Changed shortname here to D4D. I suggest that tag get used in the issue queue and elsewhere as well.
Also changed shortname for Mark Boulton group -- http://groups.drupal.org/drupal7ux
My proposal / idea was to work on a new design that:
a) has a particular goal to match the out of the box install profile that ships with core
b) highlights different features of the theming system - regions, different node types, etc.
c) highlights different strengths of drupal -- different data types, multi-user capabilities (profiles, blogs, additional roles)
I would propose that this theme is the default theme for the new default install profile in core (we've got two -- the second one is "minimal" with next to nothing turned on).
This "out of the box" experience is people's first experience to Drupal. Which gets me back to "What use case / target market should this aim at?". Which is of course a whole box of worms PLUS is hard to do with "just core".
If we can get Image field into core for D7, here's my "wish list" profile, which is roughly a "community" profile:
* node types: Page, Article, Forum (core), Photo, Blog (core)
* Article has an image field, has design to place image in set place as part of article, article is promoted to front page
* some blocks showcasing other posts
* at least one "non standard" region, perhaps on the /blog page? showcasing recent photos?
* auth users can comment and create forum posts
* additional role out of the box - Contributor - can post Articles, Photos, and Blogs
* profile module successor turned on with some fields configured out of the box
OK, that's all I got for now. I'm going to point catch, who has done lots of work on install profiles, at this as well. What I'd like from this group, is some thought on how this ties into design, and if this might provide guidance for a new core theme.
Update: I posted a start at an expanded core install profile. Comments and direct wiki edits there, please.
Comments
It's important indeed to
It's important indeed to discuss the focus for the default install profile. I'm crossposting this to usability groups as this particular question transcends the visual design part and it would be good to centralize all input for this. Let's do it here then. Thanks.
Comment setting
I'd like to put two more configurations for comment system
Yep
I shouldn't have jumped ahead started putting an outline in here -- I'll make this a wiki page and actually leave it in the usability group -- the D4D team needs to monitor the output in order to make a theme that targets the config, but probably doesn't need to be in all of the ins and outs.
@yoroy I did briefly mention this to Mark and talked to a few other people about this, that design for usability could target a particular "group" out of the box with more an install profile
Don't assume that Boulton's
Don't assume that Boulton's work will result in a new theme. It might, but it also might not. Their focus is on improving the user experience. Whether this results in a new theme is yet TBD.
Bevan/
Bevan/
Cross posted
I'm not assuming it will result in a new theme. I suggested to the Design for Drupal group that a best practices theme that showcases features of an expanded install profile might be a good thing to work on.
g.d.o/design-drupal
I love the D4D abbreviation -- it'll make life a lot easier on many levels.
Still, can we have an alias from the old title to g.d.o/d4d? I'd hate to have some confused folks getting left in the lurch, especially since we never announced the name switch.
I can't thank all of you enough for all of your spport for the new group!
@modulist
New Theme needed badly
In Drupal 6 there seems to be a mix of people that use the garland theme as a starter theme(ahh!) and those who use zen as a starter theme because garland was not ideal for such. But zen has its share of problems. Does it make sense for the drupal 7 theme to have 2 variations? A bare bones ultimate starter theme like zen, and the extended being the pretty version of the theme you can use out of the box with no shame. The new theme would be inspired/modeled from the UX of the new drupal site.
Anyone want to expand on this?
Signature("http://mhuntdesign.com" , "http://dlc-solutions.com");
Zen theme
IMHO, zen belongs in core. I bet more people are using Zen, than any of the other themes included with Core (except for Garland). My hope is that D7 will have a new theme as its base, garland, zen, and maybe a one or two of the other already included themes that have a higher frequency of use.
Guys, we've been down this
Guys, we've been down this road already months back, the result is Stark. Zen will never be a core theme and frankly if we were to put in a designers theme it would probably be Ninesixty with a grid builder application to make it dead easy to build page tpl's.
My guess is that Drupal.org
My guess is that Drupal.org will be wary of modeling a new core theme too closely after the .org site's own theme -- the platform needs a visual identity like anything else, and 50,000 "drupal.org"s would dilute that...
With the enormous user base and how many users want to use Drupal out-of-the-box, no added modules, no added themes, it surprises me the Foundation won't or hasn't hired a theme shop to build a few best-practices, optimized, attractive themes for core and be done with it. They could run an open bid competition, take applications, and if they didn't want to use just one company, even taking two or three to do one/two each would be a huge gain. Think of the plug it would give the theme shop(s) that won? It'd easily be just compensation for giving a stellar theme away to the community.
And for the love of the Fonz, can we phase out Pushbutton/the leftovers from 4.x?
Chameleon is on it's way
Chameleon is on it's way out. Others will follow soon: http://drupal.org/node/315533
The design of drupal.org is made exclusively for d.o. No chance indeed of something like it getting in core :)
It's a good start
And I'd love to see it continue so there's two or three themes. A fluid theme, a fixed-width theme, and very spartan theme. Enough to get started, but inspiration to find a contributed theme.
to be sure
http://groups.drupal.org/node/16200 is the (big) discussion on the how and what for new core themes
wow, thanks
Cool. I very much like the idea of a core theme (singular) and a collection of sub-themes. Makes support for new users a lot easier, and provides a "this theme is optimized for reals, homie" theme for new/casual themers to work on.
Sweet!