Upgrade StorageZotero seems to me to need work on its UX
I've never got comfortable with Zotero, despite on and off trying to use it for a decade.
Part of it is that Zotero Desktop App looks so similar to the Zotero Library. Part of it is that the Zotero documentation is so fantastically complicated.
Let me try to go through it.
At the top left, the Desktop App is called My Library. (I assume I am really referring to the Destop App, though nowhere does it say so. This is the thing which at top left has this:
Zotero - My Library
File Edit Tools View Help
Is this the Desktop App? Why doesn't it label itself Desktop App loud and clear, since this is the name used in the Zotero documentation? This really seems a bit odd. Most products label themselves, for instance a Ford Fiesta car labels itself Ford Fiesta, etc.
Moving on to Zotero My Library
At the top left, the Zotero My Library is called My Library, exactly the same as Zotero Destop App. (At least I assume I've got the right product. This is the thing which at the top has this:
Zotero Web Library Groups Documentation Forums Get Involved My Name)
Er, why couldn't the two different things be given different names? Why couldn't the Desktop App be called Destop App? It seems to make no sense at all to give the same name to different things.
Then, in the help documentation, I'm told about Zotero Connector. Is this the same as Zotero My LIbrary? When I click through on what I think the Zotero Connector, it asks me to save to My Library, then I'm told that most Zotero users use the Desktop App, i.e. something else. This is pretty confusing.
Part of it is that Zotero Desktop App looks so similar to the Zotero Library. Part of it is that the Zotero documentation is so fantastically complicated.
Let me try to go through it.
At the top left, the Desktop App is called My Library. (I assume I am really referring to the Destop App, though nowhere does it say so. This is the thing which at top left has this:
Zotero - My Library
File Edit Tools View Help
Is this the Desktop App? Why doesn't it label itself Desktop App loud and clear, since this is the name used in the Zotero documentation? This really seems a bit odd. Most products label themselves, for instance a Ford Fiesta car labels itself Ford Fiesta, etc.
Moving on to Zotero My Library
At the top left, the Zotero My Library is called My Library, exactly the same as Zotero Destop App. (At least I assume I've got the right product. This is the thing which at the top has this:
Zotero Web Library Groups Documentation Forums Get Involved My Name)
Er, why couldn't the two different things be given different names? Why couldn't the Desktop App be called Destop App? It seems to make no sense at all to give the same name to different things.
Then, in the help documentation, I'm told about Zotero Connector. Is this the same as Zotero My LIbrary? When I click through on what I think the Zotero Connector, it asks me to save to My Library, then I'm told that most Zotero users use the Desktop App, i.e. something else. This is pretty confusing.
Your library refers to your texts, notes etc., whereas "Desktop App" refers to the software you use to access it. The term is quite fitting, because it is an app that you install on your desktop (hence it is neither the web app nor the iOs app). It doesn't have to be labelled that, because the term describes precisely what is (just as the Ford Fiesta doesn't need a label "car" on it).
I'm happy to help you get started properly with Zotero, but it's unclear from (the tone of) your post if you're actually seeking advice or just want to rant.
An example of that is that it's not uncommon for people to come here with a problem in not being able to do something that Zotero is supposed to be able to do. Eventually someone here figures out that they're using the web library, thinking that they're using "the" Zotero.
I think it would help to rebrand Zotero's elements more clearly as Zotero Desktop, and Zotero Web (or Zotero Web Library; or even Zotero Web Lite, which would convey its more limited capabilities, something that people often misunderstand). We already have Zotero Mobile, which should remain the branding as long as the iOS app and the coming Android app will be identical; if not, they could be Zotero for iOS and Zotero for Android. We already have "Zotero Connector", although that might be more clearly branded in terms of what it does/where it sits, as Zotero Browser Connector.
A web-based app is called "Web Library". You need to click a link labeled "Web Library" somewhere on zotero.org to navigate to it and since you access it using your browser it should be pretty clear that it is something else than Zotero itself. Web Library is a supplementary tool generally used alongside Zotero. See Web vs Desktop.
Finally "Zotero Connector" is a plugin for your browser, that enables you to save to Zotero directly from your web browser. It works best with Zotero (which you should have open when using connector to capture items) but can optionally save to Web Library as well.
It already says "Zotero Web Library" at the top when you're using the web library. I find adding "Desktop" to branding weird and clumsy-- I don't think many other tools with Online and Desktop apps do this -- Slack doesn't, MS Office doesn't, Github kinda does, but there the Desktop app and web app actually do different things.
