Jeff Atwood’s blog entry last week on control simplicity made me think of SharePoint.
For one thing, one of the common complaints I hear from clients about their SharePoint sites is that they’re too "texty:" you hit a page and are greeted by 17 list views and you simply want to throw your mouse and run away screaming. The other reason I thought of SharePoint is that if you squint long enough at the picture of the microwave on the left, you’ll actually start to be able to make out the web part zones…
Like anything else, SharePoint is all about what you *could* do versus what you *should* do. From a user experience standpoint, the challenge is that since the platform encourages community contribution, the effort to keep some kind of coherent and human-friendly presentation requires significant effort and planning.
Here are a couple of my thoughts on this so far. No doubt this list will grow over time, and I’d welcome your thoughts, too.
- First, know what you want to do. This is a tough one. Many of us know an ugly page when we see one, but boiling that down into some tangible rules — e.g. "Only show web part chrome on web parts that require explanation (e.g. not image web parts, content editors, etc.)" or "Limit list views on web part pages to no more than six items") — can be a challenge. However, getting it in writing is an excellent exercise, and provides a valuable resource for content publishers.
- When using MOSS publishing, make judicious use of web part zones in your page layouts. I’m not suggesting for a second that you not use them; web part zones are a powerful way to have a given page layout serve a number of different functions. I’m simply saying that web part zones are one area in particular where site contributors can get overly zealous. Jeff has another nice post on how small additions to a page (or form) exponentially increases the complexity of the function. (Side note: It’s interesting that the Live page that he writes about in that post has since been simplified; perhaps they read his blog?)
- Provide guidance in the form of examples. This suggestion works even if you’re only using WSS and don’t have the publishing page layouts to easily enforce some presentation discipline. Create a site template that includes helpful content for getting started. Include relevant suggestions and examples for the types of web parts that can go in each zone. Suggest limits on the number of fonts, colors, or pictures on a page, and provide links to documents detailing the general usability standards you’d like to use.
