Oftentimes we add "useful" descriptions directly on nodes in the editor. It would be nice if there was a special indication whenever a node contains a description. Something like this:
And if it were hover-able (with a rich tooltip) or even just clickable (to show the docs) that would be even better.
Ps, the idea for rich tooltip is something that has been discussed/attempted iirc - but knowing what I know about the editor, it is not a simple task. But even just a static tooltip of "this node has user documentation, click here to see it" would be a big improvement for discoverability
The description already shows up in the info sidebar so just having the indicator is sufficient I think. All it needs is something adding to the Editor such that when "Done" is clicked, a check is made on the length of the description field and if it is >0 then the class on the icon is changed from hidden to visible.
if the sidebar is open and if the right panel is selected.
I disagree. If you were new to node-red, you might see this but have no idea what it means. You and I have the luxury of knowing there is a possibility of user documentation.
And what if you were a view only guy or a reviewer?
Or actually think it through from improving UX for new users PoV?
OK, so just add a standard tooltip to the icon. What I meant was that there is no point in trying to add a complex process to render Markdown into HTML in a tooltip - indeed, who would have the time to even program that into Node-RED? A static tooltip that says "Description available - see the info sidebar" or something like that would be more than enough surely?
Are you saying that the existing UX of the Editor isn't good for beginners? That is surely a different issue and if every minor improvement turns into something major, we will never be able to get improvements done.
I've recently started to move to using aria-label with some CSS to make the label visible as a tooltip. This works well from an accessibility and general usability sense. But mostly standard tooltips should also work fine. The label method allows you to stop the browser showing the default tooltip so that a formatted one can be shown instead. But is again, overkill for this I believe.
Good idea. But just having an icon with no interaction is horrible.
The icon should function the same as the new "Show help" button at the bottom of node config screens.
ie Click to open the sidebar and switch to the Info tab.
Seems like a quick and easy implementation. Although, I think it could lead to problems when a node developer overrides the name at times the core would not expect it. I'm sure an expert can answer this question.
However, I would rather implement this separately, not on the already existing node name.