Autosave and Post Locking – 3/6
Improved user logout notification ( #23295 ) is now in core, and its UI has been tweaked to directly show the login box, rather than prompting first:
There’s been discussion as to whether it’s better not to block the user’s access to the editor/current page when we detect that you no longer have a login token, since it could stop a user while they’re in the middle of a sentence. Any opinions either way? Feel free to comment either here or on #23295.
A simple way to test the above is by removing your login cookie while working in WordPress (Firebug works well).
On local autosaves, there was a decision to pivot from the previous UX posted here, and instead integrate with the new revisions model. This code is still being worked on.
In the land of post locks, @azaozz posted a patch on #23697, that shows a dialog either when you visit a locked post, or when your post becomes locked. If you are visiting an already locked post, you have the option to break the lock. This is still in need of UX/UI love, but looks like this currently:
Finally, a patch on #23665 allows for one autosave per user per post, rather than per post, to let us keep an autosave from before you lost a lock. Testing on this, and the rest of the above welcome!
jltallon, 
lessbloat, 
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Mark Jaquith 8:24 pm on March 6, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think the session expired modal should darken the rest of the page. It kind of blends in as-is.
Mike Schroder 10:45 pm on March 6, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Agreed. I think that was initially left over from the “let’s let the user continue to work” mentality. If we’re going with “Your only path is to log back in,” then making it darken the rest of the page is appropriate.
lessbloat 3:16 pm on March 7, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I agree with @MarkJaquith. I took a quick stab at mocking it up:
Andrew Ozz 6:44 pm on March 7, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Was testing something similar too and agree it looks better. The only concern is that it will frighten the user when it shows.
Most commonly this will show on the Add / Edit Post screen (as the users spend most time there). Imagine typing a new post, uploading images, etc. and suddenly the screen with your work disappears and is replaced by the login screen telling you to log in again. I bet two “scary” thoughts would go through your head: “What happened to my post?” and “This asks for my password, is it legit?”. Additionally the screen change will most likely cut you in the middle of a sentence and can literally startle you.
In the original patch this was a two steps process: a non-modal (position fixed) warning shows first telling the user that the session has expired and asking to log in again. As the rest of the screen is visible this is not that scary (you can still see your work) and won’t startle you as most of the screen doesn’t change. Then clicking a link or a button in the warning opens the actual login screen in a modal.
Perhaps this is a better solution. Yes, one more click, but better user experience.
lessbloat 1:56 pm on March 8, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think we can likely find a way to lessen the fear by getting the copy right. You could also bump the darker outer margin up (maybe double the margin), and perhaps lighten the opacity a tad, so that the user still can see some of the screen behind.
I prefer the one step (taking them straight to the login form), vs. showing an intermediary step (which looks more suspect than the log in form with the logo above it, to be quite honest). If they’ve saved their login details, they only have to click once (on the “Log in” button), and they are right back to their writing.
jltallon 12:52 pm on March 20, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply
+1 — Translucency allowing the user to see that their content is still back there, undisturbed, perfectly conveys the notion that “your session has expired, we need to re-authenticate you so that you can follow working as if nothing had happened”:
IMHO, you nailed it.