We are really excited to share with you our initial concepts for a D7. Please take a look at the video above and there are LOTS of sketches and paper prototypes that you can explore over on the Flickr group as well.

In this video you’ll see the three key aspects of the D7UX interaction model we are proposing:

the ‘header’ which will be displayed to users who are logged into the site, comprising of a ‘global’ header allowing access to all functionality (permissions allowing), and a customisable/role based set of buttons allowing fast access to the most frequently used tasks (eg. add/edit) or views (eg. find content).the example shown in the video would be for a ‘content creator’ type role. We haven’t completely thought through the application of this header down to the level of ‘site member’ (eg. someone who adds discussions to the forum on the site you’ve built using Drupal), but we think as a concept it has legs.

which will be displayed to users who are logged into the site, comprising of a ‘global’ header allowing access to all functionality (permissions allowing), and a customisable/role based set of buttons allowing fast access to the most frequently used tasks (eg. add/edit) or views (eg. find content).the example shown in the video would be for a ‘content creator’ type role. We haven’t completely thought through the application of this header down to the level of ‘site member’ (eg. someone who adds discussions to the forum on the site you’ve built using Drupal), but we think as a concept it has legs. the ‘overlay window’ , the example of which shown is ‘add content’ (in a very sketchy and unfinished state, I hasten to add!). We see the overlay as a fantastic way to provide a clean interface for these tasks whilst keeping the user in the context of the site for which they are performing those tasks, rather than taking them away into an ‘admin section’. Obviously we would need to allow for users who are not using JavaScript (in which case they probably would have to go into more of an ‘admin section’).

, the example of which shown is ‘add content’ (in a very sketchy and unfinished state, I hasten to add!). We see the overlay as a fantastic way to provide a clean interface for these tasks whilst keeping the user in the context of the site for which they are performing those tasks, rather than taking them away into an ‘admin section’. Obviously we would need to allow for users who are not using JavaScript (in which case they probably would have to go into more of an ‘admin section’). the ‘in line editing’ which will allow you to ‘switch on’ edit mode and edit content in place (wouldn’t that be lovely!). Of course, not all content would be editable on the page so the edit view would also allow for a range of ‘editors’ to be launched into an overlay window. We’re imagining: block editors, content type editors, navigation editors, views editors as a start (some of these terms will probably only make sense to Drupallers – apologies for that, will try to translate in future versions)

In the video we also show another idea that we are quite excited about, although we have a long way to go before it is entirely thought through … we’re not entirely sure that it will work, but the problems we are facing with it seem to be getting easier not more difficult, which is a good sign… You could think of this as a Direct Manipulation Tool for Site and Page Structuring. It’s been inspired by some of the tools that we’ve used in the past to do Information Architecture work (hence the use of that word in the initial header that is currently being CrowdTested, yes, it will most likely change!).

The idea behind this tool is that we are able to make site building and page creation a much easier task for people who don’t know and don’t want to know the ins and outs of Drupal’s technical architecture. We’re really excited by the potential this has for achieving our objective of allowing users who are not developers to build complex sites using Drupal… would love to hear what you think of it, and stay tuned for much more work on this component.

We’re looking forward to pushing some of this out for more Crowd Testing very soon. I’d really encourage you, if you’re concerned about what people will make of this, to get involved in the user research – go put it in front of people and find out for real what people do and what’s usable or not. I’ll post another set of materials and scripts for CrowdSourcedUsabilityTesting very soon!

Ok. So, there you have it.

We’ll just wait here, nervously and excited, whilst you have a look…. then, please, tell us how you like it so far!