[Freeipa-devel] A question of terminology for the User Experience....

[Ben Dubrovsky]

Hi, 

I am convinced that one of the most critical possible points of user confusion has to do with the difference between the concept of an object (user, group, netgroup, etc) as a *container* holding other objects and the concept of an object being *contained* by another group.

To design against this confusion, I would like to see us put in as many points of disambiguation as possible. These include differentiation in icons, perhaps colors, and, most important, in language.

In particular - it is important the the term referring the "containing others" and the term referring to "contained by others" be linguistically different from each other. The terms "Member" and "Membership", for instance, are too similar to provide much disambiguation. In the July 7 set of skeletons, I introduced a consistent terminology in which these terms were linguistically different. Dmitry pointed out to me yet another cause of confusion that my terms added. After some discussion, we came up with a different set of terms, that I would like to get some feedback on.

First, the terms I introduced:

>From the point of view of any given object:
    The objects it contains are *Members*
    The relationships to objects that contain it are *Enrollments*

The actions related to them:
    Contained objects are *added* and *removed* -- i.e. Members
    Objects are *enrolled in* and *withdrawn from* containing objects -- i.e. Enrollments

Objects:
     To create an object, use *New*
     To delete an object, use *Delete*

These terms form the basis of the grammar I used in the July 7 skeletons, and commands, help strings, labels, and titles are derived from these. There are several other clues that are designed in as well:
  * The general action paradigm is to:
           1) find one object out of many; 
           2) navigate to the proper element of that object; 
           3) either add to or delete from the list of objects stored in that element
  * For adding Members, I title the screen in the form:
         "Add object(s) to thisObject itsName" (e.g. "Add Host Group(s) to Netgroup foo")
  * For adding Enrollments, I title the screen in a similar, but (hopefully) disambiguated way:
         "Enroll thisObject itsName in object(s)"  (e.g. "Enroll User foo in Netgroup(s)")
  * Just because it seems extra weird to enroll an object in its own kind of object, I add the word "other" in this case:
         "Enroll Netgroup Foo in other Netgroup(s)"
  * The navigation tabs to the separate elements in an object are also based on this formula, and disambiguated by whether the
     tab represents objects "contained" in this one, or pointers to other  "containing" object.
  * For objects "contained" in this one, I use the form:
          "Member objects" (e.g. "Member Hosts" or "Member Groups")
  * For pointers to objects "containing" this, I use the form:
          "Enrollment in objects" (e.g. "Enrollment in Host Groups" or "Enrollment in Groups")
  * I also use the word other when the relationship is for the same kind of object:
          "Enrollment in other Netgroups"
  * For elements that do not present the ambiguity of contained vs. containing, I just use the word: e.g. Details, or Roles.
  * At the head of the list of tabs, I use the type of the current object with a colon, suggesting a phase completion. 
  * For instance, on the element pages for the Group object, the word "Group:" is at the head of the tabs. Possible completions (with the tab names) are:
        Group: Member Users
        Group: Member Groups
        Group: Enrollment in other Groups
        Group: Enrollment in Netgroups
        Group: Details

So here's the challenge: The term "enroll" is overloaded. There are others that the thesaurus has that are workable: Enlistment , Association and Membership

We also have to choose words that fit in the various parts of speech in which the word is used in the UI.  For instance, "Join" is great as a verb, but there is no noun to describe it (Joinment?). 

(As a reference, I've put the list of all phrases that use these related terms at the end of this note.)

If we choose "Membership", then we need to change the notion of "Member". Not that it's wrong -- but I want to use another term that is clearly linguistically different than Membership -- to disambiguate. Possible words are: affiliate, associate, and constituent.

So:  (*whew!!*)

Do we use:
    Member(s) and Enrollment (my first attempt, but conflicts with other meanings of Enroll)
    Member(s) and Enlistment
    Member(s) and Association

    Associate(s) and Membership
    Affilate(s) and Membership
    Constituent(s) and Membership

What do you think?

Ben



PS:  The list of phrases that the words need to work within are below.  This includes an example of why Enroll doesn't work -- see if you can find it!


Enroll Group Foo in Netgroup(s)
Enroll Group Foo in other Group(s)
Enroll Host Group Foo in Netgroup(s)
Enroll Host Group Foo in other Host Group(s)
Enroll Netgroup Foo in other Netgroup(s)

Enroll Host Foo in Host Group s)
Enroll Host Foo in Netgroup(s)
Enroll User Pat D. Bunny in Group (s)
Enroll User Pat D. Bunny in Netgroup(s)


Enroll Host
Enroll Host Group
Enroll User
Enroll Group
Enroll Netgroup


Enroll in Host Group(s)
Enroll in other Host Group(s)
Enroll in Group(s)
Enroll in other Group(s)
Enroll in Netgroup(s)
Enroll in other Netgroup(s)

Enrollment in Groups
Enrollment in other Groups
Enrollment in Host Groups
Enrollment in other Host Groups
Enrollment in Netgroups
Enrollment in other Netgroups

Prospective Group Enrollment(s)
Prospective Host Group Enrollment(s)
Prospective Netgroup Enrollment(s)


Status: Enrolled, Kerberos Key Present 
Enroll via One-Time-Password:
Enrolled By:
Enrolled? 
Delete Key, Unenroll


Add Group(s) to Group Foo
Add Group(s) to Netgroup Foo
Add Host Group(s) to Host Group Foo
Add Host Group(s) to Netgroup Foo
Add Host(s) to Host Group Foo
Add Host(s) to Netgroup Foo
Add Role(s) to User Pat D. Bunny
Add User(s) to Group Foo
Add User(s) to Netgroup Foo
Add Role(s) to User Pat D. Bunny
Add Netgroup(s) to Netgroup Foo


Add User(s)
Add Group(s)
Add Host(s)
Add Host Group(s)
Add Role (s)

Remove User(s) 
Remove Group(s) 
Remove Role(s) 
Remove Host Group(s) 
Remove Host(s) 


Member Groups
Member Host Groups
Member Hosts
Member Netgroups
Member Users

Withdraw from Host Group(s)
Withdraw from Netgroup(s) 
Withdraw from Group(s) 
 
New User
New Group
New Service
New Netgroup
New Host Group
New Host
New Certificate

Delete User (s)
Delete Group(s) 
Delete Service(s) 
Delete Netgroup(s) 
Delete Host Group(s) 
Delete Host(s) 
Delete Key, Unenroll
Delete Key, Unprovision

User Details
Group Details
Netgroup Details
Host Group Details
Host Details
Service Details

Issue New Certificate for Host foo
Issue New Certificate for Service foo