User should know easily as who he is logged in

[hvelarde]

I mentioned this before, but here we go again: it's very important for a user to know all the time who is the one logged in on a site.

This is Plone with the toolbar collapsed:

These are various other sites showing, one way or another, using the name, the picture or both, who is logged in:

Facebook:

Google:

GitHub:

And, BTW, all of them use an horizontal toolbar.

[djay]

Maybe seem a stupid question but why? What user problem is it solving? Perhaps putting in that context will help the prioritisation process.

[hvelarde]

for me is pretty obvious and the use case is in the title; @agnogueira do you want to add something else?

[djay]

Question is why is it so important to know who you are? Why demand things happen if you can’t explain why?

[jensens]

yes please show the users name, its very important information in many cases.

[hvelarde]

@djay before Plone 5 you were able to know the name of the logged in user without any additional action; also, this is the way the web works: all sites that require you to log in show, in one way or another, who the current user is.

this is Plone 4:

this is the toolbar on a previous life:

so the question here is not why do I need the user name back where it was, but why it was removed.

you still want a use case? if you share a computer with another user, and you left your session open, then another user can, by mistake, change things using your account; we have to avoid that.

[maartenkling]

+1 on name showing

[ezvirtual]

+1 on displaying name from me too. I think it fits within a reasonable usability / ux expectation that you know who you're logged in as at a glance (without a click/action).

[bloodbare]

How do you expect to show the name also on vertical toolbar when it's collapsed ? Should we rotate the name to make it fit the collapsed left toolbar?

On horizontal we could add the name when it's collapsed, but then we should remove the icon. Is this going to be consistent?

I think that by default the toolbar is expanded in left and top position so the name is shown unless you force to collapse, in my opinion if somebody ask to collapse the toolbar he/she is aware that the login name will be hidden, but we could add it on horizontal collapsed toolbar.

[enzus]

The problem with the collapsed/expanded modes is that the activation of it is a sort of Easter egg (#807) I found it out by chance myself. So, in the scenario described by Hector, we could have a logged in user who activated the collapsed mode and, at some point, shares his computer with another Plone user. The new user could not know about the collapsed mode...

Instead of the generic person icon, could we not use a small thumbnail of the portrait of the logged in user or, in absence of it, the initial(s) of the user provided by one of those avatar generators that you see around nowadays? I've seen Google Inbox or Yammer use this kind of avatars.
A thumbnail like the one you see used here on github or smaller should fit the width of the collapsed view.
Not a perfect solution yet but hopefully a good compromise?

[bloodbare]

We were thinking hard to see how to make expand button more visible, but any solution led to other UX problems.

I like the idea of initial(s), I love portrait photo in case it exist with a round border.

[davilima6]

+1 on consistently showing portrait + name on expanded toolbars and portraits-only on contracted.

After that, initials would be a great solution in the lack of a customized user photo.

[hvelarde]

@bloodbare the option to expand/collapse the toolbar should be on the personal preferences form; please follow #807 (comment)

I would prefer to show the user name all the time in the horizontal toolbar; having the photo could be a bonus.

[enzus]

@hvelarde I disagree the expande/collapse switcher should be in the personal preferences since, as a user, I might want to change it on the fly depending on the circumstances (small screen, focus mode with less clutter...). If think of many desktop apps like Photoshop, Axure or similar you have a lot of palettes that can be fully displayed, minimised or completely hidden.

Agree that when we have space the user name (or even the full name) would be better. The user's photo or the initial(s) would work as a replacement (not as a simple bonus) to give an hint on the identity of the user when there's no space to display the username.

[davilima6]

@enzus, having a personal preference doesn't exclude live switching. Also, this discussion should happen in #807.

[tkimnguyen]

Maybe @hvelarde could rename this issue to indicate that this is only for the horizontal/collapsed toolbar?

[tkimnguyen]

OK @hvelarde hold your nose...you know what I'm about to do...

Castle has two toolbars: the usual vertical one on the left and a top bar that separates site settings (a cog or gear icon) and the personal menu, which always shows the full name of the currently logged-in user.

[hvelarde]

@tkimnguyen yes, I already knew that; I don't understand why we keep pushing the vertical toolbar when it's obvious is not the right thing for global information and should only be used for local commands (seems Castle still have some issues on that one).

[jensens]

this was fixed some time ago