Posted by lewisnyman on June 1, 2011 at 5:53pm
Principles are important. They ensure consistent and fair decision making and they set objectives for us all to work towards. Most of all, they keep us honest.
We've been looking at establishing a set of principles that encapsulate our intentions in this initiative and give designers a strong story of Drupal. It would be great to get some feedback on the principles we have been working on.
Honor the Drupal Brand
Drupal is: Powerful, Modern, Open, Social, and relentlessly Beautiful
Embrace Universal Design
Universal design is: Accessible, Usable, and above all, Effective
Power in Flexibility
Our design must be: Extensible, Dynamic, and Device Independent
I feel like they are strong and capture the spirit of Drupal. Some other interpretations and feedback would be golden.
Comments
I like that we are redefining
I like that we are redefining what our values are, indeed introducing new aspects - beauty and device independence.
I think in Drupal 7 we started moving towards this but didn't quite pull it off - neither of our new core themes are what I would describe as beautiful, perhaps usable and accessible, but we never strove for sheer beauty.
Device independence is perhaps not the most clear value in terms of strait visual design, however we want to imbue the process with this objective - to put it on the table, get the juices flowing around the concepts of responsive design.
Take it as read these principles will be posited within a larger design brief.
I think I'm gonna put these
I think I'm gonna put these on the table in Berlin for a re-write and expansion, maybe they are just too generic and not specific enough, maybe tie down a more succinct picture of what we want, and maybe even what we don't want. On reflection I'm tending to things these are just too open ended and we need to be more precise.
Are these principles supposed
Are these principles supposed to define the initiative as a whole or are they being used inconjunction with the design brief for the new core theme?
They are very open, and I think if you want a generic theme that can be used for several use cases they are fine as is providing that the design brief covers more of the visual desire of the new theme. But if you are going for a smaller group of use cases then they probably are too open without additional visual terminology/clarification.
If they are supposed to define the initiative as in all 3 of the challenges and not just the new core theme I think they couldn't be improved in all honesty. If they are to define the core theme then discussing the end use of the theme could be a starting point before pulling them apart if they are too generic?
Good question Andy because
Good question Andy because they are both - they define the initiative as a whole and will be included as a component of the design brief. I would really like to see us have a crack at defining a more focused set of principles.
FYI, these are acquia's
FYI, these are acquia's design principles. Feel free to borrow: https://docs.google.com/a/acquia.com/document/d/16r5RmWyyu1IXdlSCtZnyf-G...