Tackling UX design challenges
We're kicking off weekly meetings in IRC:
- Tuesdays, 21:00/9pm CET (convert to other timezone)
- Wednesdays, 09:00/9am CET (convert to other timezone)
Taking inventory of who, what & how:
People
Designers and developers of all kinds, project managers, copywriters, testers, researchers, none/all of the above: leave a comment saying how you'd like to contribute (and any of the roadblocks you encounter in trying to do so).
Priorities
See https://www.drupal.org/node/2497361 for a list of usability issues identified in Drupal 8.
- Where can we start?
- Is there a useful sequence to work through?
- How do we decide on that?
Process
Core issue about possible process for big UX changes: https://www.drupal.org/node/2573119
On a more ongoing basis: figure out how to keep aligned on current work and next steps.
Read moreLatest posts
Drupal SBUI Collaboration Platform now open
Hi Everyone,
I know, its been rather quiet from us since the announcement of the Drupal SiteBuilding Usability Initiative some two+ weeks ago. Well, BADCamp got in the way and Michael and Doug was busy mingling with all the amazing Drupalers there for starters. While they where doing that, I spent my time learning and configuring Open Atrium as we have chosen it as our collaboration platform for Drupal SBUI.
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Views usability study results
On Nov 1 2012, we tested the Views UI (7.x-3.5) with intermediate-level Drupal users at the BADCamp UX/UI Summit to provide the community with a clear picture of the usability bottlenecks in the Views UI
Check out Report from BADCamp 2012 Views Usability Testing for the full report. Help improve things in these issues
(disabling comments here, if you have feedback, please add it to the full report linked above, thanks)
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Revise Drupal 8 nomenclature based on usability data
Below are proposals to alter some of the Nomenclature of Drupal based on usability testing.
Views
Testing has shown that meaning of “views” is completely opaque to the new user and provides absolutely zero potential for unguided wayfinding. Also “views” conflicts with “view” in the context of content as well as “preview”. We are testing a change to “content lists”
Taxonomy
Testing has shown that users cannot understand what taxonomy is or why they would need it. We are testing a change to “categories”.
Modules
Read moreDrupal 8 IA: narrow and deep, not wide and flat.
The D7 IA has evolved to be very wide and flat because the toolbar has a flat menu structure that requires a page load to drill down. As we re-structure the interaction pattern of menus we have an opportunity to reassess the IA. Wide top level menus with a large number of children made sense when every level down required a new page load. The new menu allows for deep exploration without the need for multiple page loads so we can build narrower and deeper and employ more hierarchies and sub-categorization that will inform the user. To illustrate this point I’ve created the following example:
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Announcing the Drupal SiteBuilding Usability Initiative (SBUI)
Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object.
Source: Wikipedia
"Our ambition is to help improve the usability of Drupal for all user roles
– from core developers to anonymous site visitors"
What we would like to do (long term goal)
Read moreAll Spark designs
Quite a few people have asked for all the designs that Spark is working on to be accessible from one place so that they don't have to sift through all of the issues to find them. Below are links to all of the invision prototypes that are available right now as well as a few html prototypes and live demo sites. I have included the related issue numbers so you can make comments in the appropriate issue.
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Toolbar Usability Study Findings
Bojhan and Dharmesh recently conducted a 6-participant moderated usability study on the new toolbar. The design was tested on desktop and mobile (and on the iPad in some cases).
Summary of findings
Overall, the toolbar prototype tested well on desktop and iPhones.
“This is a big improvement from where we are at [right now]” (P4)
Most of the participants (4 out of 6) had positive reaction. The rest of the participants (2) had a neutral response to the change. The mobile version was significantly better received than the desktop experience.
Read moreDesigns for unified Blocks and layouts UI
As you may or may not know Blocks and layouts is a design problem that I have been working on for the better part of three years since I first started working at Acquia. Back then Jeff Noyes, Dries and myself were just focused on introducing drag-drop blocks to Drupal Gardens and didn't have a view to the wider problem of layouts because really at that point seven was not even out and it just seemed too big a problem to solve.
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Drupal Accessibility Sprint in Toronto (Nov 18 2012)
November 16-18 is an exciting time to be in Toronto if you are interested in Drupal and Accessibility.
Along with:
Drupal Accessibility Sprint Toronto -- #a11ySprint
Read moreD8 Toolbar Usability Study Plan (Mobile + Desktop)
We are planning on doing some usability testing of the mobile prototype, below we have outlined the test plan. Since we haven't tested this prototype much, we are focusing our initial test plan primarily on finding out how they experience the navigation - not necessarily how they experience the admin theme.
Name of the project: Toolbar testing
Type of study: Moderated
Focus of the study: To get answers to the following high-level questions:
