Submitted by Pierre_Admin on 2022/09/20 09:30

Hi IQ Users!

Back from vacation, where I had quite a bit of time to think about InfoQube...

It is often said that IQ has a steep learning curve, and I was wondering how to tame this curve for new users... It would be quite easy to add a 3-pane view (based on the current grid view):

  • Left pane: Folders and Tags (movable but not closable). Click on a folder / tag to view matching items. At top, section with Favorites and Recent
  • Main: Item list (same as grids with all view modes). Clicked folder / tag becomes the grid source. Filter can be applied on top of it
  • Right / bottom Doc pane (collapsible, movable but not closable)

Any thoughts?

Pierre_Admin
IQ Designer

    Comments

    I think that there are two groups of users:

    Those trying to transfer from Ecco, and complete beginners.

    A simplified 3-pane view may help the complete beginner, but it also requires a basic tutorial of fields/tags & columns.
    It was a difficult concept to grasp for many new Ecco users,and it will also be difficult in IQ. 

    For those transferring from Ecco, it is more difficult because Ecco (and IQ) can be used in so many different ways.
    I think that several use cases may need to be written up (partly based on questions in this forum).
    How it is done in Ecco vs how it could be done in IQ.

    A brief mention of Ecco's folders vs fields/tags may also help (but could confuse beginners).

    The term "Folders" is already used somewhat in IQ to refer to Yes/No fields

    e.g., In the Item Editor UI

    (To make it easier to new users, the basic concept is that yes/no fields are used for classification and other field types are used to store content)

    It sounds good to me.  The left pane sounds a lot like the navigation tree pane in File Explorer, which new users would be familiar with.  Would all folders/tags be shown in the left pane, or some subset?  Would folders/tags be displayed separately, or intermixed?  Sortable?  Filter-as-you-type?

    I wouldn't want to make things more complicated by adding a new concept of a "folder" when it doesn't actually exist.  For me, Yes/No fields are properties, since you can have as many as you like. Folders are locations, and you typically put things in one folder (with some exceptions).

    Pierre,

    I've literally been advocating a 3-pane view for 15 years I think :-p. I think my first posts when I started using IQ were about how to create a fixed list of grids on the side. Then, when the Home view came out, I could finally create a 3-pane view (screenshot attached). If you could create some means to easily segment or group folders like Evernote does with Notebooks, I think it would also be beneficial.

    The answer is a resounding "yes", you should create a 3-pane view :-). And if you want to simplify things for users, move to a naming convention that does not confuse people. Grids should become folders. And it's very easy to explain that the beauty of IQ is that you can "store" a thing in as many folders as you want.

    With regard to your comments I would make the folder view collapsible but it's very important that the button that expands and collapses it is highly visible. I believe most people are now used to "3 lines" as the icon which collapses and expands something.

    I second the view that a kind of folder pane might make sense though I used it only occasionally in Ecco. Super-Powerusers with lots of projects should like them a lot.

    Currently, i use a vertical tab pane with lots of different colours as my pseudo-folder pane, see screenshot.

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