Last updated by Caroline Pickering on Mon, 2009-04-20 21:09
One of the design directions we are considering involves understanding the key (core) tasks for Drupal users. In order to progress down this path, we need to compile a list of tasks to ensure that nothing important is overlooked.
Please help us compile a list of tasks grouped into priority (high to low). If the task is only performed by a certain 'role' of user it would be helpful to note that as well.
I've kicked off by copying the task list used in the recent usability testing - please add/edit/comment as you see fit!
thanks in advance for your help with this!
BM: priority grouping is going to be hard - just add to the end for now and then do card sort on high/med/low? Yes, installing Drupal is high priority, but it is also a "do once" operation.
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1. install Drupal
2. create content
3. add link to the navigation menu
4. create a content type
5. set up roles and permissions
6. categorise content
7. enable and use path module
BM: any reason not to enable path out of the box?
8. add <img> to filtered HM
9. enable search
10. set up a trigger for new content notifications
BM: this might be another candidate for out of the box functionality
11. upgrade Drupal
12. promote / demote content from the front page
13. view site content as would be seen by different user roles (med)
14. set up URL aliases (high)
15. view and moderate comments (low)
16. install WYSIWYG editor (high)
17. edit theme template (med)
18. edit theme css
Comments
Drupal users develop a site
Drupal users develop a site in many different ways which makes prioritizing this site very difficult. I've divided this into what I think are two different paths. The first is probably more common amongst advanced users. Most of the time advanced users have architected a site and generally understand how all of the parts will come together. They know in advance the overall structure of the site. The primary goal is the underlying structure of the site, while the secondary concern is content and theme. New users, however often focus on other aspects first. Because they don't yet understand how taxonomy relates to content types and how different modules interact, they often jump straight into creating content and theme. I should note that everybody does things slightly differently, and a lot depends on the site itself.
More advanced users
Newer users
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-- matt tucker
nice
I think ultimateboy has this pretty much spot on.
One thing that's worth adding to this, we don't necessarily want to, and probably can't, force new users into the advanced user pattern.
I can happily install 20 modules for a new site and know I'm likely to use 95% of them. However my first (and still running) Drupal site, I've been through dozens and dozens of modules - finding out they weren't what I need, finding cooler ways to do it, trying to cut some fat out of the open buffet. In some cases this has meant destroying data and putting it back manually, or finding ways to migrate it, or having to reconfigure dozens of different things. Those early choices can potentially affect your site for many years since if you go down one path for a while there's often no easy way to switch, so it's good that people either wait a bit before venturing out into contrib land, or are prepared to wipe a one or two week-old site clean and start again after learning some lessons. This is a function of the Drupal project as a whole, and building websites in genera not just a UX issue though.
Having said that, there's
The task of learning
Can I also suggest "creating a mental model" (or "understanding how Drupal works") be listed as a task?
While there is info on "how to" carry out various tasks, I found I was inferring (often incorrectly!) how things worked. (I'm a total newbie to Drupal, and love it, but the curve is very steep for non-experts like me.)
I think most advanced users
I think most advanced users are either using an individual install profile or just copy a main Drupal Installation which just have the basic configurations and is ready to go.
@Mark
the task list you have posted need some few changes in my opinion:
Setting up roles and permissions should be one of the last thing you should do setting up a basic configuration of a drupal website because most users are making changes to content types very late in the process. Also when you are upgrading all the modules or drupal core , required permissions could have been changed during the upgrade process.
I fully agree with the path module enabled right at the beginning. Also the
tag should be in the filtered html input format by default. Mostly, new users are confused by pictures not shown in their nodes.
A few additions to the list
I have added a few items to the list (13 - 18) based on my first few weeks of getting to know Drupal and setting up a couple of sites.
As a frontend designer who provides CMS support to clients I'm particularly aware of the desire to create great looking content without any knowldege of HTML/CSS- hence the installing of a WYSIWGY editor. I'd quite like to a see a couple of editors available out of the box with the option to select the one you want to make available to content creators.
I've found the url aliases module essential to maintain a mental map of the content I've created (I can't work with nodes!) and would very much like to see a site structure 'view' as a top level option.
Experimenting with roles and permissions has resulted in me logging on and off VERY frequently to check the results so it would be nice to view content simulating user roles (no sure if that's technically very easy?)
As a designer I was in there fiddling with the theme templates and css very early to achieve the design and layout I was looking for, but I appreciate that this may always be an 'under the bonnet' task rather than part of the administrative functionality of Drupal.