Structure Summit Sunday
please note that this document and a transcript of the public skype chat will be posted online and publicly available.
Our Objectives
The objective of the Site Builder tool is to create an experience that allows someone who is new to Drupal to create a site using Drupal in less than 30 minutes.
The rationale for this is that by giving new users a 'quick win' they will then be more prepared to invest time and effort learning more about Drupal in order to achieve a more sophisticated product. At the moment, the effort required is too great for many people to be willing to invest without feeling confident that they will get a return on their investment.
The objective of this summit is to:
- make a decision about whether the above objective is a reasonable one for D7UX to undertake. The alternative being to just address the usability of interfaces of existing functionality
- if we do agree that the objective is reasonable, then to discuss the proposed Experience Architecture for the site building tool / Structure section of D7 and come to an agreement on an Experience Architecture that meets both the UX requirements for new players without negatively impacting DX (Developer Experience).
- to compile a list of any outstanding concerns that have yet to be addressed upon which acceptance of the Experience Architecture for the Site Building Tool is contingent.
Background documents:
- the latest prototype video (updated today)
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the proposed Experience Architecture (updated today) - access via www.d7ux.org/structure
- the Structure section of the Project Framework - www.d7ux.org/structure
(links coming!)
Our Agenda & Timings
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welcomes, intros, rules of play etc.
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review our objectives
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TOPIC ONE - 30 minutes: whether the above objective for the Site Builder Tool is a reasonable one for D7UX to undertake. (The alternative being to just address the usability of interfaces of existing functionality)
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TOPIC TWO - 45 minutes: discuss the proposed Experience Architecture for the site building tool / Structure section of D7 and come to an agreement on an Experience Architecture that meets both the UX requirements for new players without negatively impacting DX (Developer Experience).
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TOPIC THREE - 30 minutes: any outstanding concerns
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TOPIC FOUR - 15 minutes: next steps
Outputs
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Conclusions:
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"The objective of the Site Builder tool is to create an experience that allows someone who is new to Drupal to create some linked and dressed up pages in 30 minutes"
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"I see the types of sites just a combination of preconfigured features with a suggested default structure"
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Basically, end users would be exposed first to site types to get some defaults established, then they would be able to go in and add/remove features to tweak it a bit, and gradually they get more experienced and start playing at the modlue/coniguration page level
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I see the process as: 1) install is just to get basic credentials / database going, nothing to choose there. 2) a site building UI appears. Buch of features are offered. To ease the choosing, some preselected combinations of features are offered: these are site templates
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1) install is just to get basic credentials / database going, nothing to choose there. 2) a site building UI appears. Buch of features are offered. To ease the choosing, some preselected combinations of features are offered: these are site templates
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I think that's a take-away for the core folks: We need features/patterns/whatever they're called in core MORE than we need views/panels/whatever module in core.
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Actions:
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for "investigation after the call": What infrastructure changes to drupal.org would be needed to support the concept of sharing "features"
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Implementation Action item: Investigate into what changes need to be made to plugin manager to support the concept of "features" (and also drive that patch into core, pronto)
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(Implementation Action Item: We need jQuery UI in core)
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(Implementation action item: We need to drive home the "popbox" patch in core)
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We would like a prioritized list of the stuff that site builder exposes to see if there is a "halfway" point we could do. (via Webchick)
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Leisa: ok then. here's what I'll do. I have some more ideas that I want to get into this prototype so that I thnk it really starts to make it clear what it is, what it needs to do etc. I'll finish that up. Let's see what we can do re: talking with Dries, but I'm going to hold off further work on Sitebuilder and focus n other stuff until we have more commitment
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Issues log:
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I'm still a little concerned about "Your choice is between this ambiguous amorphic blob of "site type" or "you need to know what a block is"
About Our Moderator
Hi, I am Ivanka Majic and I lead the design team at Canonical. I started my professional life as an electronic engineer, quickly focussing on software development. I came to UCD because I realised that if I understood my users I had to field far fewer questions when I considered the development part of the project done! I have worked as a User Experience Designer and Researcher for about 8 years and have worked on a range of desktop, web and mobile projects.
Today, I am your moderator. My role will be to keep discussions to time and moving forward and to ensure that people are heard and conculsions noted.
I am not here today to give you my opinions (unless you ask). The reason I have been invited to moderate is to facilitate a conversation that will help you make decisions that will set a direction for your work. If I have a vested interest it is that I love being involved in helping more Open Source projects have great user experiences and because I think there is a lot we can learn from each other.
About You
(if you're participating, please add your name, your skype id (if it's different to your name), and a little bit about you!)
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Leisa Reichelt - User Experience Consultant working with Mark Boulton Design on D7UX disambiguity.com
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Mark Boulton - Designer, Mark Boulton Design. markboultondesign.com
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Tim Millwood - Web Developer, Mark Boulton Design.
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Mohd Rafie - Designer, mohdrafie.co.uk (skype id: go_ayam)
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Kristjan Jansen - UX Designer, kika.trip.ee
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Maarten Verbaarschot – UX Designer & Drupal Themer – Skype: mverbaar
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Thomas Moseler - Designer, Drupal Themer, Implementer Skype: thomas.moseler
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Gábor Hojtsy - Drupal 6 maintainer, Acquia engineer, with Drupal since 2003
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Kieran Lal - Drupal contributor, Skype:civicspacenet
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Jeff Noyes - UX designer - Acquia
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Bojhan Somers - Information architect, Usability team member
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Linea Rowe - Acquia product manager