Home page: better entry / metadata separation

[lure23]

I crafted a longer email on Fusion 360 / Sim 360 Home page UI issues.

Here's the part 1.

Somewhat illogical 'add description' etc. positioning 

Actually, you're already using collapsing with the 'add description/tags/...' mechanism.

Only, it's placement is not the most logical one.

It seems the 'Add: Description · Tags' entry just happened to have space in that corner. I can reason that it should rather be placed above the 'Share with' section.

Like that. 

My reasons for this change (consistently throughout the tiles) are:

1. What can be added (uncollapsed entry fields, really) are dependent on the type of the entry. 'New Data' tile has same fields for all three tabs, but i.e. in 'Quick Post' these vary. They are part of the selected tab (as are the visible entry fields).

In comparison, the 'Share with' field is actually the same, regardless of the tile and the tab. It's always there.

2. As a flow of thought (from up to down within a tile), one first fills in the data, then selects to who it's being posted (or vice versa) and then presses 'Create'. Having 'Add:' below 'Share with' breaks this natural flow.

Furthermore, there are some inconsistencies in the placement of these additional fields. Let's see the 'New Data/Design' tab (both 'Description' and 'Tags' fields added).

Description goes above 'Share with' (i.e. is part of the creation itself). Tags are placed below 'Share with' (i.e. part of the metadata used for collaboration; not so much of the entry).

This may be good, if it is consistent.

( Essentially we're finding that there are two kinds of 'Add' fields - those that are tile/tab specific and those that add fields for the sharing. Solving all this in a visual way would make the interface instantly graspable for the users. )

Then the same for 'Quick Post / Message'. We're adding both 'Subject' and 'Tags' fields.

Here, the 'Subject' comes below 'Share with:' (not like 'Description' was placed above it). This implies it's part of *telling* about the message, not the message itself. Is this so?

What I think would be in place here is a stricter division between the entry itself (above 'Share with') and the collaboration fields (below it). Change of background color could give that hint. Horizontal dividers could be used (though they often make the UI restless in themselves).

I'm leaving playing with the details to you, but something like this might well be useful?

Some ordering of additional fields is clearly faulty. Or what do you say of this:

[xxx]

To me, 'Title' and 'Description' feel like they should be part of the upload (the entry itself). Now they are placed below 'Share with', implying they are part of only notifying people of the file. Which one is it? 

If they are part of the entry, maybe there needs to be two 'Add' sets for such tile:

I think there's enough here, now.

I'm interested to hear how others have found the existing Home UI, and if better suggestions than the ones presented above arise.

(also filing in another message on arrangement on icons in the Quick Post tile)