LOGOS 9 for the other folks i.e. those who are volunteers and congregation not professionals or stud

MJ. Smith

Many of the things that would make Logos more user-friendly and approachable to the "other folks" are not major projects but rather a matter of application skins and resources that look and sound like an amateur can do it. Note: I had started building some visuals in Canvas but the  power went out and nothing was saved.

SKINS

1. Don't expect people to remember their search options and when to use them. For example, provide a  simple, visual decision tree that would direct people:

• First to the Bible browser or Factbook
• Next to the inline / find option
• Next to the search
• Bible
• Clause
• Basic
• Morphology
• Otherwise consider it an advanced search

Don't expect people to remember their study options. For example, provide a simple, visual decision tree that would lead people to the appropriate:

• Layout
• Guide
• Workflow

Don't expect people to remember the meaning of all the elements in Information and Context Menu. Rather look at some of the data mining layouts for a guide of other ways to present the data that allows to user to easily ignore/hide data they don't understand e.g. original language data, cantillation data ...

New features:

1. For catechisms in question/answer format, provide a reader that first shows only the question and with one click shows the answer. Note only one of the resources is Catholic so this is not primarily a Verbum question. Typical resources this would handle:

• Heidelberg Catechism
• Catechism in Book of Concord (a bit more complex to handle than the Heidelberg case)
• A Catechism by D. N. Barnardakis
• The Doctrine of the Russian Church by R. W. Blackmore
• Evangelical Lutheran Catechism Or, Class-Book of Religious Instruction, Designed for Catechumens, for the Higher Classes in Sabbath-Schools, and for the Laity in General by S. S. Schmucker
• The Holy Catechism of Nicolas Bulgaris
• The New City Catechism: 52 Questions and Answers for Our Hearts and Minds
• The Westminister Catechisms
• YouCat
• a very large number of Text Creation resources, a rare case where they can have value added.

For Bible study guides, either provide reading plans based on the Lesson breaks and, if practical, include the Bible reading as well as the guide section OR make creating such plans a one step process. Typical resource series this would handle:

• Bible Lessons International
• Catholic Scripture Study
• Come and See
• Hearts Aflame
• Life Lessons
• MacArthur Bible Studies
• Standard Lesson Commentary
• Spirit-Filled Life Study Guide
• Wierbes' "Be" Series
• Not Your Average Bible Study

Where traditional reading plans exist for catechisms, creeds, statements of faith, or foundational documents e.g. Calvin's Institutes, make these reading plans pre-defined plans

Provide a variety of pre-defined collections especially ones that fit into Workflows or show what Guide sections are actually searching. Basic groupings of commentaries by theological stream and methodology would be helpful

Expand the calendar devotional tool to handle liturgical dates and days that are simply numbered.

PetahChristian

• Don't expect people to remember their study options. For example, provide a simple, visual decision tree that would lead people to the appropriate:
• Layout
• Guide
• Workflow

This, please.

Earlier today I vaguely remembered there was a tool that helped with original languages, but couldn’t remember which one it was. Answer found thanks to Google.

Logos has lots of resources that show you how to use a tool, but you have to remember which tool to use in the first place.

Don't expect people to remember the meaning of all the elements in Information and Context Menu.

This! I Also today, couldn’t remember what a context menu icon meant. Please restore that information, whether by a tooltip or otherwise, so we’re not in the dark.

Thanks, MJ, for reminding FL that many users are non-professionals and non-power users, and we could benefit from more guidance.