Interface of The MediaBook CD for Director

Date:    Tue, 11 Apr 1995 00:36:08 -0600
From:    Chris Malley <cvm@BHI.COM>
Subject: review of The MediaBook CD for Director

Summary

• Most importantly, TMB suffers from a disappointing lack of links between related information on the disc. The liner notes claim "A complete multimedia hypertext engine provides instant cross reference capabilities to any section of the CD." The engine may be there, but it doesn't seem like it's being used much. The majority of the entries I visited have no links to other items, and I didn't find any links between sections of the disc. As far as hypertext links go, TMB feels more like a work-in-progress than a finished product -- it has a long way to go to live up to its claim.

• There is a lack of depth in some key areas of the disc. For example, the "Director Toolbox" section consists only a list of the tools in the Toolbox, with no description of what they do.

• The interface has the bad habit of making functions visible that are not applicable, and providing the exact same feedback as when they are applicable. This is particularly true of the "tabs". Everything is available all the time, and the user has to learn what's usable when. Then there are the cases where functions that *should* be accessable all the time (like Help) are accessible only from the main screen.

• The interface suffers from a general lack of consistency and attention to detail. Buttons behave differently, dialogs have strange layouts, there are typos, questionable grammar, etc. While users can usually cope with this kind of thing, it's certainly distracting, especially if you have experience in UI design. Considering the target audience for this product, I expected more.

• No keyword search. I'd like to be able to search all areas of the disc by keyword. There doesn't seem to be any way to do this. It's like the Lingo manual -- you need to know the name of a command before you can find it. What if I want to find all the XObjs that deal with color palettes? Can't do it. What if I want to find all the articles that mention "birth"? Can't do it.

• For a product that shipped so late, this interface doesn't feel like it received extra polish. On the contrary, it feels like a bit of a rush job, and a tad confused.

For me personally, the interface isn't very useful, mainly because of the lack of depth, sparse links, and lack of keyword search. It may be ok for a novice who's doing their first serious Director project, but I can recite the Lingo manual in my sleep (scares the hell out of my wife) and have committed most of the Macromedia tech notes to memory. I would have been more satisfied if given only the Toolbox folder and asked to send in $50. Hopefully I'll get my $256-worth out of plowing through the Director samples.

Platform & reviewer

• Mac 840AV/48MB/2x17" monitors
• Mac IIci/8MB/13" monitor

I spent about 8 hours exploring the interface and making notes, then another 3 hours writing up this review. So if anyone's going to flame me or take offense, take a deep breathe first and remember that I put in $600 of my time and $256 of my cash to do this. I'm doing this because I give a shit, not because I want to trash someone's product. I think gray matter design is genuinely interested in helping the Director community. If I didn't believe that, I'd be whining for my money back instead of writing review notes.

As for qualifications, I've been a serious Lingo programmer for 5 years, and a UNIX programmer and UI designer for 15 years. I've done products with pretty traditional interfaces and some with pretty far out ones. (Not to infer that I know it all...)

Interface overview

TMB is divided into 6 sections, all accessible only from the main screen:

Interactive Lingo Dictionary

(detailed info on Lingo keywords)

Reference Library

(article covering general topics)

Lingo Library

(ready-to-use handlers)

Director Toolbox

(suite of development tools)

XObject Studio

(collection of XObjects)

Resource Directory

(directory of additional resources)

There is also a Help section, which is likewise available only from the main screen. (So if you need help, back to the main screen you go.)

Each section operates in the same basic way. When you're in a section, you choose from a list of items and get two things: a scrolling list of text describing the chosen item, and a scrolling list of related items (or "links").

What's visible in the list of related items is controlled by 3 buttons labelled as follows:

• Topics
• Examples
• Lingo

Since the related items list is generally pretty short, it probably would have been better to do away with these buttons and show all related items at once, color-coded to indicate which ones where Topics/Examples/Lingo.

