Come discuss, create and plan great Drupal UX design in here!
Other places to explore: Core issues tagged 'usability', Where UI docs live, Come chat in IRC in #drupal-usability.
Designing Drupal's Mobile Navigation and Beyond
The short story
Come and help us perfect and implement the hot new mobile interface design in Drupal 8. Try the prototype on your phone. Also, go to the issue queue.
The long story
Over the past six months we've been working on designing the experience of getting to where you want within Drupal's admin interface.
Read moreConcept model
We want to give you a quick run through our ideas and current state of research for the Blocks & Layout initiative. I am working together with Useradvocate and EclipseGc to form a broad understanding.
One of the first things I want to tackle is describing how we use "context", because this is one of the most common questions. A really quick way of describing it is that context(s) are the data objects that blocks depend upon, to determine when display (yes/no) and how to display.
Read more
UX Happy Hour (May 28)
The next happy hour is on May 28, 2012 (Monday) on IRC channel #drupal-usability. The agenda for the meeting is:
- Blocks and Layouts initiative
- Strategy for Views UI
- On ramp process for Drupal
P.S.: Make sure to check the right time zone for the meeting. The meeting is scheduled for 4 PM (EDT).
Spark: WYSIWYG editors evaluation — call for feedback!
For the Spark project, we're looking for a WYSIWYG editor. It must work well on mobile devices, hence HTML5 is pretty much a necessity. A WYSIWYG editor still involves a lot of JavaScript, so solid JavaScript is also important.
However, for the Spark project, the WYSIWYG goal is somewhat different than the "typical" WYSIWYG goal. We're looking for a "true WYSIWYG" editor, which we can define as a WYSIWYG that matches all CSS selectors identically like the eventual document would.
Read moreUsability test findings: Content creation
Goal
The goal of the study was to uncover usability issues with the new prototype for the content creation experience for Drupal 8. The study was conducted with new and existing users.
Methodology & Participant Demographics
- 11 participants ( 6 existing users and 5 new users) were tested for this study. Based on the availability of the participant and flexibility of the contributor, the studies were moderated (5 existing users and 1 new users) or unmoderated (1 existing user and 4 new users) using userfeel.com
- Sessions lasted from 30 minutes to 60 minutes.
- Participants of this study write/edit content on a content management system and write content at least more than once a month. The participant screener can be found here: https://docs.google.com/a/acquia.com/document/d/1KcL3aNUceVKXi9HLAubZv70...
- Participants were asked to think aloud and perform tasks followed by a brief scenario. The study plan can be found here: http://groups.drupal.org/node/223959
- The study was conducted in April 2012.
Global Accessibility Awareness Day on May 9, 2012 at Droplabs
Global Accessibility Awareness Day is a community-driven effort whose goal is to focus one day to raise the profile of digital (web, software, mobile app/device, touch screen kiosk, etc.) accessibility and people with different disabilities.
The idea started with a single blog post. On May 9th, people in communities around the world are encouraged to hold a talk/meetup, organize hands-on demos, or plan another activity that brings attention to some aspect of digital accessibility. Follow @GblA11yDay on Twitter and use the #gaad hashtag in your own tweets.
Droplabs is happy to participate in this global event. We will have both Dallas Legan and Larry Hart on-hand to present:
- Dallas Legan is a well-respected member of the Southern California Open Source ecosystem. He has presented on a variety of topics at UUASC, LAMP-SIG, the San Fernando Valley Linux Users Group, the San Gabriel Valley Linux Users Group and SCALE.
- Larry Hart is a longtime member of the San Fernando Valley Linux Users Group. He also happens to be a blind web user and will be imparting both his knowledge and frustrations of using a non-accessible web. We hope this will lead to discussions on how we, as web developers, can create a more usable and accessible web.
UX Happy Hour (April 30)
Hey,
The next happy hour is on April 30, 2012 from 4 PM (EST) to 5:30 PM (EST) in #drupal-usability channel, because turn out has been a bit low lately we are switching the format this time to allow for more sprinting than just discussion.
The rough agenda for the meeting:
1. Updates on Blocks & Layout and outreach
2. Update by technika on orientation.
3. Issue queue
4. Sprinting on the findings of our content creation usability study
5. If you have any designs (core or contrib), we could review them (bring screenshots/demo).
Information architecture redo
I want to get serious about redoing the information architecture of Drupal. To be frank, it's a problem. Users don't know what's structure and whats content. Neither do we. I see developers all the time asking where their modules belong.
