[drupal-devel] Code freeze, usability and performance

[Kieran Lal]

On Sep 15, 2005, at 1:28 PM, Dries Buytaert wrote:

>  - Usability: one of the most common complaints about Drupal relate  
> to the out-of-the-box experience.  For many people, this is either  
> due to (i) the terminology or (ii) the awkward navigation  
> structure.  Many people feel lost and don't know where to start.   
> As such, some people think of Drupal as "too complex" or "different  
> than other systems".  In the next few weeks, I want you to  
> investigate how we can continue to improve the Drupal exerpience.

Hi, I have spent the last 13 days neck deep in hurricane relief work  
and I am just starting to come out of it.

Here's brief update of what's happened and what needs to be done still.
1) Creation of the control panel module that give a whole page to  
navigate Drupal administration.   We are building icons and card sort  
will help with administration grouping.  Expect prototypes in the  
near future.
2) Remote usability testing: We have developed and prototyped a  
remote usability environment.  We successfully video and audio  
captured users reviewing wireframes of Drupal site.   We will be  
doing more of this in the near future.  we will be publishing videos  
via RSS for the community to see the usability problems.
3) Project module is key in providing an evaluation of modules that  
is a very important component of site administration for site  
developers.
4) Administration help has been submitted as a patch.  We need to  
review and ensure users have access to help from admin pages for all  
modules.
5) We created the Wireframe module which allows users to build  
wireframes from interface components.  We hope by providing wireframe  
support within Drupal that the connection between designers,  
programmers, and users can be tighter.  To understand wireframes:  
http://www.iawiki.net/WireFrames
6) I have completed about a dozen interviews for Drupal  
administration user experience.  I have to conduct more interview  
with novice users as all the interviewees were heavy users of Drupal  
Administration.   Those interviews will lead to a broad survey for  
the community.  From the survey we will prioritize the top user  
experience problems in Drupal and then dedicate resources to improve it.

Sorry for the delays, but the improvements will get into Drupal 4.7.

Cheers,
Kieran
Development Manager
CivicSpace Labs


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