Commons UX work
In the past few weeks, a couple of Acquia's partners sent us thoughts about new themes for Drupal Commons. And like others have expressed here in the community, they had opinions on what was working - and not working - in the default UX of Drupal Commons.
Email messages have started to flow between them and me, each with great proposals. But three things have become apparent in the past few days: a) each group (the various partners, the community, us internally at Acquia) had slightly different ideas about how to spruce up the Commons V1 interface, b) while Drupal allows us to have different Themes for Commons which can provide slight variations on UX, we can't have each theme provide a radically different UX, and c) we weren't talking effectively as a group - much less a community. And i believe strongly in a community-driven approach.
So I've asked the various partners - VML and BrightLemon - to move their comments here, so we can get participation by lots of smart people, and also make sure everybody knows what kinds of changes in the default UX might be coming.
We've got a good running start:
- Sportzilla and others have already recommended a bunch of stuff that I'm sure we'll want to integrate into this work.
- VML has actually sent us an idea for a UX (including theme); I've asked if I can post it here, but haven't heard a reply. I'm sure I'll be able to, but I just want to be polite and have them say Yes. ;-)
- BrightLemon has taken the approach of building wireframes to discuss what their ideas are (and bring the color/theme parts later). They've agreed to let me post their wireframes here. BrightLemon has built a bunch of community sites, and so their insights are proving valuable quickly.
Actually, VML's and BrightLemons ideas aren't all that dissimilar in basic concepts, though the actual proposed layouts differ slightly.
Design is hard to do in a community; we don't have good tools for dynamic collaboration. About the only thing we can do is start discussion threads around specific areas, and post images that show design ideas. Not perfect, but we can make it work.
So I'm going to start N-number of threads - one each for the various wireframe pages that BrightLemon has furnished. (We'll start with BrightLemon's wireframes for two reasons: VML hasn't responded to my request to release their thoughts yet, and wirefreames are slightly better to start with because they focus on UX, and exclude the appeal or objection to the chrome.)
Hopefully this process goes well, and we all can be vested in and happy with the result.
Cheers
-jb
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Comments
layout vs styling
Just a thought about wireframes.......
Given the nature of commons and Panels, a lot of what is laid out will be subjective and more importantly, the part of Commons that is likely to be most modified. At present is it the layout ot the look that people are wanting to change? Probably it is both. But I think they are two separate things.
For example, if we took the current Commons UX and made wireframes of it, we would have something that looks much more consistant that it actually looks in use given the differing styling of the pages. I'm not suggesting wireframes are a bad idea, just that in my opinion we need to also share ideas on the basic look of each element in mind (so not so much for each page, but for each element which would run consistant through the pages).
In good community spirit I will try to do what I have just said, perhaps taking one of the wireframes and photoshopping a bit of styling on it.
A final thought. For my projects, I will also focus very much on keeping certain elements on every page (for example, 'Popular Tags') for a consistant feel to pages or a one chaing page feel rather than changing pages, the more common blocks / elements that aid navigation appearing on all pages. To use Facebook as an example, whereever you go, there are certain navigation options that are always available (more like one changing page than different pages).
I agree
I agree with what your saying mike and I think the wireframes are a great way for us to work on these basic elements as a community. There's still room for improvement on what we've already done here at BrightLemon, looking forward to seeing what you come up with. We are also working on a few theme designs which will be finalised when a general consensus is made on the wireframes.
Yes.... will see what I can
Yes.... will see what I can do. I'm not a desginer - but I'd say I'm ok on the usability front, so that's where I'll be coming from. And just to add, I think it's great to have input and the wireframes from someone with your experience. Can only be good for Commons. I'm pretty excitted about what Commons could become with such input.
UX?
Jay,
Within all the postings pertaining to this UX reassessment and in all the wire frames posted for the group's review, I've seen a ton of focus and discussion on features and functionality. Where links go, whether we should use this module or that, how gigs whirl... but there hasn't been much attention paid to assessing how users are using Drupal Commons. All of the attention is being paid to features and I don't see anyone asking who the actual users are, what they are doing with commons, what they can do and are not (and why) and what they want to be doing but cannot (and why).
As far as I can tell, this "UX" reassessment is only going to sustain or exacerbate Commons' already severe case of feature bloat. That's not necessarily a bad thing at this point - features make people "ooh" and "ahh" and the more content and widgets you can pack into a product, the more impressive it seems and the more people will get involved, eventually (hopefully) making Commons even better.
