Bèr Kessels wrote:
Maybe now, yes. But that does not count for contributions. And worse: it does not count for all those silly things that are still in core from long ago. Just look at the node-submission page: it is messy, and one cannot reaaly change it, at least not in a theme. Those are things I am talking about, when talking about the mess. But theres much more.
The idea that guidelines will help us /fix/ Drupal's existing UIs and interaction design is an illusion. That said, it will help us catch obvious violations and will be a tremendous help for many. It's much needed to ensure consistency across modules (especially for contributed modules) so +1 on that. I own two books on website usability, and spent a fair amount of time digging usability articles online. Having read these books and articles -- combined with user feedback on drupal.org -- helps me understand and pin-points Drupal's usability pains. I have learned a lot the past two years, I have been on a mission to help create usability-awareness and last but not least, I have spent a fair amount of time implementing usability improvements. However, it doesn't necessarily empower me to take apart the existing UIs and to redesign them. Often, I had to consult Michael Angelas and Kristjan Janssen. Furthermore, there is _no_ reason not to fix some of the mess in Drupal 4.6. The lack of guidelines didn't stop me from improving the statistics and throttle module in HEAD, nor did it stop Neil from improving the block administration, or Steven from drastically improving the search results. In fact, I doubt that the above improvements (many are all about good "interaction design" not "interface design") would automagically get dictated by good guidelines. There is plenty of stuff we can improve (eg. menu configuration, node submission form, comment moderation, grouping settings) without the need for setting HIGs in stone. For one, nothing stops us from making substantial improvements to the node submission page or to better organize the settings pages. I'm sure HIGs will help us refine such improvements. -- Dries Buytaert :: http://www.buytaert.net/