UX issue queue sprint June 27/28 in Utrecht

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eigentor's picture
Start: 
2009-06-27 (All day) - 2009-06-28 (All day) UTC
Event type: 
Drupalcamp or Regional Summit

The sprint will be held at One Shoe http://www.oneshoe.nl/ in downtown utrecht which is one of the largest Drupal developing companies in holland. We have space for 20+ people in their nice and spacious office. Utrecht has lots of opportunities to go out in the evening, and with the Drupal Jam on Friday, this is bound to rock for all attendants.

Starting time will be at 10:00 in the morning on both days.

All people that care for UX are welcome. We can use: Graphic Designers, Coders, Copy Writers, Themers and CSS Ninjas

Confirmed Participants so far:

Leisa Reichelt
Mark Boulton
Dries Buytaert
Gabor Hojtsy (Gábor Hojtsy)
Damien Tournoud (DamZ)
Erik Stielstra (sutharsan)
Bojhan Somers (bojhan)
Roy Scholten (yoroy)
Bart Feenstra (Xano)
Gaele Strootman (gaele)
Kristjan Jansen (kika)
Thomas Moseler (eigentor)
Konstantin Kaefer (kkaefer)
Philip Vergunst (skilip)
Willem Mol (Whatdoesitwant)
Berend de Boer (berend)
Maarten Verbaarschot (mverbaar)
Johannes Haseitl (derhasi)
Steve De Jonghe (seutje)
Clemens Tolboom (clemens.tolboom)
Thijs Zoon (teezee)
Floris Derksen
Nasir Barday
Marieke Van Den Berg (Dalticom)
Baris Wanschers (Baris Wanschers)

We have reached 17 Attendees now. So the open Signup is closed for now. If you still want to take part send me a mail so we'll see if we fit you in. And those who are not on location: Join us online

We are currently looking for Sponsors to get some european Core Devs to Utrecht. If you own a Drupal-Shop or just want to contribute to the improvement of Drupal UX: Sponsor a Developer (Travel and Hotel expenses) We will credit you by placing of logo and backlinks, as well as placing your logo on posters on the sprint and putting promotional materials you send us in exposed places.

Sponsored by:

The Sprint is meant to hit the UX issue queue, which is long and winded, and fix as much as we can. The date is right after the DrupalJam on June 26, so a lot of Drupalers may be on location.

Bojhan and Yoroy worked out a detailed plan for the issues to work on, in detail look here: http://www.bojhan.nl/ux-sprint-the-plan/#more-148

We plan to work on the following issues:

Menus
Creating a menu item is mainly troubled by lack of connection with the actual page you are linking to, we will work on many issues regarding validation and optimizing the menu’s listing page.

Blocks
The current interaction of Blocks is optimized for moving a lot of blocks around, but not particularly for just adding one block. We will work on patches, to optimize the first-time experience of adding a block.

Taxonomy
The taxonomy interface has been left untouched for many years, while categorizing your content is a fundamental task., We will work on a number of critical issues that keep people from learning how Taxonomy works..

Text
Our users are task driven and time starved, yet we give them descriptions that need a lot of thought to understand. We will work on removing and rewriting descriptions that don’t get their main point across.

Modules
The current mockups for the module page still leave a lot of issues left untouched. We will work conceptually on improving the experience of installing and managing modules.

Comments

Where would this be? Bevan/

Bevan's picture

Where would this be?

Bevan/

Utrecht, most probably.

yoroy's picture

Utrecht, most probably. Center of the netherlands

Prioritizing

eigentor's picture

About prioritizing: I'd say we should set up a simple voting site/section of a site (does not have to be on drupal.org) and vote up/down Issues. A link to the actual issues will be there and gives more information. Like this it should be easy to identify the ones that are considered critical.

As always one will not rely 100% on voting results, but I think it helps a lot.

Life is a process

Life is a journey, not a destination

It would be wise to plan who

skilip's picture

It would be wise to plan who is going to do what before the actual sprint. So if attendees could sign up on an issue base, that would be great. If we've done some homework about the issues we're about to fix that's going to be hugely time saving.

Looking forward to the sprint!!!

In this discussion some

Xano's picture

In this discussion some interesting ideas for improving Taxonomy are listed. At least some of the features are easy to implement: term permissions, moving terms across vocabularies and perhaps even mass operations.

Sounds great

elv's picture

I'm looking at the train and hotel rates. If anyone has tips for accommodation or is willing to share a room, drop me a message!
Thx

Good that you mention it :)

Xano's picture

Good that you mention it :) I will need some place to crash as well.

