Upgrade StorageText highlighting UI improvements in PDF Reader
Hello,
Thanks to all who contribute to this excellent software.
After selecting text in the Zotero PDF reader and releasing the mouse button, the user is given a small menu with an option for choosing highlighting colors. Please consider changing this workflow by 1) a quick redesign or 2) providing an alternative highlighting mode.
In breaking down the activity of highlighting to its constituent elements, it is as follows:
1. Place cursor at start of text to highlight and click. (2 actions)
2. Move cursor to end of highlight, release click. (2 actions)
(pop-up menu with highlight color options appears)
3. Move cursor to desired highlight color in pop-up menu and click. (2 actions)
Please consider a model that reduces the number of required actions for the users, similar to that used by most other document readers with highlighting (Preview, Acrobat, etc.). There are only so many point / click operations in our hands per day - the fewer we can use for things we do dozens or hundreds of times per day, like highlighting, the better.
Alternative: Allow the user to select a highlight color and remember that "state" - assuming that all future highlights use the same color until the user selects a different one.
Arguments:
1. Many users primarily use only one highlight color, so asking them to choose colors each time is asking them to constantly make UI choices that are not useful and communicate no new information. For users who mostly use yellow highlighting, they are essentially being forced to say "Again, I choose yellow, again, I choose yellow, etc. etc."
2. By removing (3) in the above list of actions, you decrease the number of physical actions for each highlight from 6 to 4. If you highlight 100 sections of text per day, this change would decrease the number of actions from 600 to 400 - 2/3rds. This is a significant decrease in demands on tired hands and wrists.
Thanks for your consideration!
Thanks to all who contribute to this excellent software.
After selecting text in the Zotero PDF reader and releasing the mouse button, the user is given a small menu with an option for choosing highlighting colors. Please consider changing this workflow by 1) a quick redesign or 2) providing an alternative highlighting mode.
In breaking down the activity of highlighting to its constituent elements, it is as follows:
1. Place cursor at start of text to highlight and click. (2 actions)
2. Move cursor to end of highlight, release click. (2 actions)
(pop-up menu with highlight color options appears)
3. Move cursor to desired highlight color in pop-up menu and click. (2 actions)
Please consider a model that reduces the number of required actions for the users, similar to that used by most other document readers with highlighting (Preview, Acrobat, etc.). There are only so many point / click operations in our hands per day - the fewer we can use for things we do dozens or hundreds of times per day, like highlighting, the better.
Alternative: Allow the user to select a highlight color and remember that "state" - assuming that all future highlights use the same color until the user selects a different one.
Arguments:
1. Many users primarily use only one highlight color, so asking them to choose colors each time is asking them to constantly make UI choices that are not useful and communicate no new information. For users who mostly use yellow highlighting, they are essentially being forced to say "Again, I choose yellow, again, I choose yellow, etc. etc."
2. By removing (3) in the above list of actions, you decrease the number of physical actions for each highlight from 6 to 4. If you highlight 100 sections of text per day, this change would decrease the number of actions from 600 to 400 - 2/3rds. This is a significant decrease in demands on tired hands and wrists.
Thanks for your consideration!
Another alternative would simply to put the menu of desired highlights near the end of the click. The place where it currently shows is at the middle of the last line highlighted (in case of multiple lines being highlighted), or the middle of highlight (in case less than one light was highlighted.
Having the menu open near the release of the cursor allows the user to severely reduce the travel time of the cursor, and allows it to be a mechanical act, since it is so close we don't have to think too much where should we aim to click.
This is pretty similar to how this works in Acrobat, so I'm not quite sure what the ask here is?
But I think it's worth considering that this functionality is not obvious, and that many users are likely to be confused about how to highlight because they are given a highlighting option after simply selecting text. This teaches the user that the means of highlighting is selecting text and then selecting the desired color of highlighting - which some percentage (probably very high?) of users will likely assume is the only way to highlight and get stuck in this workflow, as I did. Consider this: If you already know how to highlight, why would you assume there is another way to achieve the same goal but slightly differently?
In my opinion it would be better to remove this "default" path to highlighting functionality, because then I think new users will be more likely to search for (and find) the means of highlighting that involves clicking the pen icon and entering "highlight mode" - as this is the standard means of highlighting across different apps.
Another way of phrasing the question is: What advantage does having a popup with highlight color choice appear after text selection give? And is that advantage worth the potential for confusion?
Still - I should have figured out the highlight toolbar before posting this. Apologies for taking up time - and thanks to those who replied and all of those who are contributing to Zotero.