DrupalCon London 2011 - UX

Product, Framework, or Platform? What They Mean, And Why You Should Care

eaton — Sun, 15 May 2011 17:05:01 +0000

Jeff Eaton

As Drupal's popularity has grown, its core audience of hobbyist developers has exploded into an international community of businesses, nonprofits, independent developers, startups, and governments. Bubbling under the surface is a recurring debate: Is 'Drupal' a product for people who build web sites, a framework for web developers, or a platform that other products are built on?

Intended Audience:

Core developers and decision makers looking to understand the history and motivations of the 'smallcore' movement; developers looking to shape or participate in the development of Drupal's APIs; business stakeholders considering the future of Drupal for their web applications and web projects.

Questions answered by this session:

What's the difference between a product and a framework?

How has Drupal's evolving community shaped the software's priorities?

What parts of Drupal are hot spots for this debate today?

Is it possible for Drupal to be both at once?

How can we answer these questions and build a stronger, more resilient ecosystem?

Schedule info

Time slot:

23 August 13:00 - 14:00

Room:

Ashcroft Theatre

Slides:

product-framework-drupal.pdf

Don't Design Websites. Design Web SYSTEMS!

Todd Nienkerk — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:47:06 +0000

Todd Ross Nienkerk

Adam Snetman

Update 2011-08-25: Slides can be downloaded here. Due to file size restrictions, we had to remove many of the image-heavy slides. You can download and view the full slide deck on SlideShare.

Intended Audience:

This session is intended for anyone who has had to create or implement sitemaps, wireframes, and mockups. Those unfamiliar with Drupal will learn what Drupal "wants" to do and will be able to more easily prepare these materials, and those who already work with Drupal will learn tips and tools for managing the expectations of clients whose designs haven't been optimized for Drupal.

Questions answered by this session:

What should a designer know about a project before architecting a site or creating its look and feel?

Why are sitemaps, wireframes, process flow diagrams, and mockups important, and what are they supposed to communicate?

What happens when you're given a design that wasn't created with Drupal in mind?

What are the challenges a design firm faces when they aren't the ones implementing their design?

What tools and techniques can be used to accelerate the design process in Drupal?

Schedule info

Time slot:

24 August 13:45 - 14:45

Room:

Fairfield Room

Slides:

design-web-systems-final-2011-08-24.pdf

Workbench: Managing Content Management

agentrickard — Wed, 11 May 2011 23:51:43 +0000

Ken Rickard

George DeMet

Our clients often come to Drupal with expectations about the features of a content management system (CMS). In many cases, Drupal handles the features they expect. However, not all editorial tools are a part of Drupal Core, and Drupal has addressed these tools with various contributed modules. As a result, Drupal’s editorial space generally lacks a consistent workflow and interface.

At DrupalCON San Francisco, Palantir.net outlined the opportunities we saw for improving content management workflow in Drupal 7. This presentation introduces the outcomes of that work.

Intended Audience:

Site builders, architects, user experience designers, people evaluating Drupal.

Questions answered by this session:

How do you control content access beyond content type settings?

How do you find the content that relates to each user and that user’s job (which is not necessarily the same as the hierarchy of the site)?

Can you simplify Drupal’s use for content authors, editors, and publishers?

Can you find that file you just uploaded and re-use it?

What framework exists that allows you to extend functionality for your content authors yet still providing a unified user experience?

Schedule info

Time slot:

23 August 15:45 - 16:45

Room:

Ashcroft Theatre

Slides:

Workbench-London.key.pdf

Of Constraints and Capabilities: Applying Systems Thinking to Design the Ideal Experience

dantemurphy — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:33:10 +0000

Dante Murphy

Angel Brown

In software design and development we often overlook the role of our customers in applying their own capabilities to achieve their goals, often creating solutions that are bloated, complex, and inefficient. We are also prone to look at constraints as obstacles rather than opportunities to bound and clarify the services we offer. By applying systems thinking, designers and devlopers can create idealized designs that deliver the most value to customers and businesses alike.

Here are the presentation slides and speaker notes:

Intended Audience:

Those who design, plan, architect, and evaluate software and digital services.

Questions answered by this session:

What is systems thinking, and why is it important?

How does an idealized design differ from other types of design?

How can a mental model help in designing and architecting software?

Why are constraints good?

How do I know what my audience can and will do for themselves?

Schedule info

Time slot:

25 August 13:30 - 14:30

Room:

Maple Room

Slides:

of_constraints_and_capabilities_v2.pdf

Minnesota Usability Study : What Do Users Have to Say About Drupal 7?

dcmistry — Tue, 03 May 2011 14:49:03 +0000

Angie Byron

Brad Bowman

Jennifer Lea Lampton

Three years after our first round of formal usability testing on Drupal 6, the UX team returned to the University of Minnesota in May 2011 to uncover usability issues and patterns for Drupal 7. After making broad changes in D7, it was critical for us to validate if we are inching forward in our goal. With this aim in mind, we tested eight participants and asked them to perform some tasks. All the participants were site builders with no experience with Drupal.

Intended Audience:

Attend this panel presentation if you are interested in usability, understanding the user experience and the usability road map for Drupal 8.

Questions answered by this session:

How was the study conducted?

What was tested?

What works well and what needs improvement in D7?

How was the overall experience for our users of using D7?

What does this mean for Drupal 8?

Schedule info

Time slot:

24 August 10:30 - 11:30

Room:

Ashcroft Theatre

Slides:

DCL-UMN-Usability.pdf