Zoho Writer 2.0 - User Interface idea - for Collaboration support
I was talking to Bharath on the other day, we discussed how simplistic UI's make a big impact for targeted users, and also about software that offers user-focused UIs . IOW - Software that changes or offers different types of UI that are suited for various types of usage. For example, who's usage revolves around collaboration, they may expect immediately accessible tools / links like "List of other users to whom this document is shared to", A status box showing who are viewing this document, who edits this document etc. . For people, who rely mostly on document writing, they expect tools/links like "Export to", "Spell Check", "Indexing", "Email to" etc
Thinking on the same line, I re-designed (actually part re-design, part fine-tuning) the new UI of our Zoho Writer 2.0, which is immensely popular among Zoho Enthusiasts. Here is the first cut I arrived at.
I re-done the tool-bar with new color and rounded corners. My idea is to offer simplistic UI, and maximum UI area to the EDITOR and remove the not-so-used left side document bar. IMO, Opening a file is a less-used action. So, I wanted to get rid of the left-side document bar. I then shifted the editor towards left, and added a list of boxes to the right. For the first iteration, I fixed upon "SHARED TO", a list of user names along with status icons to their right, showing whether they can edit or not. And link to add another user etc. I also included a box to Add Task/Event pertaining this document. Finally, it is the TAGS which many users always look for.
The UI shown below is a quick sketch, removing all unwanted tool-bar icons. I wanted to keep the toolbar minimum with only the MOST USED, & HIGHLY NECESSARY tools. Thus a pack of 6 + 2 icons are shown. Next I just copied the MenuTab style categorization as it is. The Create new Document, Open etc are moved under the "Zoho Writer" yellow button.which is actually a drop down that contains "Create New, Open, Exit etc" - much similar to a typical binary software model.
Click to enlarge
The drop-down in the document name tab, can be used to show additional links/tools / shortcuts that pertains to document properties like Header, footer, page size etc.
I still feel there is a lot of room to improve this UI. Being the first iteration, it lacks some fine details and has its own issues too. May be the second iteration should yeild a much better User interface for Zoho Writer 2.0
- Rajesh
Thinking on the same line, I re-designed (actually part re-design, part fine-tuning) the new UI of our Zoho Writer 2.0, which is immensely popular among Zoho Enthusiasts. Here is the first cut I arrived at.
I re-done the tool-bar with new color and rounded corners. My idea is to offer simplistic UI, and maximum UI area to the EDITOR and remove the not-so-used left side document bar. IMO, Opening a file is a less-used action. So, I wanted to get rid of the left-side document bar. I then shifted the editor towards left, and added a list of boxes to the right. For the first iteration, I fixed upon "SHARED TO", a list of user names along with status icons to their right, showing whether they can edit or not. And link to add another user etc. I also included a box to Add Task/Event pertaining this document. Finally, it is the TAGS which many users always look for.
The UI shown below is a quick sketch, removing all unwanted tool-bar icons. I wanted to keep the toolbar minimum with only the MOST USED, & HIGHLY NECESSARY tools. Thus a pack of 6 + 2 icons are shown. Next I just copied the MenuTab style categorization as it is. The Create new Document, Open etc are moved under the "Zoho Writer" yellow button.which is actually a drop down that contains "Create New, Open, Exit etc" - much similar to a typical binary software model.
Click to enlargeI still feel there is a lot of room to improve this UI. Being the first iteration, it lacks some fine details and has its own issues too. May be the second iteration should yeild a much better User interface for Zoho Writer 2.0
- Rajesh
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