Hi James, Thank you for your detailed feedback - all good points.
I want to push out another release when 1.3.1 goes live - so I'd like to get some, if not all, of the feedback addressed (including others). 1 + 2) almost the same thing - the first problem I see is the AIR browser, which obviously doesn't have a back browser button (which would be solved by your first point). This needs some UI input (which I'll come on to in a minute). 3) I've talked with Yehuda Katz, the original author of Visual jQuery, about navigation interfaces - there's two options (as alternatives to what I have now) that we talked about: tree nav and accordion. Generally speaking, the tree navigation didn't take as well as the Visual jQuery approach. An accordion (I think) would solve the issues you've specifically mentioned, but would also solve some similar feedback I've read, i.e. wanting to be able to scan a category whilst maintaining some hierarchy. (note that you can do this - but it doesn't quite solve the problem: http://api.jquery.com?category=attributes ). 4) Easy to solve - I didn't have access to a designer (I'm a coder through and through) but a few simple tweaks to the CSS (I suspect) should sort this out. 5) I've had the same feedback, but both as a pro *and* as a con (as you have) - so I was going to create an options area that would maintain some certain settings - the focus opacity being one of them. 6) This is common piece of feedback - and simply a technical block I ran in to and ran out of time. Permalinks are my to priority right now, I want people to link straight in to a specific function. I won't be able to have the URL change as the user browses - but the title of the function (and probably some other visual que, i.e. icon) will give the user a permalink to the function. I also want this to work for categories too, so: http://api.jquery.com/attr - would show a list of all the matched functions (ala http://api.jquery.com/?attr ) - but I'd like it if the category hierarchy would also show in left sidebar. In addition: http://api.jquery.com/Core - would land open the Core category - and so on through the subcategories. I'd be more than happy if you contact me offline to lend a hand with some of the UI changes required. @Pappy - there's more I want to do with landing pages, but it's a slightly more complicated job (given that, I think, 1.3.1 is supposed to be going out next week) - but some fast view on all the functions would be useful - I agree. If there's more feedback - I'd love to hear it - particular the issues people have. Many thanks, Remy. On Jan 15, 4:22 am, James Van Dyke <jame...@gmail.com> wrote: > Does anyone else find the new API browser to be a bit cumbersome? > > My gripes: > > 1) No "back" link at top of vertical navigation list. You must click > the category to cancel your choice and essentially go back. However, > this isn't very intuitive and there aren't any affordances to this > behavior save for a small 'x' in the highlighted category box that > doesn't do anything on hover or even have a tooltip. > > 2) The browser's back button is broken. Kind of a big annoyance when > you're not used to the application. > > 3) Recovering from a mistake is more punishing than it should be. > Clicking on a category hide the other categories. Since the title of > the category moved from under your mouse, you now have to scan to the > top of the list. Once you make sure you're in the category you meant > to click on, but don't find the function you were looking for, you > click the category name and wait as everything moves around, then > repeat scanning through list again. A good example of this is trying > to find an unfamiliar selector in the Selectors category. > > 4) Little distinction between categories, subcategories, and items. > They're all the same color and categories and subcategories share the > same faded 'x' icon. The only difference is that the category has bold > text and the subcategory has a white line under the box, but not > between it and its category. > > 5) When hovering over a list of options for a function (e.g., $.ajax) > only the item you're hovering over has full opacity making the others > hard to read. I'm ok with the distinction, but I think it's a little > extreme. I found myself avoiding hovering over the list, which is > hard since I tend to scan the page with my eyes as my mouse follows my > line of sight. Try scrolling through the options for $.ajax while > trying to read them. > > 6) The window title changes when viewing an item, which makes one > think that the URL will map to that page. However, the URL does not > change and I can't find a permanent link to paste to a co-worker. > > Don't get me wrong, I think Remy has made a great step towards a > better API, but design efforts seem to have favored neat effects over > human factors. I deal with a lot of these design issues at work so I > tend to have a keen eye for these things and can be too picky at > times. > > Has anyone else been bothered by this? If not, what do you like or > what makes up for the negatives? Maybe we can compile a list of > existing *good* things as well so that those features can be brought > to the fore while the problems are resolved.
