[Design] [Proposal] Conflict Resolution UI

[Mimi Yin]

http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/ConflictResolution

Katie asked me to think more about some simple solutions to improve  
the user experience for:
1. Finding out about sharing and edit/update conflicts
2. Resolving sharing and edit/update conflicts, ideally without data  
loss

In the past we've talked about clusters (http:// 
wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/OneDotZeroClustersProposal)  
as an ideal solution for conflict resolution. According to the  
proposal, each item would maintain an item history of all version of  
that item (conflicting and non-conflicting) and clusters would  
provide the UI affordance for displaying an item's history.

But Clusters is more than just conflict resolution UI. Clusters are  
designed to support ad-hoc, lightweight organization by combining  
email threads and task dependencies with in-line item creation when  
taking notes in an item's notes field. Furthermore, clusters are  
entirely user-configurable. Users can add, remove and re-order items  
in clusters. In other words, an item's item history would display in  
the context of the item's 'full, extended history', in the context of  
replies, forwards, task dependencies and any other related items the  
user decided to associate with that item.

Sadly, we deferred Clusters until after Preview. But perhaps we  
shouldn't defer conflict resolution along with it.

So, is there room in the schedule for a simple, pared down design to  
smooth the edges when it comes to dealing with conflicts?

Strawperson Proposal:
1. Error icon in the communication status column in the Dashboard
2. Error message at the top of the detail view
3. Pop-up to to view and resolve details of the conflict

There is a lot of room for different approaches within the loose  
framework of this proposal. We can make it more or less ideal  
depending on user needs and development resources. I'm simply  
throwing this out to provide something concrete to discuss.

Most importantly, for dogfooders who have experienced conflicts, it  
would be enormously helpful if you could recount your experiences and  
inform the design with what information you think you need in order  
to effectively resolve conflicts.

1. Were they conflicts with yourself? or with others?
2. How many people were involved in the conflict?
3. Which attributes were in conflict?
4. How much time elapsed before you discovered the conflict?
5. Were you able to figure out what had happened?
6. Were any of the sharees in question offline for a long period of  
time?

Thx,

Mimi