Many users have taken the time to send us feedback about Movable Type 4.0. Users are sending us email directly, they are submitting feedback through our web form, members of ProNet are talking tirelessly on the mailing list and comments can be found all over movabletype.org from users that have a concern, a bug, an idea, or just an opinion.
The amount of feedback is overwhelming -- but in a good way, because the feedback really helps us to understand not what we think is important to our users, but what actually is important to our users. A good illustration of this can be found in Movable Type's new information architecture introduced in the most recent beta: Beta 2.
The IA of Movable Type is something we have been revising and refining constantly since the moment we first started working on MT4 because we feel that it has the greatest impact on usability of the application then any other feature.
But at some point we knew we had to stop developing the IA in a vacuum
and listen to what our users had to say. It wasn't long after releasing Beta 1 that users began telling us that they loved the direction of the IA, but it was still not perfect. Users expressed a lot of confusion between the Edit and Organize menus; they were simply not intuitive enough and users said they found themselves hunting around the menus for the item they were looking for.
That's when the alarm bells started going off. The last thing you want to hear is that your users were "hunting" for anything. The user interface and information architecture needs to be self-evident. So in Beta 2 we combined the two menus under a new menu called "Manage." It is a significant change despite its simplicity and we are anxious to hear what users think about this new organization. We know the IA and navigation is not perfect. We still have a lot of feedback we are incorporating into the application, but we will continue to evolve the application with your help.
Of course the new navigation is just one of the many new features and fixes found in this release. Other goodies you can find are:
The amount of feedback is overwhelming -- but in a good way, because the feedback really helps us to understand not what we think is important to our users, but what actually is important to our users. A good illustration of this can be found in Movable Type's new information architecture introduced in the most recent beta: Beta 2.
The IA of Movable Type is something we have been revising and refining constantly since the moment we first started working on MT4 because we feel that it has the greatest impact on usability of the application then any other feature.
But at some point we knew we had to stop developing the IA in a vacuum
and listen to what our users had to say. It wasn't long after releasing Beta 1 that users began telling us that they loved the direction of the IA, but it was still not perfect. Users expressed a lot of confusion between the Edit and Organize menus; they were simply not intuitive enough and users said they found themselves hunting around the menus for the item they were looking for.That's when the alarm bells started going off. The last thing you want to hear is that your users were "hunting" for anything. The user interface and information architecture needs to be self-evident. So in Beta 2 we combined the two menus under a new menu called "Manage." It is a significant change despite its simplicity and we are anxious to hear what users think about this new organization. We know the IA and navigation is not perfect. We still have a lot of feedback we are incorporating into the application, but we will continue to evolve the application with your help.
Of course the new navigation is just one of the many new features and fixes found in this release. Other goodies you can find are:
- Live previews of pages and entires
- Better error handling for template syntax errors
- Fixed issues associated with importing blog content from Wordpress
- A new javascript calendar control for scheduling posts
- Author archives
- Lots of UI enhancements and further refinement to the design
- Changes to how the blog context switcher works to make it simpler and more intuitive
metisinternet
June 13, 2007 4:01 PM | Reply
It is fantastic to see Movable Type so responsive and so engaged with the community. Movable Type Beta 1 did not work, but within 5 days the Beta 2 has solved the problem.
Karl Elvis MacRae
June 13, 2007 4:03 PM | Reply
I think you're 'solving' the symptom and ignoring the cause. While making menus slightly less obscure is a step forward, it's a step forward in an inherently wrong direction.
The root problem with the new interface is that you took what was a simple, clean, intuitive interface in mt3 and hid away most of the tasks behind pull-downs and page loads. This is a *backwards* step in usability.
You need to back way, way up to where you went wrong - too many pull-downs and page loads, not enough *useful* links on the dashboard - and re-think the entire concept. As we've been saying, the design looks nice, but you went for an un-cluttered aesthetic and in the process, made the tool harder to use. That's exactly backwards. Make it work well, and THEN think about how to make it look nice *without decreasing usability*.
Byrne Reese
June 13, 2007 5:30 PM | Reply
Karl - thank you for your feedback. I am sorry your experience with the new user interface has not been positive and that you feel it is a step backwards. You mentioned that certain tasks are now harder to find... or least there are not enough useful links on the dashboard. What tasks and links in particular? What might your ideal dashboard look like? What would it have on it.
There is still time left in the beta to improve upon what we have implemented so far. Plus we are planning more navigation and IA changes in Beta 3 based on even more user feedback having to do with the challenge of understanding the difference between being in a blog and a system context.
Again, I want to thank you for your feedback. Don't give up on us yet, we are only getting started.
demonsurfer
June 13, 2007 6:44 PM | Reply
The 'create > page' is handy, however it seems to only publish to the same directory as the archives and is not alterable other than to subdirectories from there (unless I'm missing something).. I publish archives using alternative root path, so archives go to 'siteroot / archives / year / month / entrytitle'. New 'pages' seem to publish to the archives directory (or subdirectories if specified), but it would be nice to be able to set their own path so I can publish pages to the siteroot only, not the archives directory. If I unselect 'page' from 'settings > archive types' it doesn't seem to publish anywhere, although it goes through the motions of being published.. does any of this make sense?
demonsurfer
June 13, 2007 7:21 PM | Reply
Err.. and 'folders' doesn't seem to actually create folders on the server.. although I do like the idea of both pages and folders.
Any intention of having 'pages' write into the weblog backup text file (when using export) along with the entries themselves? Or a separate exportable backup file for 'pages'? ..I realize it's only experimental at present, but pretty groovy for creating non-blog pages.
clarknova
June 13, 2007 8:50 PM | Reply
Thanks guys, so far I think this is a big step in the right direction for MT. I've been using MT 4 for the last couple of days without running into any bugs to report. Overall, the interface is easier to use and tasks can be done in less time.
One thing I've always found hard to do is modifying templates, though. Templates, widgets, archives, and modules seem to be always so difficult to find when you're editing a particular template. Let's say you're modifying the index template, if you want to modify a particular module you have to at least use three clicks to get there. And why do I have to go one place to modify a widget manager order and to another different place to modify that widget's code? It's by far the most frustating aspect of MT in my experience. And something that would help a lot would be a template preview. Oh, well.
All that said, I have to tell you guys the new post editing interface is a breeze, it's so much easier to edit posts and add pictures and other media.
Keep up the good work, and thank you guys.
Clark
Dan Wolfgang
June 14, 2007 9:18 AM | Reply
"And why do I have to go one place to modify a widget manager order and to another different place to modify that widget's code?"
Y'know, I've thought this before, but the magnitude of what it means didn't strike me until just now when I read it. Allowing me to order and edit my widgets from the same place would be phenomenal!
clarknova
June 15, 2007 9:12 AM | Reply
And how about the ability of creating custom fields for additional information(like with the awesome "custom fields" plugin)?
And how about scheduling rebuilding?
Nay, I'm just dreaming.