In addition to the sections, there are 4 omnipresent "tabs" along the left edge of the screen. These tabs pull out to reveal additional features. (The documentation calls them "additional navigation features", but some of them have nothing to do with navigation.) Here are the contents of the tabs:

Utilities tab:

Copy To Folder

Copy To File

Print

Mark Code

Bookmarks tab:

Define

Remove

Access

Clear All

Indicies:

General

Lingo Keywords

Lingo Library

XObjects

Options:

Font Size

Sound Level

Copy To Volume

Default Links

The rest of this review is going to consist of detailed observations about the sections and tabs. (Some of this may be of interest only to Terry, and might not even be comprehensible if you don't have TMB.)

"Sections"

This is close, but there are a few things that are bringing the usability down. To elaborate...

When you enter a "section", you're presented with 2 scrolling lists. Initially, the left list contains your choices and the right list contains some instructions. When you select a an "entry" from the left list, things suddenly flip-flop -- the left list contains details about the entry, and the right list is a set of related choices (or "links"). To get back to the first list of choices, you have to press a brain icon. To get back to the main screen, you have to press the brain icon twice. You cannot go from an entry immediate back to the main screen. The implications of this are:

• TMB had no memory of what you were looking at last in a section (the biggest drawback in my opinion).
• The function of the scrolling lists keeps flip-flopping as you choose new entries to examine.
• Double click on the brain by accident and you're back at the main screen.
• Going to another section means you have to go back through the first list, which means you have to wait for that list to load even though you have no intention of using it.

My suggestions for improvement are as follows:

• The left scrolling text always holds "detail" text. When you first enter a section, it contains info on how to use the section.
• The right scrolling text always holds a list of choices. When you first enter a section, it contains a list of all possible choices.
• The right scrolling text has 2 radio buttons under it: "Show All" and "Links". Pushing the "Show All" button shows the list of all choices. Pushing the "Links" button shows a list of links related to the current entry, perhaps color- coded by type (Topics/Examples/Lingo). Probably make the "Links" button the default, but always show which button is currently in effect.

Advantages to this approach:

• When you re-enter a section, the application can easily return you to the entry that you were viewing when you left.
• The main screen is always 1 click-of-the-brain away, making it easier to get to other sections.
• The left list always contains text and the right list always contains choices (and you could probably make the left text area wider).
• You load the complete list of choices only when you want it, not every time you want to go back to the main screen, so getting back to the main screen is a lot faster.

Specific comments:

1. Interactive Lingo Dictionary
   • This section has more links than the others, and they seem to be mostly Topic links, right out of the "See Also" section in the Lingo dictionary. There are no links to other sections, only within this section.
   • Structure of entries is similar to Macromedia's printed Lingo Dictionary (variation on UNIX man pages).
   • None of the text within an entry is "hot".

2. Reference Library
   • No links between entires, much less to other sections.
   • Some important topics (like palettes) missing.
   • You pretty much have to skim thorugh all of the articles for this to be useful. No cross-referencing of articles.
   • Articles could use proof-reading.

3. Lingo Library
   • Again, no links. At this point, I'm beginning to wonder if *I'm* doing something wrong. Can TMB really be this lame in the hyoertext department? For example, here are a few of the entries in this section:

     cornerOfRect()
     centerOfRect()
     bottomRightPointOfRect()

     One would think that these (at least) would be linked, since they all deal with rectangles, but they are not. (In fact, these entries have no links to anything.)
   • Some decent code samples. Seems targeted at novice/intermediate programmers.
   • Entries contain a "How you can use it" part which is mostly blank.

4. Director Toolbox
   • Again, no links...
   • The liner notes say "Detailed instructions for using the Director Toolbox are provide in the MediaBook CD". Where are these directions? All I found in this section is a list of passive/active tools, with no description of what they are, how to get started, etc.
   • This section is very disappointing, especially since the Toolbox is such a neat thing and could be a real benefit to everyone. We're back to poking around out on the disc and plowing through Director movies to figure out the general concepts. Groan...

5. XObject Studio
   • Most of the entries I visited had no Examples or Lingo Links. (I never did find a Lingo link ...)
   • The "Description" part of many entries is empty, with no examples and nothing but a list of methods. (Eg, LANC, ButtonWindow, PrintOMatic,...) These renders these entries useless in my opinion.
   • Some entries have no text at all (Eg, KillFinder XCMD)
   • Some examples don't work (Eg, EventWidnow, WindowXObj)
   • Many of these seem out of date, old versions.
   • It would be nice to know where the most recent online versions of XObjs can be found (ftp, WWW,...)