Read moreResponsive Drupal.org: What we want in a framework
As part of the Drupal.org code sprint in Portland; Chris Ruppel, Joel Moore and myself have been discussing a new Bluecheese. A lean, tight, and admin friendly theme that lays out a framework for the future. One that would allow us to develop a mobile friendly, responsive design.
What we want
An admin friendly UI
Read moreUX Happy Hour (April 16)
Hello All,
Fantastic Drupalistas, the next happy hour is on April 16, 2012 from 4 PM (EST) to 5:30 PM (EST) on our rocking #drupal-usability channel.
The rough agenda for the meeting:
1. Bojhan to give an update on what's rocking the Drupal UX world (hint: Layout)
2. Dcmistry to talk about the content creation usability study and how everyone can help to make this happen
3. (Tentative) Updates from the mobile UX Drupal world
4. If you have any designs (core or contrib), we could review them. (Tentative: orientation designs for Drupal 8 core)
Content Creation UX Study Plan
Introduction
Drupal 8 wants to provide a much-improved workflow for content creators. One of the most critical screens in this is the content creation page. This issue outlines a plan for implementing a new design for this page.
The main issues that this design wants to solve are:
Read moreNew user onramp proposal
The design of this Onramp has come about as a result of the insights gained from the Drupal 7 Usability Study at Google. The Onramp is intended to part of Drupal core and greet users when they first install Drupal.
Goals of Onramp:
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UI for hierarchical permissions, introducing permission rules
This is a user interface proposal for hierarchical permissions, a concept aims to make it possible to have modules with hierarchically structured, accurately regulable permissions.
Read more
D8 UX Analysis – The IA Space Hypothesis
An ongoing difficulty in design discussions is finding reliable/agreeable words to describe or identify key concepts. Whatever label we choose for an idea may have different connotations for different people. The term ‘Information Architecture Space’ (or ‘IA Space’) is certainly subject to varied interpretations so I want to take some time here to describe what I’m referring to more fully.
Read moreD8 UX Analysis: Design Assumptions and Principles
The architectural changes underway for Drupal 8 via WSCCI and related activities present UX designers with the non-trivial task of working out a new approach to Drupal administrative and content management tasks. UX design is a complex matter under any circumstances but when the technological ground is shifting dramatically under the feet of the designers then it is all the more challenging. Here are some brain exercises to help us limber up for the task!
Read moreD8 UX Analysis – Layouts, IA Spaces and the Principle of Definition-Usage Pairs
One of the key ideas behind the new D8 architecture is that of resources being identified by unique URLs. It sounds simple enough but, behind it, I think there are some exciting potentials for transforming Drupal’s UX strategy. I want to share some ideas about that kind of transformation here and I’ll tackle it from a few angles: ‘what is a page’; the principle of definition-usage pairs; and IA Space and URL semantics.
Read moreCall for prototypers
If you have development chops, designers and other contributors of this community need your help bringing designs to life.
Allow me to paint a picture of the need and skills required...
The task of creating content has been redesigned (http://groups.drupal.org/node/217434), and has reached a point of consensus. At this point, the design really needs to interactive to flush out how all of the various interactions will work (or don't). Additionally, once made interactive, we validate the direction by testing the prototype with end users.
Read moreUX Happy Hour (April 2)
Hello All,
The next bi-weekly UX happy hour is on April 2, 2011 from 4 PM (EST) to 5 PM (EST) on the super IRC #drupal-usability channel. Hang out with the cool ones, after all Monday is the new Thursday!
The rough agenda for the meeting:
1. All the inside scoop from DrupalCon Denver
2. Introductions and How to make things better for interested people to contribute to usability?
3. Discuss a feasible timeline for future actionable items
Note: If you have designs that you would like the UX folks to take a look at it, bring them. We will be happy to give our two cents.
Notes: Usability BoF at DrupalCon Denver
On Thursday, March 22, 2012, @lisarex and I ran a BoF to talk about Usability. First of all, we would like to thank every one who could make it to the session. For the others who could not make it, here is the summary from the session.
Since the group was a mix of new and existing contributors, the focus was on what we “the usability team” could do to make things better for the community.
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Drupal.org Office Hours
Come to Drupal.org office hours to share what you're working on and help us come up with the weekly drupal.org hit list!
Stop by #drupal-infrastructure from 11am to 12pm Pacific Time (18:00 - 19:00 UTC).
