Myplanet Digital: Better organizations through technology.

Historically, web pages have always been regarded as electronic versions of paper documents. This vision limits what can be done with a web site because it assumes a web page is built around a single piece of content.

The future web will regard web ‘pages’ as dynamic assemblages of diverse sources of information that can provide meaningful, contextually aware information to a wide variety of users.

Drupal, the Open Source web development platform that Myplanet uses for many of its projects, is currently based on the old principle - that a web page is tightly coupled to a single piece of content (AKA a ‘node’). To adapt to the new vision of the web, the Drupal community has undertaken an ambitious project to change its core architecture.

But one set of non-core modules stands out in this process. The suite of contributed modules known as ‘Panels’ has always addressed the challenge of going beyond the page=node assumptions. Conceptually, Panels has led the way into new methods of content assembly that anticipate the way of the future. As a result, from both functional and user experience perspectives, Panels has become a key reference point in the Drupal 'core-context' community discussions.

As a way of contributing to this process, Myplanet has sponsored an extensive usability review of Panels and the related module ‘Page Manager’. I’ve been working on this project over the past few months and have produced a set of 5 videos that summarize the overall project scope and purpose, my findings and some possible directions for improving the Panels UX. We are happy to present those videos here.

To help you find your way around I’ve added a brief summary of each video to indicate its point of focus. We welcome your feedback in the comments below and look forward to engaging in further dialog to help Drupal evolve to the next exciting level!

Video 1 Introduction (length 2:10)

In this introduction to the UX review project, I start by defining what I mean by usability. I then briefly describe the overall challenge facing the Panels UX redesign process and touch on why getting the right UX is a critical aspect for Drupal’s evolution.

Video 2: Scope and Objectives (length 4:34)

In the second video I present a description of the scope of the project and summarize the objectives and desired outcomes. I also explain the key factors that I took into consideration while performing the UX review. Finally, I share some details about my background and aspects of my experience that I think are relevant to this undertaking.

Video 3: Observations (length 8:57)

Now we get into some of the meat of the project. Part 3 presents a first examination of the user interfaces for Page Manager and Panel Pages. I touch on the aspects of these interfaces that appear to be potential problem areas. Using the analogy of a web site as a 'landscape' I endeavour to demystify some of the more obscure aspects of Panels and Page Management. This helps pave the way for rethinking the interaction strategy.

Video 4: Workflows and Rethinks (length 13:00)

Going deeper, I present an examination of how things work together in a workflow and identify potential visual, textual and interactive obstacles. I then go through a redesign process to show possible solutions to these issues. Even if you don’t know much about Panels, this is a good example of how usability analysis works in action!

Video 5: In Place Editing (length 10:34)

Digging further still, I get into some of the more subtle aspects of interaction strategy by examining the ‘In Place Editing’ interface. After touching on some of the usability obstacles that I encounter, I propose an alternative direction for an interaction strategy. Specifically, I point out issues arising from the ‘Localized Control’ interaction model and outline an alternative approach.