6. Resource Directory
   • This is pretty sparse, and some obvious things are missing. It's nice to know that some of the Macromedia folks have their own consulting companies, ready to lend a hand. But where's the list of online resources? Where's the list of regional education centers?
   • Once you're in a person's info area, it's not clear how to get out. Clicking on the tab at the top takes you back, but clicking on the tab at the top level does nothing. I had originally clicked on the tab at the top level, so I assume it did nothing. Things that look the same should behave the same.

7. Help
   • You have to go back to the main screen to access help.
   • This contains little more than what you see when you enter each section.
   • There is no help on "Using Tabs".

"Tabs"

Some comments on tabs:

My biggest beef is best described by an example. Bookmarks>Add can be pushed at any time, but it's only appropriate to push it when you're viewing an entry in one of the sections. Yet the feedback is the same whether pushing Add was effective or not. Why expose a feature in circumstances where it doesn't do anything?

It's also not obvious what object the actions in the tabs are being applied to. You have to learn by trial and error. Interfaces usally follow an object-action or action-object behavior. TMB tries to be object-action, but you're never really sure what the object is, or if you were successful.

Tab buttons don't behave consistently. When a tab is retracted, it exhibits rolloff behavior (sort of -- the button hilite doesn't toggle as you move on and off the button.) When it's extended, it doesn't exhibit rolloff behavior. None of the feature choices exhibit rolloff behavior.

• Nit#1: There is a small right-pointing arrow on the end of each tab that I assume is supposed to indicate the direction that the tab will extend. Why doesn't the arrow reverse and point left when extended?

• Nit#2: The Help entry and liner notes indicate that the tabs provide "addition naviagation features". Many of these features have nothing to do with naviagation.

Specifics:

1. Utilites>Copy To Folder
   This displays a dialog that prompts you for a filename. The text field looks like it's about 60 chars wide and allows you to type in a huge number of chars. This name is truncated to the Mac filename limit. (Hmmm... wonder what happens on Windows.)

2. Utilites>Copy To File
   • not at all obvious what this does. Looks like it copies the current item into a cast member of a Director movie.
   • When I tried to copy "Marked Code", I consistently received a "Script error: Cast member not found. Lingo Dictionary" message.
   • When I copied the "Current Entry", it appeared in the cast with an alignment of centered. Very weird.

3. Utilities>Print
   Not much to say here, except the feedback for "successfully printed" and "didn't do a thing" is the same. This should kill quite a few innocent trees.

4. Utilites>Mark Code
   • This seems to be somehow different than Bookmarks, but I couldn't find an explanation of what it means to mark code.
   • How do I find out what's currently marked? There doesn't seem to be any list of marked items like there is for bookmarks.

5. Bookmarks>Define
   • same criticsm as Utilites>Print.
   • If the Bookmarks MIAW is open, new bookmarks do not appear as you add them. Have to close the MIAW and reopen it.

6. Bookmarks>Remove
   • same criticsm as Bookmarks>Define
   • This should be part of the Bookmarks MIAW. Select an entry in the list and push "Remove" to remove it. The only way you can delete a Bookmark currently is to revisit the item and delete it while you're there.
   • Bug#1:
     1. Start TMB
     2. Go to "Interactive Lingo Dictionary"
     3. Select "abbr" from the list.
     4. Extend "Bookmarks" tab.
     5. "Define" a bookmark
     6. "Remove" the bookmark.
     7. "Access" the bookmark list. The bookmark is still there. Seems like you have to leave the current item before you can Remove it from the bookmark list.
   • Bug#2:
     1. Start TMB
     2. Go to "Interactive Lingo Dictionary"
     3. Select "abbr" from the list.
     4. Extend "Bookmarks" tab.
     5. "Define" a bookmark
     6. "Access" the Bookmark list
     7. Close the Bookmark MIAW.
     8. Click on the Brain -- cannot get back to the main screen, it just beeps.

