Bring users directly to the "upload files" page after creating a dataset

[ChengShi-1]

Based on the survey result of ModernUI Rollout, some users are confused by the current workflow, which does not allow them to create a draft dataset and upload files in the same action.

Modifying the dataset creation workflow could be a simple solution. After users create a dataset, we could take them directly to the file upload page.

[pdurbin]

Based on the survey result of ModernUI Rollout, some users are confused by the current workflow

I just want to make sure we don't overstate the amount of confusion.

Only one person said they were "puzzled". The summary below is from IQSS/dataverse-pm#509 (comment)

About letting depositors add files only after they’ve created the dataset

Only three survey takers shared any concerns about letting depositors add files only after they’ve created the dataset:

• One wrote that they were puzzled by it.
• One wrote that they thought researchers would prefer uploading files first, then adding metadata
• Another wrote that the change, which they liked, might “take some getting used to for experienced users”

Of the other 10 survey takers, 9 added files to their datasets, and none of those nine wrote anything about the change."

[landreev]

I can only repeat and second what @pdurbin said above. When this was discussed last week (on Thu.), my takeaway was that we had something resembling a consensus, that it was at the very least worth reconsidering and re-evaluating, and taking a closer look at the survey results, to get a better idea of just how much user demand there was for this feature...
This issue suggests that this is something you DO want to go ahead implement. ... was this a decision based on a careful re-evaluation of all the pro and contra arguments?

It is your call ultimately. But I would like to put it on record again, what I tried to articulate last week. I really feel like the amount of work, and some inevitably hacky solutions this would take, would be hardly justified, considering the actual amount of the extra convenience it would offer to the users. Even on the JSF pages, making this feature possible was always causing extra complications and made the code messier and more difficult to maintain. I do believe that it will be even worse, if you were to try to achieve the same result via the API.

... All of that is especially true, if this is all on account of some users - or a user - who may have been confused initially by a behavior that's a bit different from what they were used to in the JSF UI.

[ChengShi-1]

Hi @landreev , sorry for the confusion caused by the issue. What I was suggesting was a front-end-only change, not an API change, since we understand the complexity involved on the backend. The proposed solution from me is to handle this entirely in the front end, as shown below: after creating the draft dataset, the user would be taken directly to the file upload page.
(Referring to a Slack discussion here )

628569443-8bee132d-d662-4734-b802-d04a1458e509.mov

Also, @pdurbin ’s comments make complete sense. This issue was created in response to the feedback, and I believe @jggautier will follow up and gather more information so we know whether we should proceed.

[landreev]

@ChengShi-1 OK, sorry for the noise! I see that you actually explained this in the opening comment; I should have just read it more carefully.
I like the solution too.

[pdurbin]

The video helps a lot but I would suggest a tweak to the title of this issue:

current: Allow Users to Create a Draft Dataset and Upload Files in the Same Step

suggested: Bring users directly to the "upload files" page after creating a dataset

For reference, below are screenshots of the current UX. After creating a dataset, the user can see an "Upload Files" button but they have to click it to initiate that workflow of uploading files. The proposal removes this extra click.

[landreev]

Yeah, kudos for the title change, I was about to suggest the same thing. That was in part the source of our confusion.

[jggautier]

So the goal is to make it easier for researchers to publish data by reducing the number of steps, or the number or clicks, it takes for a researcher to add files to a dataset they just created. I think this goal makes perfect sense, and the solution does too, although the survey results have very little to do with this. Mostly what the survey did so far was remind some colleagues that we made this change, and to encourage us think about the potential cons of the change and how to mitigate them. I think it also helped us consider an interesting benefit of the change that we weren't talking about, that it would simplify the workflow by letting researchers add files in every way, including adding folders, in the same step, even when that step is delayed.

Thinking about this goal and solution, I remember learning that the JSF deposit workflow was staged the way it is to encourage researchers to start creating their datasets as soon as possible, even when they're not ready to add more than the required descriptions and they're not ready to add files.

So I think there might be cases where the researchers wants to create the dataset and they plan to add files later, and that we'd want to encourage this kind of workflow, right?

[lntutor]

I’m working on this. I’ll keep the change front-end-only by redirecting successful dataset creation to the existing upload-files route, with component coverage for the destination URL.