[development] 5.0 Core Theme Update

[Kieran Lal]

On Sep 25, 2006, at 4:14 PM, Gerhard Killesreiter wrote:

> It is also not difficult to replace the logo, you only need to  
> upload a new one.

I have been doing some user testing on logo changing, this week, and  
in fact it's quite difficult for new users.  It is a serious user  
experience issue because many people report that they want to  
immediately change the look of their site so they feel they own it.

New users have to go to administer >> themes >> global settings,  
which they have to figure out as there is no instructions in the  
interface.  You are then presented with four area's of configuration  
options: Toggle Display, Display post information on, Logo image  
settings, and Shortcut icon settings.

In total there are 234 words to read and understand on this page in  
4.7, I yet haven't checked how many words in 5.0.  This tells us the  
cognitive load for understanding this page is quite high.

There are three options within the logo image settings.  Default,  
custom path, and upload.  It seems like you should really only have  
two options, use the default Drupal icon, or use a different one.

Here is what I am observing:
1) Task completion on changing logo's is poor.
2) Error rates in discovering how to change a logo is high.  Even if  
you knew exactly where to go it's a minimum of 4 clicks for a initial  
task, with plenty of room to make mistakes.
3) Time is not unreasonable, but it could be much faster in the cases  
where they succeed.
4) Users failure to complete the change in the look of their site  
leaves them with a subjective negative experience.

Here is the actual quote from someone with top ranked Computer  
Science degree, who is software professional just a few hours ago.

"I can't find the place where I can add a graphic to the top.  I lost  
it somewhere..."

Concrete suggestions:
1) It seems to me that custom path and upload fields could be merged  
into one.  This is currently done with the TinyMCE and IMCE modules  
if someone is looking for an example.
2) We need to come up with a fast, error free way, to change that  
logo and make the user have a positive experience in controlling the  
look and feel of their site.   Suggestions: tooltips with  
instructions on how to change, instructions embedded in the image,  
welcome page instructions to be tested with newer users.
3) If we do create an initial configuration process then modifying  
the logo should be part of that process.  This is part of a general  
problem of Drupal's administration interface being feature oriented  
(logo is part of the theme features and is therefore in administer >>  
themes >> global settings) instead of situationally aware that  
changing the logo is a common initial task that is part of initial  
site configuration.  Perhaps more situational interfaces could be  
introduced as a goal in the future.

Cheers,
Kieran
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