d8ux

UX meeting format is evolving

Roy — Mon, 30 May 2016 22:53:56 +0000

Sub title

50/50 on new ideas and reviewing work in progress

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After a couple of weeks of setting up with mostly free-format meetings in IRC we’re going to try a more structured format for our weekly UX meetings:

First half hour: people can introduce a problem + proposed (possible) solution
Second half hour: we review any work that has progressed over the past week. Often a core committer will be around to provide guidance or even actually commit changes that are good to go.

We did a first ad-hoc version of this last week, including a hangout with screen sharing. It worked really well, was productive and a lot of fun. Seeing the same thing in action is helpful when discussing user interface changes!

Next one is coming up and people from Acromedia will present on a topic and outline their proposed solution. For the second part I’m hoping we can review the “Place block” experimental module patch.

The meeting will take an hour. Here’s a calendar for the date and time.

Want to join? Join the UX channel on drupal.slack.com. Get an automatic invite here. We’ll link a hangout from there and make sure we’re broadcasting live so at least everybody who wants can follow along and use Slack for background chat.

See you there!

10 places to explore visual & structural hierarchy on Drupal admin screens

drupal — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 20:47:20 +0000

Sub title

Your ideas for how to put first things first, please.

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One of the critical Drupal UX issues is the lack of visual and structural hierarchy on admin pages. Can you suggest ideas, sketches, mockups for any of the following?

Pick one or more options for the structure page and create a wireframe or two.
What can we do for the Help page?
The filters on the content listing are considered part of the “Add content” link. They should not be.
What is the right order for showing different kinds of messages?
Code the patch that shows views displays as local task items.
Looking at admin/structure once more: which items could be moved to a more relevant context? For example. Draw the before/after sitemap.
Draw the current and improved sitemap of the user & account items?
How can we make the default homepage look and feel more like a homepage?
Sketch alternatives for groupings on the Extend page.
What would admin/config look like with some items more visible than others?

Post your sketches, plans or ideas to the linked issue or add this folder to your Google Drive and upload there.

Drupal UX, the conceptual criticals

Roy — Sat, 23 Jan 2016 00:44:20 +0000

Sub title

Where Drupal does not meet people’s expectations of how things are done:

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Where Drupal does not meet people’s expectations of how things are done:

Using unfamiliar words for basic concepts. Naming things is hard. Understanding weirdly named things is even harder.
Lack of wayfinding, onboarding, getting started instructions make people feel lost. They are not guided towards quick successes that instill confidence.
No visual hierarchy in how features, options are presented. Everything is presented as equally important which makes it hard to make choices, it doesn’t help people “guestimate” and “satisfice”, which is the default mode of operating, especially when exploring something new.
People are never really sure they are doing the right thing. Depending on previews to check if they’re on track makes for inefficient workflows.
Order of how to do things is backwards. People are forced to create abstract placeholders first before being able to do the actual thing. Having to put a menu in a block in a region on a page whereas people want to click the spot on the page where they want to add some navigation links.
The standard installation is too sparse, making Drupal appear limited in functionality.
The ‘river of news’ model for the homepage is outdated and causes confusion after creating the first post.
All of the above lead to a reluctance to explore and probe functionality. The impression people get is that Drupal is limited in what it can do.

One of the D8UX design principles was to connect the dots. It obviously still should be a, if not the guiding principle because the above list makes it clear that the lack of guidance, presets, and hierarchy/prioritisation of functionality is what makes people stumble.

No solutions offered in this post, just compiling the list :-)

Drupal 8 = Drupal 7 contrib

Roy — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:15:14 +0000

Drupal 8 = Drupal 7 contrib Roy 29-04-2011

Drupal initiative work is spinning up. Research, planning and scoping things. Important, but up till a point. Many of the changes we want to bring to core for Drupal 8 can be done as contributed projects right now.

Starting in contrib has some important advantages. You get to ship your project earlier and more often. Drupal 7 sites can benefit from your solution. The code and concept can be tested and improved based on feedback coming from actual use in the wild.

Can't speak on how things work best for refactoring underlying framework plumbing, I imagine this works especially well for new features for the Drupal core application.

Want to improve the core book module for the Snowman use case? Start in contrib, now.
Want to make Seven admin theme ready for small screens? Start in contrib, now.
Want to make better filters for content and other admin listings? You get the point…

Don't wait for momentum in core development. Develop the concept in contrib so that we can add mature and tested features to core.

Drupal

d8ux

A short list of Drupal 8 UX priorities

Roy — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 23:52:01 +0000

A short list of Drupal 8 UX priorities Roy 27-04-2011

(where Leisa has the long-form version)

Work the UX design process.

Help developers make better design decisions. More usability engineering. Grow the team.

See: pattern library, issue queue work in Prairie, Minnesota Lab testing, Acquia testing

Improve core site building tools

Help Jeremy build sites.

See: Core context UI, Modules page, menus, content types (Field UI)

Design content editor workflows

Connect the dots for Verity, so that she can get her new content out and manage existing stuff.

See: Workbench, Content editor group

Make the initial install a more focussed application

Connect some more dots: what does a base Drupal install do for you? Can we do 3 fun, core-only Apps?

See: Snowman, install profiles

Improve the social architecture for community collaboration

Make contributing more awesome for more people. Humanize community tools and processes.

See: Prairie initiative

Drupal

d8ux

design