Checklist items and flashes send mixed messages

[Diogo Matsubara]

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open https://translations.qastaging.launchpad.net/ubuntu/natty/+source/gwibber/+sharing-details
2. Make sure "Upstream source branch is ~gwibber-committers/gwibber/2.32" is set up
3. Click the edit button on "Automatic synchronization of translations is not enabled"
4. Choose "Import template files" and click the submit button

What happens:

You get a green flash in "Automatic synchronization of translations is not enabled" but nothing else happens. It's not clear if the option had any effect or not. It seems like it didn't work since the red X mark continues there.

[Jonathan Lange (jml)]

I think this ought to be fixed before the feature is considered done, but time constraints mean that is has to be a nice-to-have.

[Aaron Bentley (abentley)]

This is because "Import template files" is not sufficient. You must select "Import template and translation files" in order for translations to be imported. This is not an AJAX issue-- with JavaScript disabled, you will see the same behaviour.

I believe this bug is not invalid. There's probably a UI bug about not knowing what you need to select, or being provided with too many options.

[Aaron Bentley (abentley)]

I mean, "not valid."

[Jonathan Lange (jml)]

I think the issue here is that there are mixed messages. The green flash indicates you've been successful but the red cross implies you haven't been. If you understand the underlying model and that you need to import template & translation files, that's probably OK, but if you are exploring the UI, trying to learn through experimentation, it's a bit confusing.

Thus, I think it's not just a matter of having too many options or not knowing what we need to select, but also a matter of giving better feedback once the user has selected the option. I guess fixing the former might remove the need to fix the latter.

[Aaron Bentley (abentley)]

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On 11-04-15 06:53 AM, Jonathan Lange wrote:
> I think the issue here is that there are mixed messages. The green flash
> indicates you've been successful but the red cross implies you haven't
> been.

The red cross and the green flash are meant to represent two different
kinds of things.

The checks and crosses are meant to indicate "is set to an acceptable
value". The flashes are meant to indicate "action succeeded".

> If you understand the underlying model and that you need to import
> template & translation files, that's probably OK, but if you are
> exploring the UI, trying to learn through experimentation, it's a bit
> confusing.

The whole point of this page is to guide users towards setting
configuring acceptable values for sharing translations, so the crosses
and checkmarks are a fundamental part of this.

> Thus, I think it's not just a matter of having too many options or not
> knowing what we need to select, but also a matter of giving better
> feedback once the user has selected the option.

The only way a green flash can guarantee a checkmark is if we only allow
users to configure acceptable values.

That would still leave the case where users get a red flash, but a
checkmark-- i.e. the value was acceptable, they tried to change it to a
different value, but the action failed.

> I guess fixing the
> former might remove the need to fix the latter.

We have two things we need to communicate. Checklist status indicates
the acceptability of the values, flashes indicates the success of
actions. We can certainly explore different ways of communicating those
things.
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