merging the different external content blocks into a single block

[shanen]

Dear team,
At the moment Mahara 1.4.0 requires the user to know what kind of media they want to add to a portfolio page before they drag a media type onto their portfolio page - and where it is from. The idea below tries to pass on some decision making from the user to Mahara. This lowers the barrier to entry (tech knowlwedge) and lessens training overhead.

It could be said that users should not have to know what file type or media type they are adding, or where it is before they initiate adding it - they just know they want to add a video, or a picture, or "content from that link" (external), or simply "I want to add my file"(local) (whatever it may be). The interace could be helping users get going and click buttons and I think Mahara can do this, (rather than the whole local/external differentiation which is confusing more than helpful I have observed).

For e.g the current Mahara 1.4.0 interface requires the user to know what they want to add - a video, RSS feed, google app and where it is from.
Users should be able to just "add a video", which is easy enough and gets them started. Then mahara asked them to either choose a file, local or external.
Similarly users should be able to add an image and then choose a local or external one with Mahara's guidance.

To consolidate further with images and videos, maybe there is only one tool - "Add image or video". 4 funtions and lots of decision making could be rolled into one dragable item - which then lets users choose a local file, or a web based resource audio, video, or image. The dialogue can still have icons to all various external services without requiring the user make a disctintion between modality. The modality is something Mahara has to deal with, not the user. Besides cloud services expand their offerings - e.g. flickr offering video.

I think this is really a discussion around how users perceive they media they consume and create. Is a http://prezi.com/ an image, a video? combo of the two? Local or Remote? Does a user care? They just want to embed their prezi.com presentation in a portfolio page. Maybe it's about adding "my stuff" versus "someone elses stuff" - should Mahara let me register the cloud services I use to create stuff so that Mahara gives me instant access to the services where "My stuff" is found? The whole approach of categorising content for choosing in Mahara (media types/local/external) as more services become multimodal, and user content is created may not be clear cut and I think the current categories of content reflects this. Is it possible to get Mahara to do more of the leg work in working out what the user is trying to do? Ultimately Mahara Pages needs to be designed around what the user wants to do, e.g. I don't think they want to "add an external image from flickr which is 200x200 wide", then have the image too small or wide for the column. Maybe it's more like "I want to add an image from , oh what was that place - local no - photobucket no - oh yes thats right flickr there it is, pixles - width - what? who cares just fit it to the column width thanks.".

I think doing things for the user in advance - knowing what they want to do before they do and making the path straight is what makes platforms like iOS successful. External? Local? I'm a user who doesn't know. give me access to both spaces, I'll pick an object, mahara will do the rest. Just my thoughts, feel free to discard.
Cheers.

[François Marier (fmarier)]

I like this idea a lot.

Just have a "remote content" block and let Mahara figure out what to do with it. That's a big win for usability in my opinion and it will make it seem "magical" :)

[Kristina Hoeppner (kris-hoeppner)]

Bug #836364 has also some useful information.