Difference lighting and cross-linking on the bridge

[Michael Allan]

Thomas von der Elbe said:
> Hm, I need more time to play with this (which I don't have till next
> week).  From the first impression (30 min. of playing) it is not
> completely intuitive to me ... very complex.

Yes, thanks for saying so.  I see it, too.  I think it's the colours.
Colour soup.  I see it in the talk track mockup, too.
http://zelea.com/project/votorola/s/gwt/stage/_/mock/home-1.xht

We use colour for cast relations (voter/candidate, co-voter) but the
vote track already shows that info and shows it more intuitively.
Possible elements of a solution:

  a) Drop colours.  Use shades of grey (light/dark) or single colour
     (orangish/grey) in all places: bridge, track lighting and draft
     shadows.

     Add colour (say dull red) for the non-drafters, who are currently
     distinguished as grey in the track.

  b) Don't distinguish full cast relation, but only position in regard
     to anchor.  So voters and co-voters *left* of the anchor are
     lightly shaded, while co-voters and candidate *right* are darkly
     shaded.  This echoes the spatial info of the vote-track *and*
     emphasizes the anchor more clearly.  Easier now to orient.

          voters                   co-voters          candidate
             \                        |                  /
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> --- >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> --- >>>>>
                    |               |
                   user           anchor

     The light ones (left) remain on top in the diffs, and the dark
     (right) below.  No change there.

  c) Tint the user (say blue) wherever he/she happens to appear in
     bridge, track lighting and draft shadows.  So light blue on the
     left (top), dark blue on the right (bottom).  Again this is
     useful info that should help with orientation.

Together these should reduce the confusion.  What do you think?

PS - Single sign-on is going well, no snags so far.

Mike


> On Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:28, Michael Allan wrote:
> > A quick update.  We have a couple new features on the bridge:
> >
> >    http://zelea.com:8080/v/w/D?a=5339&b=5340&s
> >
> >    (hit refresh)
> >
> > The first is difference lighting.  The vote track (top) now spotlights
> > both authors of the difference, much like in the draft pages.  So you
> > can see how the authors relate to each other in local votespace,
> > whether as voter and candidate, or co-voters, or what not.
> >
> > The second new feature is cross-linking of differences.  Slide the
> > mouse along the vote track and it spotlights all of the differences in
> > local votespace (again, much like in drafts).  Click on one and the
> > bridge link is enabled (top left).  So now you can navigate directly
> > from difference to difference.
> >
> > Please report any bugs or other problems you see.  We're currently
> > testing on Firefox and Chrome.