I'll look around for

skilip's picture

I'll look around for hostels, hotels and stuff in Utrecht tomorrow.

cross post

whatdoesitwant's picture

I am not a developer but i would like to help. I can help out with the css, icons and docs. No clue how to patch though. Karen McGrane has done a lot of work for buzzr.com already. I propose to take inspiration from her or collaborate.
http://www.lullabot.com/articles/buzzr-demo-video-making-drupal-usable

My name is Willem Mol. I'll try to edit my profile.

Welcome

eigentor's picture

Welcome aboard :)

No worries about the patching: we'll show you how to do that. Good idea to ask Karen how she did things. I think Mark and Leisa already contacted her, so the wire may be short enough to get into exchange.

Life is a process

Life is a journey, not a destination

If I can get a day off for

seutje's picture

If I can get a day off for the jam and I can find a place to crash, I will probably be joining you all weekend.

but if for some reason I can't get a day off on friday, or I can't find any affordable accomodation (and I'm really not picky :P) then I might only come help out on saturday

So I'm not gonna sign up right now, but wait until I can be sure so I don't end up taking up a spot but not being able to make it

I'm no UX guru, but am pretty familiar with common CSS pitfalls and and the theming layer holds little secrets for me ;)

seutje++ ;) I've found some

skilip's picture

seutje++ ;)

I've found some hotels in the centre of Utrecht. Cheapest one is €50,- p.p. per night. Another option would be an hostel for €20,- but that's not very clean I assume.

Sharing Hotel room

eigentor's picture

Would anyone like to share a room from at least Friday till Sunday (not sure if I'll go in Sunday evening or monday morning)?
This would cut down costs without having to go for the hostel :)

Life is a process

Life is a journey, not a destination

Just signed up! I’ll be at

jix_'s picture

Just signed up! I’ll be at Drupal Jam as well.

Skill set

eigentor's picture

Wow, the signup numbers are really going good :) To sort out if we got a good mix of dev's / Designers / UX people

Wo please everbody who signed up write a short note what his skills are: Developer / Designer / Interaction designer / Themer / Documentation writer, and maybe a short essay what you do with Drupal and what is your motivation.

So we can plan beforehand and make sure we get the most out of this great event.

Life is a process

Life is a journey, not a destination

I do UX design and theming.

jix_'s picture

I do UX design and theming. I’ve been submitting some wireframes to the Drupal Redesign pool the past few days and would love to start working together with other Drupal people (and get feedback).

Drupal skill set

berenddeboer's picture

Have worked with Drupal since 2003 (Drupal 4.x). I've touched every part of Drupal I think, so from theme development to custom modules to custom core patches. I've done a lot with databases as well. Very comfortable with XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, XSLT. So I'm clearly in the developers camp, but if necessary could help with themer/documentation as well.

Skill set

Sutharsan's picture

Working with Drupal since 4.7; developing and building websites, working on everything except design. Trying to build the bridge between the techy side and the user side. As developer I keep an eye on the user experience and for the users I try to explain technical stuff in common language.

My skills: developing (PHP, MySQL, XHTML, but not much of jQuery and Ajax), theming, documentation, translation, drupal trainer and a broad interest in usability and UX.
Motivation: Making the world a better place and start with Drupal ;) But seriously, I see people struggling with websites and with Drupal. Simple things can make a big difference.

I'm answering eigentor's

derhasi's picture

I'm answering eigentor's call for participation ;)
My field of activity is in most cases php development within Drupal. Unfortunatly, I did not work with D7 yet, but there's allways a time to start with.
My knowledge in JavaScript & Co. is very poor, so I think I best fit into "Developer".

Skill set

Xano's picture
  • HTML/CSS (Valid code, semantics, accessibility).
  • JS (jQuery, unobtrusive JS).
  • PHP/SQL.
  • Drupal core patches and contributed modules.
  • Writing texts
  • Basic usability knowledge

strowis - skills

whatdoesitwant's picture

Eigentor
A friend of mine had her professor over at the uu for ai conference. She slept at Strowis. It's a hostel and hotel in the middle of Utrecht but pretty ok. Hotel Rooms are € 57.50 for one or two people and € 69 for three people.

Skills
I dunno, i make pretty things. I have been an webmanager/editor of newsletters, websites and knowledge banks (but in Dutch) for many years. But I have a good eye for things that work and things that don't and I could get coffee and do documentation? Anyway, I'll bring in some AI prototypes to work on the icon set.

Drupal
Drupal and I met on a rainy day somewhere last summer. I got it to install and I got it to crash. Then I got it to update. I thought to be able to port a gallery to drupal. I was wrong. Then I read Using Drupal. Then I learned to use Eclipse. Then I saw Mustard Media's podcasts. Then I learned to use Aptana and things got better. Then I listened to Lullabot's podcasts. Then I read Drupal 6 Themes and tried to hang myself. Then I encountered Morten. Then I got thirsty. Then I tried Mothership but thought it would not be fair to the train driver. Fortunately, surprisingly, I was then saved by Drupal 6 themes and the drupal theme guide. Should have thought of that one earlier.
Then I saw zen but it wasn't semantic, nor was it fluid (enough). Then I installed Rootcandy, which was sweet. Then I saw Layoutstudio and thought to have found kindred spirit. Then I saw this multimedia revolution going on. Then I bought Front End Drupal. Somewhere inbetween Obama won the election against all odds and Leisa and Mark got involved with Drupal 7 UX.
Then there was this awesome revelation called www.buzzr.com. Then I saw Genesis; plus Google presented Google Wave and I knew that the future was smiling at me. Last week I bought Flash and Drupal. This week I noticed that all modules suddenly went from gz.gz to gz. That was nice.

What else is there to say about me and Drupal? If Garland could be killed, i'd get a pitchfork. Same goes for ie6. I'm a big fan of A list apart. I've been a webmanager or web editor for about ten years and i see Drupal as a means to become a fullfledged designer. Drupal people are just way cooler than DNN people ( who are also nice btw). In the mean time I'll do any dirty job to achieve that. At the moment I am working through Flash and Drupal and Drupal 6 JavaScript and jQuery simultaneously. (I'm a pragmatist.) Jeff Burnz said Drupal is a do-ocracy. If that's the case, I am happy to bring in a laptop and whatever experience I can offer.

The first thing I would change on drupal.org is to get rid of the release notes that go with all modules and replace it with Find out more.

Cheers, Willem

dang, way to make me feel

seutje's picture

dang, way to make me feel like a rookie, I've only discovered drupal a good year ago

no worries sutha, I'm pretty decent when it comes to jQuery, just don't ask me to write a sql query with 17 joins in it ;)

I'm also quite familiar with AS2/AS3 and services integration with flash

not too familiar with unix command line and I couldn't design anything decent if my life depended on it

likes: elegant simplicity, logical workflow

dislikes: inline event handlers, pages that don't work at all without js

I guess I'm more a frontend

skilip's picture

I guess I'm more a frontend devoloper than a backend developer but I can do both. I know enough about javascript, php, xhtml, css, Drupal api. My knowledge about databases, security and hosting is limited. I know my way with photoshop and feel much committed about everything concerning usability and ux. I'm a design first, development afterwards person. I'm one of those guys who doesn't like to be bound by technical limitations. I won't take no for an answer.

Hi, I'm Roy and together

yoroy's picture

Hi, I'm Roy and together with Bojhan I'll be bossing y'all around during the weekend :) I set up the first UX sprint at Drupalcon in Szeged last year and have been working hard to improve Drupal's UX ever since. It's exciting to see all of you signing up for this! Lets make sure we get real stuff done during the weekend. I'll bring my problem-solving ui-sketching design-thinking making-it-simpler skills.

Also added myself to the organisers list. Feel free to contact me or eigentor If you have questions or just post here. I'll see you in Utrecht.

The light side of drupal

eigentor's picture

I am Thomas and come from the design and Theming side. While Design is also a matter of taste, I believe my strong side is Information Architecture. So I mostly get it right to cut down the elements on a page to a number one can scan in a glance, and get the information hierarchy right.

PHP Coding skills don't go further than strangling snippets that fill a gap here and there. So rather CSS and Theming to the limit. Have been in the UX team from 2007, not getting much done, but always having great plans...

I have been nominated the lodging and Transportation minister of the sprint. So if you don't have a place to sleep or don't know how to get anywhere to or in Utrecht contact me.

Life is a process

Life is a journey, not a destination

I’m looking for a place to

jix_'s picture

I’m looking for a place to sleep as well, since Roosendaal is about two hours from Utrecht by train. I was looking at Strowis, the place whatdoesitwant mentioned. Anyone interested in sharing a 3 person room? (€ 23 a night, each)

Edit: Never mind!

UI Design

5dayapp's picture

I've been watching what the guys at Squarespace are doing, and love the drag and drop block management. What's the likelihood that behavior is going to make it into Drupal7? I know it's OT kinda. But, you guys are working on this stuff. I figure you'd know.

Hi, my name is Gaele. Drupal

gaele's picture

Hi, my name is Gaele. Drupal user since 4.1, developer since 4.7. I've been actively involved with D6 usability, mostly interface text. Since then I've been taking a break. I'm glad this opportunity to dedicate a whole weekend to Drupal usability comes along. It'll be fun working together.

I'm a generalist, so check all the boxes except hardcore graphic design.

I like to make the world easier to use.