Zotero - My Library
File Edit Tools View Help
Wouldn't it make more sense to call Desktop App "Desktop App"? But those words nowhere appear. Why not? You say: "It doesn't have to be labelled that, because the term describes precisely what is (just as the Ford Fiesta doesn't need a label "car" on it). " No, Ford Fiestas have the label Ford Fiesta on them, because they're not just cars, they're Ford Fiestas, like Zotero Desktop Apps are a particular kind of desktop application, not just any desktop application, and in fact there are two different pieces of software from Zotero on my laptop, and I'd like to know which I have opened when I click them.
As to AdamSmith, it seems unfair to use the derogatory term "rant". Having tried to use this software for a decade and failed, I thought it would be helpful to try and explain why I failed. One good reason is perhaps that I'm not the brightest guy around. But there may be genuine reasons. Its a very common thing in software design that people who design the software get angry and resist being told that the software they've designed is hard to use. This is why there's a whole speciality called User Experience. I'm just suggesting that a few sessions of User Experience analysis might help. Its hard to bear, I get that, but it really helps.
tim820 seems to have a handle on what I am saying!
I would also suggest the documentation could do with a bit of editorial help. Submit it to readers, and ask them to explain where they find it difficult to understand. It is a helpful process.
1)
Zotero - My Library
File Edit Tools View Help
2)
Zotero - Web Library Groups Documentation Forums Get Involved My Name
These are different pieces of software. If they're not properly labelled, how is one supposed to tell them apart? As Tim820 says: "An example of that is that it's not uncommon for people to come here with a problem in not being able to do something that Zotero is supposed to be able to do. Eventually someone here figures out that they're using the web library, thinking that they're using "the" Zotero." I've never heard of anyone having that kind of problem with Firefox, indeed if you could explain to me how it might happen, it might move us on.
https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/web_vs_desktop
So I'm just suggesting Zotero Desktop and Zotero Web Library for clarity/emphasis. And the latter *is* actually already capitalized at the top of its interface - Web Library .... so why not Zotero Desktop too ?
The documentation page linked above incidentally has a long list of all the things that the Web Library *cannot* do; and will presumably mostly never do. Hence the need to distinguish it more clearly from Desktop (and my particular preference for perhaps adding "Lite" to its branding for extra clarity and avoiding the common misunderstandings of its limited nature).
It seems that there is at least agreement amongst us that some users are confused by all the different elements of Zotero. If you count the work processor plugins I count seven, key, distinct elements of Zotero - Desktop, Web Library, Browser Connector, Mobile, Word plugin, Libre Office plugin, google docs "plugin".
So how should the confusion of those users best be addressed ?
If other apps with desktop and browser versions don't choose to use "Desktop" for branding the former (although there are some that do), maybe it's because people don't find the existing distinction confusing. We're discussing Zotero users who *do* find it confusing.
1. I think there are costs to 'rebranding' -- adding the Desktop 'qualifier' to 'Zotero' does
- make old threads and 3rd party documentation referring to Zotero less clear
- dilutes the clear message that the Desktop app is the full Zotero app and needed for full functionality
- makes writing about Zotero more clumsy
- de-aligns the terminology used with the comparable apps: I mentioned Word and Slack, closer to Zotero, neither Endnote nor Citavi use "Desktop" as consistent branding for their main app. In fact, the most important exception I can think of is Mendeley, but this actually supports my point above: "Mendeley Desktop" was used to distinguish it from "Mendeley Cite", a web app developed as a (fully-featured-ish) replacement.
2. I *don't* think clearer branding will do a ton to alleviate confusion where it exists (and I agree it does). Confused users typically are on a page called "Web Library", inside their browser, yet don't appear to notice that. Why do we think adding "Zotero Desktop" to some places in the documentation and at the top of the app the vast majority of confused users don't actually have installed will help much?
I will confess I don't currently have any good ideas to avoid this type of confusion -- I think it's mainly a function of the spread of web apps in general, with Zoomers growing up in the Chromebook/Googleverse just not having much of a concept of a desktop app at all.
I do get that here in the forum that when writing or reading about Zotero it can be a bit confusing. Except that again and again on the forum we are told that when writing about "Zotero" it refers to the local application on your computer versus the web view of your library.
Also, one doesn't "download the Zotero Web App" but we download the Zotero Application that runs on a local computer that can optionally sync to the online copy of the local library. The local version of Zotero has great power, the web interface to your library that is online is becoming more powerful but is really a completely different species from the full Zotero program.