Help, Styles Team II!

[ninetydegrees]

There are several submitted styles which need testing and have needed it for ages and the few people doing that in dreamscapes can't do it all on their own. Baggyeyes and Turlough have been beyond awesome but it's just two people and we need more feedback, more resolutions, more font sizes, more browsers, etc. so please, if you can, help out.

Hopefully, this post will get more answers than my last one. :/

Edit: What's involved?

* We currently have four styles which need testing: http://dreamscapes.dreamwidth.org/tag/needs+testing
One of them, Strata, has a link to a preview. You can click on the link and navigate through the various pages to see if anything looks odd (boxes overlapping, text not displayed correctly, something odd with colors, etc.). Then comment to report what you've noticed or tp say that everything looks fine to you. It's always a good idea to mention which browser/resolution (and sometimes font size) you saw the layout in.
Otherwise you need to install the layout. I can explain if you're not familiar with this process.

* We routinely need people to test color themes. What's really important is to make sure text is always visible; it can happen that there isn't enough contrast to make it easily readable and it's ok to politely say that to the designer; it doesn't imply that you expect them to change their style. Some will, some won't.

Comments

[lim]

I also have IE 5, 5.5, and NN4, but only for style emergencies.

[ninetydegrees]

Here's the list of styles which need testing: http://dreamscapes.dreamwidth.org/tag/needs+testing

Strata has a link to a preview so you can simply click on the link navigate through Reading, Archive, etc. then comment to say if it looks fine to you in the browsers/resolutions you've tested it in.
If you want to test things further, you need to install the layout. Do you know how to do that?

[lim]

I can probably install a layout, aye.

When you say testing, I've looked through the comm you linked and the memories and tags, but I can't find anything detailing what sort of testing you require. Is there a script or series of steps you like us to follow? If there isn't a formal one, can you briefly lay out the tasks and interactions I should perform?

Edited: I realise you've covered this with "navigate through Reading..." but I have no idea what your assumptions are wrt usage and would appreciate a system. I can help lay out a system if you need a hand with that.

[ninetydegrees]

There is no formal process testing. People simply use the layout and remark on anything odd they've seen. Major issues to watch for are overlapping, invisible text (font color is the same as or too close to background color), misalignment, broken display when changing resolution/font-size.
If you really want to test this thoroughly, then making sure short entries, long entries, locked entries, entries with restrictions, entry without subject, entries with long subjects, entries with/without icon, entries with/without metadata, with comments disabled, with a lot of comments, etc. display fine. Same thing if the journal's a community. But a cursory look would already been a huge improvement.

Edit: I've just remembered I'd written a list about this. It can be found at the bottom of this entry: http://layoutmakers.dreamwidth.org/4463.html

[lim]

Thanks!

Is it your decision that you do not want a system laying out? I can't figure it out from your response.

[ninetydegrees]

Is it your decision that you do not want a system laying out? I can't figure it out from your response.

Oh no! If you want to write something, go ahead. It would be great to have guidelines.

quick draft before bed

[lim]

Testing a Journal

Key Usability

Contrast

Can you read the words easily? Are the colours outside this recommendation? That's worth mentioning.

Text sizing

Can you read the words? If the font is too small, can you size it up without words breaking out of their bounds or overlapping?

Layout fail

Is content overlapping? Are there blank areas that hold content in other browsers? Are there horizontal scrollbars?

Links

Can you click on the links? Can you tell what text are links? Can you tell what links you have visited?

Checklist

Journal, Post, Read & Network View Regions

Check the five regions in order, asking the key usability questions about each area.

1. Header

• Banner
• Title
• Subtitle

2. Main Navigation

Links to all views:

Journal (user.dreamwidth.org)

Single Post (user.dreamwidth.org/1234.html)

Reading List (user.dreamwidth.org/read)

Network (user.dreamwidth.org/network)

Archive (user.dreamwidth.org/archive)

Subjects (user.dreamwidth.org/2009/01)

Tags (user.dreamwidth.org/tag)

3. Sidebars

Try the layout with one sidebar, two sidebars, and no sidebars. In each configuration, does content overlap? Do you get horizontal scrollbars? Can you click on the links?

(Probable content to look at:)

• title
• module
• links list
• page summary
• calendar table

4. Main Content

• subject
• date
• userpic
• post contents
• meta data:
  • mood
  • music
  • other
• actions:
  • memory entry
  • share entry
  • track entry
  • permalink
  • read # comments
  • post comment
• spacers

Can you post a comment? Turn on custom comment pages. In post view, can you read the comments easily? Can you understand who is making each comment, and where it fits in the thread? If there are lots of nested comments, does the layout break?

5. Footer

Normally there are some skip links here. There might also be some journal credits or journal actions, like a search or an RSS subscription button.

Archive View Regions

tba

Subjects View Regions

tba

Tags View Regions

tba

I never use those views so I don't know them off the top of my head (I never use sidebars either, er, as may be obvious), but maybe that is helpful as a framework to add to.


DW default style (preview comment view) really collapses a LOT of list layouting! ERK!

Re: quick draft before bed

[foxfirefey]

This was a really awesome start to a good testing checklist! I hope you don't mind, I turned it into a wiki page to build on as a reference:

http://dw-styles.dreamwidth.org/16077.html?thread=315341#cmt315341

Re: quick draft before bed

[lim]

IDK where the wiki is *googles*

I also suggest, for ease of fixing idiosyncracies (I have wasted many hours trying to figure out Trident layout bugs somehow appearing in Gecko browsers because of inaccurate reporting!), that each tester reports their user agent. They don't need to read or understand the browser strings themselves, and it's much much less likely they'll give you the wrong info. IME it's vastly vastly quicker and simpler to say, like:

Reporting your findings

At the start of every comment, post, or email you write, include the user agent you tested with, so coders can identify browser specific problems. You can find this at whatsmyuseragent.com. You don't need to include your IP address.

--

And then add in the developer support section a quick "How to read a browser string", which is actually super simple. Could even just include a list of the big five.

Re: quick draft before bed

[ninetydegrees]

My apologies, Lim. I wanted to suggest you to create a Wiki page then I completely forgot.

Here's the Wiki article Fey's talking about: http://wiki.dwscoalition.org/notes/Testing_out_layout_submissions

You can log in to the Wiki using OpenID (your Dreamwidth journal for example) if you want to edit it.

Re: quick draft before bed

[ninetydegrees]

Thanks for doing that, Fey. I wanted to suggest Lim do that then I forgot because I'm lame that way. ;)