Improving core usability
for site builders & administrators
slides & notes:
https://ifrik.gitlab.io/drupal-improving-core-ux/
Usability
Who is the user?
Why should we bother?
Why should we improve UX in core?
- Makes Drupal easier to use
- Makes sites build with Drupal easier to use
- Contributes to better accessability
- Frees time for more interesting features
Site builders
building something for others to use
Front enders
preparing the site to match the design
Advanced administrators
working on the production site
Content editor
creating and managing content on a production site
Who are you
about me
- biologist, scientific editor, political activist
- Drupal site builder
- Documentation WG, UX team
- from documenting to fixing things
Traditional expertise
Drupal expertise
What can we improve?
- Navigation: Admin menu
- Permissions
- Field & fieldable entities
- UI texts
- UI Design (not covered here)
Admin navigation
Where do I ...
...make this admin page visible for some users?
First list all user accounts
...edit or translate this block?
First go to the layout of the whole site
...see all media items?
First list all articles, pages, etc.
We teach users detours
instead providing a predictable structure.
Do we want to teach that to our clients as well?
 |
Give us feedback for re-structuring the Admin menu |
Permissions & access
A user who needs to ...
... edit the content of a block
can remove any block from the site.
... edit a taxonomy term
can change the default language of the vocabulary.
... access to one Structure page
also gets 10 Configuration pages without admin items.
puts the integrity of the site at risk
and can confuse users.
"But the permission table is already sooooo long..."
User interface texts
"I'm happy to sit down for 12 hours to write code
but I'm not spending 30 minutes to write down a help text."
Is it for other developers, for site builders, or for end users?
What are the different types UI texts anyway?
| Where? | What & how often? |
| Help page | Once to understand how it works |
| On admin page | A few times as reminder |
| Page titles, labels, field description | Every time to navigate and use forms |
We have coding standards, why not UI text standards?
Help system overhaul
#2592487Fields
that don't behave like fields
& other fieldable entities
that don't behave like fields
& other fieldable entities
Customize taxonomy terms
Author & date field
Node author and date #1299990
Fieldable menu items?
Who is responsible for usability?
Better UX for sitebuilders
= better UX for end users
Don't work around your grievances
Fix the issues in core
Get involved
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