Accomodation Alternatives

eigentor's picture

Apart from a general list of Utrecht Hotels http://www.hotels.nl/de/utrecht/
We got four places so far, where you can stay:

Hotel Mitland http://www.hotels.nl/de/utrecht/mitland/
Single Rooms start at 75 Euros, Double Rooms at 95.

Three Hostels:
Strowis Hostel http://www.strowis.nl/GB-html/hostel-utrecht-rooms.html
The Strowis is right in the city centre of Utrecht.
One can also get Single, double and triple rooms in the Strowis.
Single and double are 57,50 Euros, triple is 69.
Breakfast costs 6 Euros extra, Blankets must be rent for 1.25.

The B+B Hostel is also in the city centre
http://www.hostelutrecht.nl/
A single room is 55 Euros, double 65, triple 90.
Breakfast is included, Sheets must be rent for 2,50.
The hostel got some very bad reviews
http://www.hostelz.com/hostel/710-Hostel-Utrecht-City-Center
about cleanliness and friendliness of the staff. So one would
have to check out if these are true.

Then there is the Stayok Hostel Bunnink a bit outside of Utrecht.
http://www.stayokay.com/index.php?pageID=3207&hostelID=356028
It has a lovely location in the green.
The prices are not so cheap for a hostel: 48,50 Euros for a single
person and 97 for two persons. The booking system does not tell you
if these are prices for single or double rooms or if they are in
rooms with more beds. So for detailed information best call.

Life is a journey, not a destination

Then there is the Stayok

gaele's picture

Then there is the Stayok Hostel Bunnink a bit outside of Utrecht.
http://www.stayokay.com/index.php?pageID=3207&hostelID=356028
It has a lovely location in the green.
The prices are not so cheap for a hostel: 48,50 Euros for a single
person and 97 for two persons. The booking system does not tell you
if these are prices for single or double rooms or if they are in
rooms with more beds. So for detailed information best call.

This price is for two nights in a dorm room.

Room Sharing

eigentor's picture

For people that want to share a room: best use this doodle http://doodle.com/667pre5zq5if7e3p as I wrote in the broadcast.

It is easiest to put your dates in there, so it is easier to match to someone that is also looking for a shared room.

I found some more possibilities to stay: some pensions are affordable:
http://www.deutsche-pensionen.de/niederlande/pension-utrecht/
(sorry, site in german) You may have to check availability.

Life is a process

Life is a journey, not a destination

Traveling info

skilip's picture

From Eindhoven Airport:

Using the bus (line 401) you can travel to Eindhoven CS every 10 minutes. From there you have a direct connection by train (platform 5). This train travels every 15 - 30 minutes from 05.34 - 23:32 (on friday the last train will leave at 02.57).

Amsterdam (Schiphol) Airport:

From Schiphol Airport you can travel to Utrecht CS by train every 15 - 30 min. from 04:00 until 03:00 (platform 1-2 or 3).

From Utrecht CS:

From Utrecht CS you can take the bus (line 8) every 15 - 30 minutes to busstop 'Kleine Singel' from which One Shoe's office is just a few minutes walk. You could also choose to walk to One Shoe, it's only a 20 minutes walk.

Only local images are allowed.
Google Map

I'll be there

teezee's picture

I'm present. 10 minutes from home :)

unsubscribe from msg updates?

arghman's picture

is there anyway to unsubscribe from automatic messages from this thread w/o unsubscribing from the wysiwyg group?

Never mind, I figured it

arghman's picture

Never mind, I figured it out, you set this up at http://groups.drupal.org/user/{your userid}/notifications/group

I am also attending, btw :D

Bojhan's picture

I am also attending, btw :D

I'll be there on Saturday

bergco's picture

Hi,

I'll be there next Saturday! I've built several smaller Drupal-sites and I am currently working on a bigger one. I'm no programmer, so I have the use the modules as-is. In my own company I write texts and documentation that fit the intended audience. I translated a part of a module once and I hope to get involved in the documentation/translation for Drupal 7 and Drupal in general. Friday I'll attend my first Drupaljam, so we'll meet Friday or/and Saturday!

Marieke

I'll be there on Sunday

BarisW's picture

Hi there,

I love this project, can't wait to get my hands dirty.
Lots of Drupal love in my hometown! I can only attend on Sunday, so see you then.

Skills: XHTML, CSS, jQuery, Accessibility, Architecture, Drupal Theming.. I guess that makes me a front-end developer.

See you in a few days!

Kind regards, Baris Wanschers

Your team and briefing is here

yoroy's picture

http://sprint.drupalusability.org/

Check out who your tream members are and learn about the issues related to the topic you'll be working on there.

Sent out a mail to most of you with all the details,
Looking forward to meeting you all this weekend!

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