The user can't find the edit link, because he wasn't logged in.

Observation

The wiki page said the "hit edit and add comments." The user didn't see edit, however, because he wasn't logged in. The edit bar said "immutable page" where edit was expected.

Task

Editing a page.

Users

This user is a typical user and had successfully edited pages before, but had somehow become logged out.

Context

The problem was reported via email.

Moin version 1.3.4. (I looked at the ThemeBase code for 1.3.5 and it appears this would be the same.

Theme: Modern

Discussion

I believe the user failed because "immutable page" didn't cue him to do anything.

Having a more informative message in place of "edit" would help. Some possibilities:

• "Log in to edit"
  • This will not help much. Either the user does not have an account, or the user will not be bale to edit even after login, because of page acl.
• a grayed out "Edit" with a tooltip: "Try to login to edit this page", for a visitor, or "You are not allowed to edit this page" if the user does not have acl rights.
  • Based on user previous experience with grayed items, and using the tooltips, it should be enough
• link to a help page that explains the possible causes, text for the link "Not editable (click for help)"

  • "Not editable (click for help)" is too long and I hope that its not needed. There is not much help to put on that help page anyway. If we really need this kind of link, maybe "Locked" (why?) or even Locked where the link go to a help page about this, or open a help dialog.

• More hints are needed for the login status. For example, different color of the wiki header, or the "user" area, different icon for registered user and visitor etc.

CategoryUsabilityObservation