[ome-users] user feedback feedback

[Harry Hochheiser]

Alastair:

thanks for your comments and feedback. Speaking only for myself, I 
think that this sort of feedback is _extremely_ useful. I appreciate 
your effort in writing up these notes for us. As you said, this is a 
work in progress, so I won't make any promises about addressing any of 
these issues, but I can say that I think we'll all do our best to keep 
these comments in mind.

I can't address many of your comments below, as I don't know the actual 
answers. However, I will try to answer some:
>
>
> Currently it is unclear that while the Web interface is referred to as
> “light” it seems to have more functionality than the Java interface?
> Also we are not clear on the logic of the division of functionality
> between the Java and web client – ultimately will all tasks (such as
> image import, chain construction and execution of chains) be available
> from the Schoola interface?

I think the Web interface does have a broader range of functionality 
than the Java interface. Some of that is a matter of breadth vs. depth 
- the Web interface attempts to do a reasonable job of displaying just 
about any type of OME data, while the Java interface is trying to do 
more specific things in a more detailed manner. As I understand it, all 
of those tasks that you mention should eventually be supported by the 
Java interface.
>
>
> Will any “wizards” be available as a pull down on the main menu bar 
> when
> you first open the program to step new users through common tasks? E.g.
> defining of a project and data set followed by import of data;
> extracting / modifying and adding image metadata; locating and viewing 
> a
> data set. This is perhaps the largest barrier to new users starting
> using OME as the options and way to proceed are not always intuitive.
>
>

I don't recall any suggestion of such functionality, but wizards like 
this are certainly a reasonable idea.

> Java Client [using stable relase 2.4.0]:
>
>
> Currently the “help” offers no content. It might be useful to replace
> this with a hyperlink to the online “Getting started tutorial” 
> resource,
> that we find quite helpful, as a stop-gap to any planned expansion of
> this functionality.
>
>
Yes, this is a good point - probably something we should do.
There is also some user documentation in the Java distribution. If you 
cd into the "build" directory and run "ant docs", documentation will be 
created in the Shoola/OUt/docs directory. If you look at the index.html 
file in that directory, the "Shoola agent documentation" link will take 
you to web and pdf documents on using some of the tools. They're very 
preliminary, but they do exist.


> There is clearly a great deal of functionality, however, much seems to
> be “hidden” under “cryptic” icons or names, or requires the user to 
> make
> selection by direct or right mouse (ctrl+Mouse) in places other than 
> the
> intuitive locations and also having to confirm a requested action in
> some cases by clicking another “button”. In this last case perhaps a
> popup dialogue box asking to “continue or add/do another” might lead
> users on better. By random clicking and reference to the helpful online
> “Getting started tutorial” we could muddle through eventually, but his
> does not seem like it would be appealing to primary Users (Post Docs 
> and
> PhD’s.
>
Can you give some more specifics?

> It would be good to have more (all relevant?) functions duplicated in
> categorised pull down menus on the relevant windows – if I can’t find a
> function easily I find it useful to just browse the contents of pull
> down menus to give me a hint what is available rather than browsing the
> individual icon buttons.
>

Yes, agreed.

>
> Chains and chain builder do not fully convey to me what is intended. 
> The
> way of putting chains together is fairly intuitive however the amount 
> of
> info that pops up immediately is overwhelming to a novice user. The
> navigator function (overview, a good idea) seems to be only
> intermittently operational in our hands which causes confusion. It 
> looks
> like you should be able to draw a rectangle (red area) round the window
> area you want to see from the overview but this does not always work. 
> It
> might be better if it could be expanded to a size where the text is
> readable – or the full text replaced by a “title” for that section.
> “Mouse-over” to highlight areas and the way mouse clicking in different
> locations to expand and more contents within a window appears clumsy –
> could simply clicking the section you want and having a fit to a window
> which you could drag to size/shape not work better?
>

These are good points - I can't give you a delivery date, but I can say 
that some significant revisions to the
chainbuilder are on my agenda.  I will keep these comments in mind.

Thanks again for your feedback...


-harry