of each activity is described.
| ID | Activity | Tab line (default tab in bold) | Justification |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quiz | Info, Results, Preview, Edit(with subtabs Quiz, Questions, Categories, Import, Export), Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions | |
| 2 | Forum | Edit, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions | Edit would contain the information of "add a discussion topic". |
| 3 | Glossary | Edit (with subtabs Add entry, Import, Export), Search, Browse (with subtabs Browse by alphabet, Browse by category, Browse by date, Browse by Author), View, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions | Edit would contain the information of "add a new entry" in Add entry. The print option will be accessible from View. |
| 4 | Chat | Enter to the chat (with subtabs Normal mode and without frames and Javascript), chat history, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions | I would replace "View past chat sessions" by chat history (it must be taken into account that it has been used the concept "message history" previously at Moodle). |
| 5 | Choice | Edit, View responses, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions | |
| 6 | Assignments | Edit, View attempts, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions | |
| 7 | Database | View list, view single, search, add entry, export, templates, fields, presets, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions | |
| 8 | Lesson | Preview, Edit (with subtabs collapsed, expanded), Reports, Grade essays, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions | |
| 9 | Survey | Edit, View responses (with subtabs Questions, students, download), Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions | |
| 10 | Wiki | View, Edit, Links, History, Search wiki, Choose wiki links, Administration, Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions | The "reload this page" button must be maintained in all pages. |
Next of this classification, an analysis of the name of the tabs and their order have been done:
- The world "history" will be used both for the chat and the wiki history. So the tab will be only called "History"
- The order of the tabs will be followed by this logic: info, preview, edit/enter, links, view, search, add entry, export, templates, fields, presets, results, Reports, Grade essays, history, Choose wiki links, Administration, settings, Assign roles, Override permissions. Depending on if an activity has or not this tabs will be ordered in a determined way.
- Another option will be to group in Update tabs Settings, Assign roles, Override permissions, so the order of tabs will be less (because this three tabs previously mentioned would be subtabs). This would be a good idea to reduce the number of tabs and because this actions won't be done with frecuency.
Screenshots
Quiz
Glossary
Chat
Choice
Forum
Assignments
Database
Lesson
Survey
Wiki
Possibility of moving tabs using javascript mentioned in the Fluid project (Javascript vs. AJAX)
This is related to support tab layout widgets. I think I might prefer javascript to AJAX as my impression has been that AJAX generally slows the page down especially for large courses. Again, some research on comparing these appoaches could be useful to the developers as we try to figure out how best to implement the tabs.
Circumstances would tabs cause more confusion or not be recommended
It would be recommended to add this tabs and delete the update activity button because the information of the activity is displayed in the same page and accessing with that button increments too much the number of clicks to update.
