Add Visual Indicator to Annotations Tab in Identify Modal

Platform(s), such as mobile, website, API, other: website

URLs (aka web addresses) of any pages, if relevant: Identify modal

Description of need:
When viewing observation pages, the Annotations are present along with other observation info on one page. However, when using the Identify modal, the Annotations are present on their own tab out of necessity. Checking for the presence/status of annotations requires clicking on the tab with the mouse or using keyboard shortcuts. Both actions are quick, but the time can add up if doing a lot of IDing. Depending on how one is using Identify, a user might need to switch the tabs back and forth.

In many cases when annotating, one finds that the annotations have already been added. When this happens, the time to move over to the annotation tab/back is somewhat wasted (especially if the IDer isn’t interested in adding votes to existing annotations). It would be useful to have some indication of whether annotations are already present for an observation when on another tab to assess whether one should go to the Annotations tab at all.

Feature request details:
I propose adding a small number, perhaps in parentheses after “Annotations” representing the number of annotation fields added to the observation [e.g., (2) for two annotations if an observation has both Sex and Life Stage annotated].


This isn’t a perfect indicator of annotation information. However, it seems like there is plenty of room in the tab title for a numeral, it would be easy to calculate, and it wouldn’t clutter the interface. If one looks at an observation in the default view and can see that there are no annotations, one can be certain that going to the annotation tab will allow them to enter useful data. Knowing the number of annotations might help in making the decision whether to move to the Annotations tab/add additional observations. I’d also be in favor of other options to add visual information about Annotations to the tab title (a way to show whether the observation has any annotations or not, etc.)

I go thru a batch in Identify - Lepidoptera - first on Annotations to check for Larva. Then again to muddle thru the IDs.
This would help.

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This is a great idea—simple and effective!

The obvious next step is to figure out a way to permit annotations without switching tabs (but that’s a different feature request).

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When I do annotations I tend to focus on just adding annotations, not going between the different tabs, but I think this is a find and small addition.

If keyboard shortcuts were to be used this way, I think the Annotations tab would need to be displayed so that the annotater received visual confirmation that their annotation was actually added.

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I don’t think I’m in favor of having the ability to add annotations without being on/viewing the tab itself. However, if that were allowed, one solution could be that, if there is a number on the annotations tab, it could go up by one if an annotation were added while on another tab. Maybe with a nice +1 animation…

1-up

One other solution could just be that, if an IDer enters an annotation shortcut, this also automatically switches the Identify modal to the Annotations tab.

3 Likes

I fully sympathise with the motivation for this feature request, but I cannot see how it would help. Very often, the current annotations are either of very little interest (e.g. Cannot Be Determined), or are just plain wrong. So even if I know that there are annotations present, I still always need to review them. Really, nothing short of a complete summary of the current state of the annotations is going to help.

I think there’s enough space on the info page to present this as a horizontal banner above the identifcation list. This could show a reduced-size icon, label and tick/cross for each annotation that has been added - but would be strictly read-only.