[ANNOYANCE] - Adding a new package to environment requires too many clicks across buttons spread wildly on large screens

[krassowski]

Describe the bug

I know there has been a usability study, but I wanted to share my experience anyways.

Adding a package to an environment is annoying. Some part of it is due to poor JupyterLab integration, this is I need to click:

1. "Conda Store" Menu
2. "Conda Store Package Manager" menu entry
3. "Log in"
4. Click "Cancel" after "Leave Site? Changes that you made may not be saved." dialog shows up - it shows up because the conda-store is not embedded in iframe and Oauth sequence causes window navigation
5. Switch back to my notebook
6. Save changes in my notebook
7. Switch back to Conda Store tab
8. Press "Log in" again
9. Enter login details, press login (sometimes not required)
10. JupyterLab loads again but Conda Store tab is gone, hence again: "Conda Store" Menu
11. "Conda Store Package Manager" menu entry

I had opened issues for this already:

• [BUG] - Clicking "log in" closes JupyterLab temporarily jupyterlab-conda-store#51
• [BUG] - The widget is not restored on reload jupyterlab-conda-store#53
• [ENH] - Watch exceptions for ImportError and suggest to open conda-store UI jupyterlab-conda-store#50

The following is specifically due to the conda-store-ui design - it just takes too many clicks and too much time to do a things as simple and as common as adding a new package:

12. Click on the namespace to expand it
13. Click on the environment name
14. Click "Edit" in top-right corner; note the UI jumps causing a distraction
15. Scroll down to find "Add package" button
16. Click "Add package"; the UI jumps/scrollbar jumps again
17. Enter the package name
18. Click on the correct package name from the jumping dropdown to discard it
19. Instinctively click "Add package" because of the button positioning (thinking that it is the Save button) - it is the only visible button on the screen - my bad; I then need to remove the empty row so one more click/search for the Save button; see that it is not there; realise that I need to scroll
20. Scroll down; still do not see the Save button; realise that it is 20 centimetres to the right, in the bottom right corner
21. Click the save button

Maybe this is solved in the latest version - excuse me in that case - but in my defence I did look for a way to try the latest version easily and for screenshots of it but I could not find any.

Expected behavior

• The design takes into account that one of the most common operations during interactive computing development is adding packages(*). With jupyterlab-conda-store I need ~20 clicks for what used to be a short keyboard-only sequence of:
  • Esc (switch to command mode)
  • A (add cell above)
  • %pip install package_I_need
  • Shift + Enter
• The design takes into accounts the experience on large (4k) screens

(*) For example, I really do not change channels every time I go to edit environment. I set them once and maybe will add one or two channels during environment lifetime. Yet, channels show up above the "Save" button taking up precious space.

How to Reproduce the problem?

First I need to select an environment on the left with two clicks:

First I need to click on the Edit button which is 1 mile east:

Then I need to scroll down to click on "Add package"

Then I need to scroll down again and move my cursor 1 mile south-east:

Output

No response

Versions and dependencies used.

I don't know (#406) but probably not the latest.

Anything else?

No response

[trallard]

Swapped labels to best reflect the scope/focus of this

@smeragoel this aligns with other UX discussions and studies. Flagging so we do not miss this when revisiting worfklows and UI