Usability testing to improve the ezEML interface

[clnsmth]

Some users have struggled with the "intuitiveness" of the ezEML interface. Especially first time users that don't want to read the extensive documentation and have found "clicking around" doesn't get them any where. Yes RTFM but most modern UX don't require that and most users (probably) have little tolerance for it.

We may be able to improve the user interface by running some usability testing.

[clnsmth]

Because ezEML is highly capable and much more than a basic metadata editor, an "intuitive" UX may not be realistic. One potential approach to addressing this may be to split the application into an "ezEML" interface for basic users (authenticating with ORCID, Google, and GitHub credentials) , and "proEML" interface for advanced users (authenticating with EDI credentials). However, this probably raises a new set of issues for users transitioning between the two versions and additional overhead for maintainers/developers of the application.

[jusana]

hello Colin,

Have you done some usability tests yet ?
As far as i can tell, I like the usability as it is now, but i could say that i may be an "advanced user" !

Anyway, I was playing around to improve some parts like upgrading to bootstrap4 or 5 and dropping jqueryUI to simple popover

I found that the "help.txt" file is read at each and every request (I hope to be wrong !!)
And that there is stil some "html" in py files (check_metadata.py, and some views) which prevent isolation between code and templating which could be useful to improve usability.

Maybe, we could think about using a js framework to simplify the js front logic.

regards.

[clnsmth]

Thanks for the feedback @jusana! I'm unfamiliar with the ezEML codebase so can't weigh in on your suggestions. But @jon-ide can. Thoughts @jon-ide?