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Unsafe operations terminology and operational hazards, the end result
Dave had an interesting comment about the previous post in this topic.
Actually I would have kept the original terms. Clarity is way more important than 'protecting' an click and point administrator. If an administrator is so incredible stupid to experiment with an production cluster, than it is his right!
To protect against accidental hits on the very big 'leave cluster' button, you can ask the admin to enter 3 digit number that is displayed to confirm the action. But leaving and joining an cluster are defacto industry terms which makes it easier for admins coming from other data storage solutions to get an handle on RavenDB.
I think that there is some confusion regarding the actual terms. Here is the current UI, after the changes I discussed in the previous post:
As you can see, we have “Add another server to cluster”, and “Leave cluster”, which are standard and common operations, they are what you’ll use in pretty much all cases.
The advanced cluster operations are unsafe, they are there to enable the operator to recover from a disaster that took the majority of the cluster down. Those aren’t standard operations, they are hidden by default under “advanced”, and even then we want to make sure that users are thinking about them.
Comments
I would rename "Advanced cluster operations" to "Emergency cluster operations" to emphasize that " they are there to enable the operator to recover from a disaster".
I second that. Emergency gives you the idea that those operations are not usually done under "normal conditions".
Jesus, I like that suggestion!
By making it confusing all you do is add the risk when emergency situations do happen.
You're under stress, you rush, which option do you choose? The one with AWOL or the other one — that's how they are perceived. The mental image bears no relation to the action, so mistakes are likely.
And dropdown menus already are high risk of mis-clicking! Two long meaningless text labels dangerously close.
Make it a popup, make two options come with good-worded clean captions. And when they take first or second one, make another popup with some specifics of what is going to happen. Not just 'are you sure' — that just gets dismissed, but some numbers. 'You are removing machine XXYYZZ from a cluster formerly of 5, now having 4 other nodes down' or so.
If you want people to pay attention, give them something of value to read, not a generic cheery text like 'your call is very important to us'
Mihailik, None of those option is "click on this menu item, action is done". They are the first step in starting this process.
Mihailik, Another problem is that users don't read the text. Especially if it is long. That is why making is short and to the point, and using uncommon phrasing so they would think is something that we care about.
Exactly. And you can't fix it by making the text harder to understand, they'll just guess instead.
If you want them to read it, put meaningful contextual info there to read. What happens when you take that action, in terms related to the user life in the next few minutes:
How long does the action take? How much does it affect? - how many machines are/were/will have been in he cluster? - what services managing how much resources total are live/dead/migrating? - how long would it take should they want to undo this action back? Who was the last person touching this stuff? When was this last performed? How often is it done?
Things like that, contextual hooks into the real life make people relate to the action.
Making the verbiage obtuse has the opposite effect: instead of relating to the action, people relate to some symbol they pick almost arbitrarily. Like 'the first one', the 'awol one', 'the one with the comma' etc.
May I suggest to use icons or other indicators to each clarify the meaning of each action? Using only red colors could be problematic for visually impaired (e.q. color blind) users.
I understand that the terms are supposed to grab your attention, but I really don't like the AWOL/Kidnap terminology.
First, the terms are unprofessional. It makes the product appear like a joke. Second, the terms refer to crimes.
I'd much prefer to have the "Advanced/Emergency" drop down and have the buttons include the original jargon. As Erik suggests, a warning icon can highlight the danger. Further, a modal [not my fav] can get confirmation with a long explanation of all the implications of taking the action with links to further documentation.
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