[drupal-devel] A collection of usability problems

[Kobus Myburgh]

Ok, as promised:

I have installed front_page module on one of my sites, generated some silly HTML to use as front page text, and set the settings for the module. These are my findings:

(Please note - this is not a review of front_page.module, but rather a comparison of it with static nodes).

1. Frontpage module offers you several options for displaying:

    - For anonymous users:

        * themed - uses your current site's theme to dsplay your text/code
        * full - bypasses your sites theme, uses only your specified text/code
        * redirect - redirects you to another page/node/image/etc.

    - For logged in users:

        * same as for anonymous users
        * option to have it the same as for anonymous users

2. Static pages can offer you a lot of the above, but, it has a LOT more administration to do. For example, to implement these features with static pages, you'd have to:

        1. Check whether the person is logged in.
        2. Set all the blocks not to display on that particular page.
        3. Must know some PHP to do #1 and to do redirects - can't use logic in HTML.
        4. No way to disable the logo section of the theme for the page (e.g. I might just want an enlarged version of my logo with a few bullets of text on the main page - no other themable objects), without using another module (I think Gerhard had such a module where you can have a different logo for the front page).

Basically, all in all, front_page module makes things MUCH simpler, and offers more choice than static pages. Static pages for front pages is too involved for newbies (and lazy admins...) and front_page module provides a great (and completely functional) alternative.

HTH

Kobus


>>> ITBJDM at puknet.puk.ac.za 9/23/2005 10:39:23 AM >>>
> 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.

I'll take care of this one - giving a complete overview of the front page module. I will highlight the differences between a static page and the front page module and then the developers can determine what to do with regards to this analysis.

Regards,

Kobus

PS: Can we have a list drupal-usability? Or is that overkill?