Slide title

Background

The slide title can be created or edited in 3 different places:

• the decktree
• on the slide
• in the slide's settings

The title of the slide in tree should be unique to its sub deck. This is for usability and accessibility. But a slide's title does not always appear on the slide (eg if you want an image only slide). So I propose that:

• the slide title in the deck tree and the slide's setting is the same. This should be a property of the slide.
• the title field displayed on the slide will default to the title in the deck tree unless:
  • no title is displayed
  • the user edits the title on the slide. Then the slide content is updated but the title  in the deck tree is not affected. A use case for this would be when the user wishes to shorten or lengthen the title displayed on the slide. (@Ali: In any case, I think , for better presentation of content, we would need to to shorten the titles displayed in the decktree. We can show the complete title on mouseover. I think it might cause confusions for users when they edit the slide title and don't see the changes affected in the tree. They might think something went wrong!)

This is also tied into the process for creating a new slide which can be done either through the tree or through the add slide button.

If a user creates a slide through the deck tree they are prompted to edit the slide title in the tree. This updates the slide. We need to consider the case of if the user decides not to edit the slide title. Do we ensure the slide title is unique (eg through an incremental integer after New slide)? Or do we force them to edit the slide title after it has been created.(@Ali: I think it is easy to add the position of slide next to 'New Slide' to make sure it is unique within the container deck. @Marios can implement it in the related service.)

If a user creates a slide through the new slide button currently a new slide appears with title on both the slide and the tree as New Slide. Options to consider:

1. show the slide settings dialogue immediately. This would allow the user to change the slide layout as well as the title immediately. (@Ali: -1 since it impels an additional step for users!)
2. place focus in the slide title area immediately. This would encourage users to change the slide title but wouldn't allow them change the layout quickly.
3. place focus in the tree in order to edit slide title. I don't like this option as (a) the tree may not be visible at the time and(b) it takes the users focus away from the slide area.

Option 2 is the current behaviour but I think option 1 may become more relevant when we have implemented layouts further.

(@Ali: I think there should be two different reactions depending on pressing add new slide button on the decktree (option 3 ) or above slide (option 2) . We need more details about the use cases for having a separate title for a slide which does not match the title in the content. If it is only images, maybe we can handle it by metadata)

Update 12/8/16

I propose to amend this proposal to:

1. each slide within a sub-deck should have a unique title. As many authors may wish to have the same title on concurrent slides we should consider making it clear to the user that this is a different slide.
2. the slide title on the deck tree should be same as the title displayed on the slide and in the slides settings unless:
   1. the slide title is truncate to fit the display in the deck tree
   2. the slide layout does not include a title (e.g. if it is only an image). Then the slide title in the settings and decktree remain the same and if the layout of the slide is changed to display a title then this matches the slide title in the meta-data.

This amends the previous proposal to establish that the title on display on the slide is in sync with the title in the decktree to improve usability.

Use cases for unique slide titles

While it can be easy for an author to consider reasons for slides within a deck to have the same title, it is confusing for users consuming the deck without the author there to lead them through the material. Consider the analogy of having a two sections in a document called "Introduction". When you create a table of contents it is then confusing to have two sections with the same name. Numbering is then required to distinguish between the sections. 

Some example use cases where unique slide titles improve usability:

• As a learner I want to reference a slide in some materials. As decks can appear within a deck I can't use the slide number so I would like a unique title to quote.
• As a learner I search for a slide shown to me by the instructor. The search results show me two slides in a deck that match the title. I believe they are duplicate results and do nor check the second result. I am frustrated as I can't find the slide I was shown.
• As a user I am skimming through the contents of a deck to see if it is of interest. Many of the slides have the same title so I find it difficult to establish what materials are covered and feel the quality of the materials will be poor. I do not explore any deck further.

WCAG success criteria 2.4.6  states Headings and labels describe topic or purpose. (https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/navigation-mechanisms-descriptive.html). This web pages sets out the usabiltiy and accessibility resons for clear heading. For presentations, we consider the title to be equivalent to a heading and so each slide requires a unique title. PowerPoint's accessibility checker flags up duplicate slide titles and give the reason for fixing this as "every slide should have a unique title so those who cannot view the slide can still easily navigate to information". 

Action items