Simple (but needed) Sitecore UI Improvements on Core Apps

Sitecore has greatly improved its UI since I first looked at it (v4).  It definitely gone from traditional to innovative.  Sitecore has come up with so many new UIs in the past few releases  that it I want to make sure that the UI experts don’t forget about some of the original apps’ usability as well.  Just to give you an idea of how things have progressed in the current UI paradigm:

1. typical tree-lists, collapsible panels, pop-ups, customizable buttons, ribbons, page editor, and other Windows innovations
2. Media Library’s improvements on uploads, alt text entry, drag & drop, and thumbnail generation
3. OMS revealed a new set of UI elements such as its graphical reports, Word-like reports and toolbars, and report designer
4. Email Campaign Manager has the Preview mode that actually grabs data not from the current item but as a collection of everything underneath it

I haven’t checked other apps that are coming out but I’m sure some other UIs might be forthcoming.  There’s even the custom field types on the Shared Source that you can use such as the carousel.  These are all great improvements, but let’s not forget to improve some of the older Sitecore apps out there. 

The list below are just some of the things I’ve noticed that could help a Sitecore user.  These are simple (not sure about the implementation) improvements that can help make the UIs more usable.  I’m not saying that I can’t currently do what I’m trying to accomplish (i.e. refresh in the User Manager can be done by closing the app and firing it up again), but these improvements will cut down some of the “brute force” user experience we currently have.

Disclaimer: These are not all-inclusive…I’m sure I’ll notice more (or retract some) but if you have anything to add, just comment below and let the Sitecore community know.

User Manager

• Refresh button to update the list of users
• Enable the “Drag a column to this area to group by it” or maybe a similar filtering; very useful for sites with extranets and ECM subscribers
• Column sort
• Context pop-up menu instead of “select user” then use the button on the toolbar

Security Editor/Access Viewer

• Combine Security Editor and Access Viewer to see the effects of security changes
• Refresh button on Access Viewer

Content Editor

• Jump to content section not just a field
• If My Toolbar is defined, make it the first ribbon
• Pre-defined set of My Toolbar customizations based on user’s roles (and can be part of user’s profile)
• Remove Media Library and Workbox by default to make the Content Editor quicker (I think most people use those as separate apps – and normally you have separate roles who might using those)

Page Editor

• Keep Ribbon and Page Editor buttons always visible (no scrolling)
• Context pop-up menu since sometimes sometimes the content can be too long and scrolling is needed
• Enable My Toolbar with appropriate buttons auto-disabled/enabled

Media Library

• Multi-select to do typical “Windows Explorer-like” functions such as delete and move

Well, that’s it for now.  This post is not meant to list a set of future features that I’d like to see; otherwise, it’ll be a very long post.  Anyway, if you have more to add, comment below.

I’m Back

Okay, it’s been a while (specifically almost a year) that I’ve written something on Sitecore.  Since the economy wasn’t too good last year (even now), I had to focus my efforts on ensuring my company is not affected much.  I needed to redirect my attention to growth and to do that is to have the right people in place.  I think I have that now.  I’m still going to be busy doing that, but I’ll put more time into my Sitecore blog.

This may be a year later but Sitecore’s Security UIs have remained the same, so I thought I pick it back up from where I last left off. 

There are five (5) security-related UI's in Sitecore (not counting the security tab/section on the Content Manager):

• Access Viewer
• User Manager
• Security Manager
• Role Manager
• Domain Manager

Sitecore’s Access Viewer is certainly much improved from previous versions.  It used to be somewhat confusing but with the context help/explanation on the right, it makes it easier to understand.  Notice also that you can now also see how workflow affects security.  It’s brilliant. 

FUTURE FEATURE: To make it better, it’d be nice to see how the security is inherited such as if this is from the template, or from a hierarchy, or combination.  This way, we can easily diagnose potential security issues.

Sitecore Roadmap after Crestone Part 1

I was really happy when Sitecore announced Crestone early last year. We were part of the beta program and we were certainly ecstatic about the future of Crestone. Now that it's in full version 6 and us implementing about 4 of these, our clients and us know how much better the product has become. The In-Line editing is just amazing and then couple with the Grid and Page Designers give non-technical folks much more control of "their" site. Of course, there's the much-awaited switch to using the .NET security framework which made security development and integration so much easier. It really opened integration with other systems a much easier and cheaper process. Our clients love that.

So, what's next with Sitecore after Crestone? According to the published Core roadmap, Sitecore is gathering input regarding this, particularly in the user-experience (UX) domain, codenamed the "Everest" release. The release aims to achieve the following:

• Integrated analytics
• Profiling and personalization
• Embedded Social computing and "WOM" capabilities
• Integrated faceted navigation and guided search
• Content orchestration and delivery tools
• Reporting and customization engine

Just to make sure, I don't work for Sitecore and I have no idea at this point what exactly all these are going to be. I haven't spoken to a Sitecore employee regarding these features. I'd like to just share my thoughts on what would be "cool" to have within these features and some other ones in my head. Since that's a lot of bullet points, I'll talk about these in two parts. Click here to see Part 2.

Is Integrated Analytics and boosted version of the StatCenter? I hope not. StatCenter has its strength when it comes to CMS usage and such but not necessarily on site usage. That's why when we implement a site, we normally use either one of the commercial services like Omniture, or products like WebTrends or Urchin, or even the free Google Analytics. All these companies are improving their analysis engine but do not yet fully deliver a Web 2.0 analysis. My guess is that the Sitecore one will be similar to the Telligent Harvest reporting server, which gives Community Server owners detailed information about their community. If this is the case, then that's great. I'm glad Sitecore is not thinking of competing with Web analytics packages since most companies already have heavily invested in them especially those who even outsource their SEO.

In a way, Sitecore always had profiling and personalization because of the built-in user-profiles. Now that Sitecore uses the .NET 2.0 security mechanism, it's even easier to do this. However, "easier" is a relative term. This may already exist but I'm hoping that Sitecore is not just creating a bunch of templates that hold more profile and personalization information or even make it easier to extend. I'm hoping to see the peripheral applications that make a profile powerful which I assume will be in th embedded social computing features. One thing I'd like to see is being able to use or combine existing profiles from other systems such as Facebook but I'm sure we can always create a custom-developed interface for that.

Well, that's it for now. Read the second part of this article on another post.