There have been a couple of threads where you understandably assert that Acquia can't do everything and the community has to pitch in at some point, but UX is not like a module bug, where one person can do some isolated testing and submit a patch. It's a huge undertaking, requiring dozens or hundreds of hours of work. And in Drupal, UX actually has very little to do with the theme, so it's not just an issue you can throw a few themers at. UX deals with the entire architecture of the install profile, requiring coordination between designers, developers, themers and users. Even if someone is willing to donate their time, few people would be willing to risk that their hard work end up unpublished because it doesn't match with Acquia's overall plan for Commons. At the very least, it requires a centralized leadership and set of goals, with specific assignments of tasks to specific people with the assurance that their efforts will not be in vain.
I'm a bit disappointed that this UX reassessment didn't evolve into the kind of process I was hoping for. Commons has a lot of good guts and a lot of potential to be a very powerful tool for collaboration and community building. I was super excited at the prospect of getting my hands dirty in usability testing and serious, hard thinking about how to architect a great collaboration tool. However, it now looks like the opportunity to take that sort of look at Drupal Commons will be happening 12-18 months from now, once the feature lust has died down and there is enough breathing room to assess the product in a less hurried manner.
I just really feel like the cart has been put before the horse here. Jumping into wire frames and redesigns before any surveying of current users or usability testing of the current product is done is just a set up to repeat the same mistakes. I hope I'm wrong and the next version of Commons is the best and super amazing.
Cheers,
Sheena
Well, this takes a thoughtful reply
Sheena -
I appreciate your thoughts - more than you probably realize.
Your comments edge into an area of "product design" that is the subject of lots of study, philosophies, and passionate advocacy. Typically the discussions revolve around "How do I determine what (x) should do, and how it should design that?"
Those debates typically take place when you're working in a "pure" development environment - one where you have capital (human or cash) to invest into going deep on a question, then implement the answers. We know how to do that here at Acquia; I refer you to the work we recently completed on Views.
But for the overall product, we also have other process ways of approaching it. In the case of Commons, we've taken a customer-driven development approach. We (Acquia) built what a we saw specific customer seeking, and made it work the way they wanted it. We were fortunate to be able to package that solution for distribution as open source (Commons). Fortunately for us, what the customer wanted was very similar to a product that has wide acceptance / adoption in the social software market; they liked the functionality, but wanted it implemented in Drupal. So that's where Commons started out.
Interestingly, since the first release we're seeing Commons customers push it into many other usage types. One customer is building a StackOverflow / Quora style site based on Commons. Another is building something more Facebook / Yammer like.
This process of letting paying customers dictate where the product goes is actually emerging as the process with the most proven long-term success in tech. I recommend reading The Four Steps to Epiphany. This is written by an experienced tech executive, and outlines ways that product teams can increase the chance they'll get it right. People who have real pain, and are willing to pay to eliminate the pain, are the ones that will be most indicative of what solutions will succeed. This is the approach Acquia is taking with Commons. (Fortunately, since this is open source, others can still do as they wish, too.)
The downside of this approach is that it feels slightly painful. You occasionally feel like you're jumping from design to design, feature to feature as you work towards a consistent pattern. Which, IMHO, is the pain you're feeling at the moment, and writing about above. But if you release "early and often" - as we've tried to do with Commons - you get to the stable place faster.
So essentially I agree with you that along the way we should examine "what people are doing", and then optimize the UX increasingly around that. But the path isn't to study & do user tests - yet. I feel we're still in early days with social software like this (not just with Commons). I don't think anybody in the industry yet has the information you're looking for. So it's almost a bit premature to go deep. The customers I talk to are still finding their way with what the most successful use patterns are. As we - the Community and Acquia together - see the development of those continue, and watch what's working and what's not working, we'll start to have the data that will let us go deep.
Until then, the bet with the highest probablity of success is to continue to improve on what we have as quickly as we can. As we do, our customers will feed back to us what's working - and what's not.
I worry that my reply here will cause you to toss up your hands, and not stay engaged. I can only assure you that as whatever our customers will allow us to share about what they're doing, we'll share it here, and try to use that to rework in the way you suggest, when we have enough info.