Please review alternative GUI concept

[rentschler]

Dear TestLink-Community,

In 2012/2013, a student team at the cooperative State University in Stuttgart has done a usability analysis on TestLink 1.9 and started to develop a new GUI concept (see also here http://mantis.testlink.org/view.php?id=5296 [^]).

A test installation with the new GUI is accessible under the following URL:

http://it-testlink.dhbw-stuttgart.de/te ... /index.php [^]

Login is possible with username "admin" and password "qweqwe" or username "on" and password "on" for a non-admin-account.

We would like to collect review feedback on the GUI concept in general in this forum thread. This input will be used for the student team in the next academic year (September to May) to continue the work of further improving the TestLink GUI.

Please forward your comments in a way that they can be used in that way.
All constructive contributions will be carefully considered!

The source code of our work will be given to the community and can be downloaded here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fo8p3v8fdea8erz/SKL1VL342b

All projec documentation can be found here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lltm26utpxler ... gabe_3.zip

We would of course also be pleased if some of our work will find entry into the TestLink mainstream.

[rentschler]

Some improvement suggestions:

/1/ The navigationbar should provide one-click-, not two-click-operation.

/2/ The menu item "Issue Tracker Management " should be placed in the admin view, not the project menu view.

/3/ The global search functionality should be extended to be generic, replacing most of the search functionalities in the sub-menus, such as "Search Requirements", "Search Requirements Specifications", "Search Testcases", "Test Cases created per User", "Show Test Cases Newest Versions " etc.

[rentschler]

/4/ There are some bugs with navigating back and forth where the menu is stuck. Page refresh is the work around.
/5/ Test Case screen need to be reviewed when adding steps
/6/ When using IE 9, error 404 shows up when opening events. This works with Firefox 21.0.
/7/ Sometimes Keywords are not showing up in creating test suite and test case.

[jamoke]

I like your general approach to just show menu entries related to the navigation "button".

Anyway, the different labels are still as narrow as on the old GUI. Even though the horizontal navigation alignment might look more elegant, a simple dropdown could increase readability and help keeping the overview. I must admit, a TestLink starter might find your navigation imediately more convenient but when you are used to the "old" GUI, it doesn't feel like it's such an improvement. But this is really spoken from the gut and it might be related to the fact that no new functionality is involved.

I miss something like a home butten (which could be the Project button, too) to reach the view, that you get after selecting a new project. You might find any other content-collection to show up, being a starting place of any project.

I didn't dig that deep, so this is my first feedback. Maybe later I'll find some more to say, but it's actually real good work, you did.

[rentschler]

Hi jamoke,

regarding your "Home-Button" request: Would the project list that shows up behind "Project - Project Management" what you expect ?
I agree that this should be reachable in one-click.