7. Bookmarks>Access
   • This opens a MIAW that lists the current Bookmarks. As others have noted, this list is not persistent across sesssions.
   • If any of the Indicies tab features are chosen, the Bookmark MIAW gets closed. Apparently you're not allowed to have more than one MIAW open at a time.

     Some comments applicable to all similar MIAWs:

     • Have to click on the letter to move the arrow. I wanted to click to the left of the letter to "move arrow here".
     • The "Search for" text field looks like it's greyed out, and there is no text insertion cursor.
     • watch cursor turns back to a pointer way before the list is populated. Should have the MIAW restore the cursor.
     • If I push a button and the MIAW is already open, don't behave like it's not open (ie, don't close the one that's open and open a new one). Are you doing this because the MIAW may be buried and there's no way to pop it to the top?
     • No wait cursor when selecting a list item and pushing "View Selected Entry" button.
     • The MIAW has a scrolling list that has alpha-tabs (like a rolodex) down the left edge. If I select the "*" tab (whatever that is), the Search Field text is populated with a "@".

8. Bookmarks>Clear All
   no icon to signify level of alert. See the standard caution alert box in the Apple HIG.

9. Indicies
   selecting any one of these causes any similar MIAW to be closed. If I can't have multiple MIAWs, then you might as well move the button on the Indicies tab (and the Bookmark list) into the MIAW and handle the selection there so you don't get the performance hit of opening/closing MIAWs.

10. Options>Font Size
    • Since this doesn't take effect until you change entries, this appears to have no effect (the user gets no positive or negative feedback).
    • No way to cancel out of the font selection dialog. Have to read the dialog to figure out which button effectively cancels the operation.
    • seems to affect only the Left text area in each section.

11. Options>Sound Level
    • Why make the user type a value 0-7 into text field?
    • Why is the text field 60 chars wide?
    • Should whip together a slider for changing the sound level. Interface rule #101: Pick the interface choice that makes it hard (or better yet impossible) for the user to enter a wrong value. You've done the opposite.
    • Typo: "0 to 7 is valid" should be "0 to 7 are valid".

12. Options>Copy To Volume
    • This affects where Utilites>Copy To Folder writes its output. I would have located this feature there as well for that reason.
    • Pretty roundabout way to do this: Button-Dialog-Dialog. Then open a file in the folder to tell TMB which folder to use. What if there are no files in the folder that I want to put stuff in? Guess I can't save to a folder unless the folder contains at least one file.
    • Poorly named. "Copy" sounds like a verb. The intention is to use "Copy To" as an adjective.
    • Bug:
      1. Start TMB.
      2. Options>Change Volume
      3. Choose "Change Volume" in dialog.
      4. Choose "Cancel" in file selection dialog.
      5. Options>Change Volume again. The volume name has been lost. The message text read: "Currently text files will be place in ."

13. Options>Default Links
    • no Cancel button on the dialog (common problem in most of the dialogs).
    • Have to read the text to figure out how to effectively cancel, and the text is formatted strangely.
    • Text could be easier to read, for example
      '...you will see examples links...'
      is easier to understand quickly if formated as:
      '...you will see "Examples" links...'
    • This dialog would be more usable if it consisted of 3 radio buttons with an OK/Cancel choice.

Other stuff

1. As noted by others, the opening movie plays in the upper left corner of the screen, then jumps to the center of the screen. As a result, my first impressions were: rush job, questionable QA process, Is the important stuff going to work if stuff like this is broken? I paid big bucks for this? (This impression was somewhat tempered by the fact that I was prepared for this -- I read a report on the DIRECT-L list, as well as Terry's response.)
2. Dialogs are pretty crude looking. No visual distinction between title and message text, and the title is often different than the label on the button that was pushed to open the dialog. Lack of Cancel buttons makes many dialogs harder to use. No use of icons to signify level of alert. See the Apple HIG.
3. Credits: inconsistent use of fonts between the different entries.
4. Text: A good portion of the text could stand proof reading and/or editing by a Lingo-literate technical writer.