So, you're building a content management system - let's talk about the content managers!
Simply, it's in the best interest of the vendor to deliver a product that people don't hate to use. Especially if the client doesn't seem to care, it can be really easy to ignore the issue of usability. But even though they may not care during development, they will be made to care once it's delivered.
There are a lot of simple things you can do to make life easier for these users, and it doesn't require major customisation. In addition to increasing client satisfaction, it can also make training easier, and reduce support requests that come from not understanding the system.
In this session, I'll talk about:
Who content editors are, and why they are worth your time
Specific modules and configuration options that can make life easier
Some general guidlelines and processes you can apply (right now!) to improve usability
7. These people:
• Don’t have much
web experience
• Are easily confused
and lack
confidence
• Perform tasks very
slowly and carefully
These people:
• Are quick to learn
new systems
• Understand
complex user
interfaces
• Perform tasks
quickly and look for
efficiencies
Not
technical
Highly
technica
l
CMS skill level
8. These people:
• Have a lot of other
things to do besides
update the website
• Rarely log in
• Get frustrated when
they can’t remember
how to do stuff
These people:
• Spend most of the
day using the CMS
• Perform the same
tasks over and over
• Get frustrated with
inefficiency
Almost
never
Almost
alwaysCMS use level
21. 1. VBO with Administration Views
Drupal core:
• Two options for filtering
• Clunky to use (one at a
time)
• No keyword search
VBO Admin view:
• Title search
• Better filters
• Add your own filters!
admin/content
22. VBO with Administration Views
admin/people
Drupal core:
• More clunky filters
• Filter by permission??
• No additional options
VBO admin views:
• Username, email
search
• Filter by role
• Add your own filters!
25. With some basic options enabled
3. WYSIWYG
Including Spell Check As You Type!
26. 4. LinkIt
Embedding internal links without LinkIt:
1. Open a new window
2. Find the page you want to link to
3. Copy node ID (ideally) or path alias
4. Create a regular hyperlink
32. Ask questions – any questions
● What is the typical content workflow?
● What are the biggest pain points in the
current process?
● What do you love or hate about your current
CMS?
35. Naming things is hard
● Leverage existing terminology
● Establish consistent labels for content types and
fields
○ Teaser: Brief description of this item that
appears on other pages that reference this
item
○ Intro: Brief description of the item that appears
on the top of this page above the main content
36. 2 3
1 1. Title
2. Thumbnail: Image
that appears on index
pages
3. Teaser: Text that
appears on index
pages
4. Feature image:
Image that appears at
the top of the page
underneath the title
5. Author
6. Intro: Text that
appears before the
body
7. Body: The main page
contents
1
5
6
7
4
38. Write good help text
• Good help text should:
○ describe where the field output will appear
○ answer any obvious questions
○ list any limitations or requirements
● Bad help text:
○ provides no additional information
○ provides confusing information
○ does not provide information that is required to
understand how to use this field
○ is often worse than no help text
56. ● Have you tried it?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/briandewitt/2391424578/
57. Build it into your process
1. Set up a base build with contrib
2. Ask questions
3. Name things well
4. Write good help text
5. Use contextual links and make custom ones
6. Don’t forget about common sense
7. Peer review pays dividends