On 23-Sep-05, at 4:23 AM, Dries Buytaert wrote:
I tried to identify a number of usability problems based on the comments in http://drupal.org/node/31896.
Creating a static brochure site with Drupal is extremely relevant; not only because some people create static Drupal sites, but mainly because even the most dynamic Drupal site has static content (eg. almost every site has an about page, a contact form, etc).
Problem #1: people find it hard to integrate pages in the navigation structure. No one mentioned they were using core's menu module to setup a site's navigation structure. Strange? Maybe. Either way, it begs the question: do we need to improve the menu module?
I think the menu_otf integration should help - perhaps make menu.module enabled by default? I know I sometimes forget about it...
Problem #2: many people use the book.module to create structure. The book.module is a logical choice <strong>if and only if</strong> you know Drupal. If you're new to Drupal, creating structure using the book module is not exactly logical. The underlying problem is that people need a way to link pages and to create structure. Simply renaming the book.module to outline.module or structure.module and dropping the book node type might come a long way for new users, and might help focus development efforts.
see my previous comments... but +1 for outline.module (that's all OPML enabled by default - just to be fully on that bandwagon)
Problem #3: many people use the menu on the fly module (menu_otf) to add pages to the navigation menu. The good news is that Drupal 4.7 will have menu_otf functionality built in.
ayup.
Problem #4: you have to go to the theme system options, to add a page to the main navigation menu. For new people, this is (i) not logical because creating links has nothing to do with the look and feel of your site, and (ii) the options are nearly impossible to find. The solution is to integrate this with the menu system, so you can link pages in the main navigation menu using the menu on the fly module. I pushed Adrian to work on this, but we never managed to complete that work. I'm convinced this is an important change; we need someone to pick up this work.
yeah - what happened to this? wasn't it Ber? or Adrian? or...
Problem #5: some people want to disable the author information and submission date. I see two problems with this: (i) you can't disable them on a per-node basis so people are forced to use two different node types, and (ii) the configuration option to disable this information is almost impossible to find. To fix (i), I suggest creating per node options to control some of the visibility settings. The settings would be available in a collapsible form element on the node submission page. Example toggles include (but are not limited to): display author name, display publication date, display taxonomy terms, display user picture, display 'read more'- link, etc.
+1 - although - is this gonna be an "administer nodes" only type thing?
Problem #6: quite some people use the front page module. I've never used the front page module but I'd like to know how it is different from a static page? The key difference I see is that you ca have a different front page for anonymous users. If that is the only key difference, why aren't people using static pages? Something is wrong here, and I'd like to figure out what.
dunno.
Maybe some people volunteer to fix some of these problem? If not, maybe we can incorporate them in the usability task list Ber and Kieran have been creating?
well, I'm *sure* someone will beat me to it... but if nobody does - I'll give it a shot in early October :P -- James Walker :: http://walkah.net/