Lightning Talks Day 3

by Michael Prilop

Summary of "Lightning Talks Day 3"

In his presentation at the wroc_love.rb 2024 event, Michael Prilop discusses an open-source application called Zite, which his team has been working on. He highlights the tool's versatility for task and process management while noting its current limitation of being available only in German, which may restrict its usability for a broader audience.

Key Points Discussed:

Zite Overview:
- Zite is positioned between small-scale solutions and large enterprise applications like Salesforce.
- It offers flexibility for data input and structured data retrieval.
- Currently, it's primarily targeted at users familiar with German.
- Prilop encourages collaboration for research projects, especially considering GDPR compliance.
User Engagement:
- Despite positive feedback about Zite, user activity on platforms like GitLab is low due to hesitance caused by two-factor authentication.
- Prilop expresses a desire to see increased user engagement and stars on their projects to foster growth.
Research Prototype Development:
- Prilop shares insights into a research prototype developed without designer input, which initially minimized emphasis on user interface design.
- The absence of a strict design led them to use basic HTML for user interfaces, which turned out to be mobile-friendly.
User Requirements and Data Visualization:
- Users requested more functionality, particularly in visualizing large datasets.
- Initially, the team feared they would need to revert to large UI libraries.
- Instead, they discovered Unicode spark lines as an effective solution, allowing users to visualize data succinctly.
Conclusion:
- The team successfully implemented user feedback, resulting in improved data representation that satisfied user needs.
- Prilop concludes by reinforcing the significance of user-centric design and the value of flexible, open-source solutions in managing tasks and processes.

Takeaways:

Open-source applications can bridge the gap between flexibility and structure in task management.
User feedback is crucial in developing features that enhance the user experience.
Creative solutions like Unicode spark lines can provide practical visualizations without the complexity of larger libraries.
Engaging users on platforms like GitHub remains a challenge but is essential for growth.

00:00:05.759 So, this is a Libra office default template. This is a cool effect, and I'm Michael from Liik.

00:00:09.360 Before letting the lightning talks die, I want to talk briefly about Zite, which is an open-source application that we've been working on for quite a while as a side project.

00:00:16.680 I copied this from our website. Basically, Zite is something in between a small solution and a big enterprise solution from Salesforce. It focuses on task and process management, offering flexibility in inputting data and obtaining structured data. However, it's currently only available in German, so I would probably not advise you to use it, as it's not meant for people like you and me. We have other means to set up our task tracking. I mean, who invented issue management? It's not really that useful for us, but for our users, it is pretty valuable. Additionally, it's open source, and we would be happy if you ever feel the need for something that fits in between existing solutions and open-source projects, considering GDPR requirements. If you do, please feel free to contact us, as we are very interested in implementing it in research projects, which is our primary use case.

00:02:04.840 Now, why am I here? Recently, over the last two days, we've heard many projects that have great outreach and substantial stars on GitHub and GitLab. We have experienced a significant surge in popularity recently. However, it turns out our users are not very active on GitLab. Every time I mention to someone at this conference, 'Hey, why not give us a star?', they typically respond positively but then hesitate because of two-factor authentication, finding it too cumbersome. It would be fantastic if we could increase our growth rate to reach 100% today or tomorrow.

00:03:01.120 I also thought about discussing something completely unrelated. A while ago, we had a new research prototype that we worked on without any designer input or strict user interface requirements. Everyone assumed UI wasn't so important as it was just a first prototype, and we would see how it developed. Thus, we spent a lot of time just researching how to bundle our CSS and JavaScript. Considering the pace of change in the web framework space, we had to choose between various options like Tailwind, UI, Bootstrap, or perhaps something else.

00:03:16.040 In the end, we made a decision to choose nothing, which was quite interesting. It was an intriguing journey because using pure HTML resulted in a mobile-friendly interface. However, soon our users started to express their need for more functionality. They commented on the need for visualizing large data sets, like analyzing the distribution of documents per year, perhaps with a histogram or something similar. Initially, I thought that this meant including large UI libraries again, which I wanted to avoid at this stage.

00:04:16.479 But then we found a neat solution by utilizing Unicode spark lines, which is a widely available method. Once we knew how to implement Unicode spark lines, we created a feature that perfectly met their needs. Our users were thrilled as we nicely provided them with a visual representation of the data, allowing them not only to select data sets but also to see the results effectively. And with that, I would like to conclude. Thank you!