New user onramp proposal

I think this is a great start and while we have a lot of other things to work on to get Drupal to be usable, I think it's important that we at least have something going.

Here are some my comments after an initial review of the Drupalcon core conversation presentation:

slide 3 - confusing to say "This would allow us to display a list of only events but not articles and photos"
slide 4 - might want to list more information or include another slide as to how to define your own fields
slide 5 - describes what you can do but not how (node reference)

I feel like the primer needs more "meat" to it. It talks about what you can do, such as installing modules from d.o. But how? We don't touch on taxonomy, show people how to add, edit, or find content. I feel like some of these basics are missing. I think adding all of these into a slideshow would be hard so it might be worth creating a library of screencasts that could either be added into the primer on the different slides or could be separate.

I'll keep thinking of other subjects we can add, since I know i've missed a couple of key ones.

I just added an outline of the current onramp proposal to this post so it's easier to talk through.

@DSheffler: I think the problem with screencasts is that they take time (you can't just watch it in 2x speed if you don't want to sit through a 3 minute video), a lot of concentration, and become more of a burden than a quick static walkthrough. I do think it could be useful to point new users to where they can find learning Drupal screencasts at the end in the "tip of the iceberg" slide. We would also want to make the onramp accessible at a later time, so even if the user skips it in the beginning, she knows where to go find it again. I definitely think we can rethink the exact pieces of "meat" we want to include in it, but we don't want to make it too heavy so the user feels overwhelmed and discouraged.

@tvn: contextual help on admin pages definitely seems like the best way of exposing the new user to helpful information in the place they need it. However this approach of a static slideshow seems more pragmatic as a first method to getting this type of new user support into core.

Great initiative and a much needed one. I think this is a great first draft but there is a lot of scope for improvement. I agree to DSheffler's comment about the current content is giving me some understanding about Drupal but not enough to be actionable.

Also, which one is the latest? The content that is in Wiki or the prototype from Lewisnyman? They are inconsistent :)

The way I see it, the on ramp process is a two step process (conceptually). First is understanding the concepts and the second is navigating through Drupal toolbar.

For the concepts, the order should be:
1. Content comes first in Drupal
2. Extend your site, add a module (Tell what a module is, where it is on the toolbar and a link to the most commonly used modules)
3. Change the look of your website, add themes
4. Content types (include simple definition of content types and fields)
5. A walk through (e.g. This is the toolbar where you manage your website, blah blah blah)
6. Additional resources
7. Tell them how they can retrieve this information when they exit.

The section about community is good but I don't think the new user is ready for that yet.

Other notes:
1. The on ramp process has to be visually appealing. Right now, it feels a bit dry.
2. Should have an option to go "next", "back" and "close"
3. I am not entirely sold that the newspaper metaphor is good to begin with.

Check out, Squarespace. They have a great way of doing it (of course, it is a lot simpler in terms of features than ours but it is inviting and appealing!)

Here is a snapshot of their walk through: Squarespace

Also, if the need be, I would be happy to help with the copy of the walk through.

Hope this is helpful!

I'm more than happy to help with copy as well.

@dcmistry, just for a point of clarification, what do you mean by #7? Do you mean how they can see the onramp/tutorial again when they're at the end or something different? Overall though, really great points and much better delivered than what I was trying to get across in my original comment. :)

Wow. Glad I got notified about this. I just bitched a little about not having this 'onramp' or 'intro to Drupal' stuff here: Usability Report from the Drupal 7 UX Study at Google

My 2 cents after checking the click dummy.. Make it sexy, use (zoomed/cropped) screenshots where possible. Checkout the Skype, GarageBand and iTunes welcome screens.

dcmistry seems to be on the right track..

The on ramp process has to be visually appealing. Right now, it feels a bit dry.

This is a great initiative, and indeed, a much needed one.

I like the way @dcmistry organized the points, but I think if we're going to focus on content first, we should discuss what you can do in core to start. This means starting with content types (and possibly taxonomy?) and then maybe using some "limitation" to segue into extending the site with modules. (a simple example could be adding different types of fields, or you could even introduce the concept of views... or is that too soon?)

I think discussing the community in the onramp is really important. The main forces that drive Drupal often say that it's greatest strength is the community behind it, which I believe is true. Also, how can we talk about contributed modules without highlighting the community that creates them? At some point our new user is going to wonder how to create a block with the last 5 posts by author X of type Y. If they believe in the community, it won't be seem like such a big deal installing a couple modules to do it.

I'm also in to help with the copy of the walkthrough.

If you're coming to this page via the issue Add text/video training/tour that introduces users to Drupal terminology, the prototype site is down because it was hacked :(

I will work on getting it back up soon.