Improve Drupal 8 user interface texts

With APIs as good as frozen, it's time to take a step back and get an idea of what's all been added to Drupal core. The capabilities are there, now to expose and communicate them so that people understand what's going on and apply it to what they want to achieve.

To most people the user interface is the application. All the machinery under the hood is taken for granted. It's easy to lose sight of this, but very important to keep in mind.

The user interface is the application. And the user interface consists mostly of words. Form elements and words. A few icons here, the occasional image thumbnail but mostly words.

We have some work to do to get the right words in place in the Drupal admin ui.

Lets get started!

A plan?

To be found out while doing:

• Per screen, per module, per admin section?
• Existing user interface issues for D8

What we need

(Re)writers & editors

People who want to review the current UI, point out any issues with the interface texts, open issues towards fixing them.

(link example issues, write instructions)

You'll find different kinds of issues with the texts:

• Quick fixes for typos, redundant descriptions (examples…)
• Not actionable enough. When it reads more like documentation instead of guidance for getting things done.
• Too technical in message and wording. Drupal specific words etc.
• Not enough explanation. Some of the newly added interface are still lacking ui copy
• Explaining a broken ui. Sometimes the ui copy gives instructions for how to work around a sub-optimal interface. Decide on per case basis what to do. Isolate these from more directly actionable issues.

Patch writers

Those who suggest the better text don't necessarily know how to write the patch. Help them out with creating patches. These are usually relatively simple patches.

(write instructions/link handbook pages)

Reviewer

We need people to double-check the work of the writers and editors. Not only to review the patches themselves but also to keep an eye on overall consistency between mulitple patches. People who are good at overseeing the big picture.

We'll have to balance the scope for each patch. Not too small because that fragments the work. Not too large because that will hinder progress (20 good changes will get held up by 1 change that triggers a lots of discussion).