Lullabot Ideas
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Announcing Drupal UE, the Usability Edition
Blog by Jeff RobbinsApril 1, 2009 - 10:45am
As many of you know, there has been a lot of focus and work put into Drupal usability testing over the past year or so. And we at Lullabot have been both interested and involved with as much of this as we can. It is fascinating to go out and talk to real people about what they really want to get out of a content management system.
And what have we found? What do people really want to do? Well it turns out they just want to put their stuff on the Internet. They want to put their thoughts on the Internet. They want to put their hopes and dreams on the Internet. They want to put their pictures on the Internet. They want to put their old junk on the Internet to sell it.
And they want it to be easy! They don't want to think about input formats. They don't want to think about user permissions and roles. They don't want to think about paths and path aliasing. They don't even want to know about nodes.
Now much of this usability research has been going into the Drupal issue queue and the core development community has been doing what they can to try to accommodate the needs of real end users. But work has been slow going. There is so much legacy code and old-but-working methods of handling functionality. And all of this needs to be undone in order to implement newer, more usable functionality.
But what if we just dive in and start anew? What if we throw out concern for upgrade paths and database compatibility? What if we say Drupal has just gotten too confusing and it's time to flood it out, build our ark, and start fresh?
Well, this is exactly what we've done! We call it Drupal UE. The "UE" stands for "usability edition"... or maybe "user experience"... we haven't decided yet.
Now many people are going to criticize us for forking Drupal. I wouldn't call it a fork per se. I'd call it a "reworking"... or maybe a "fresh start". But we're very excited about its possibilities. Which leads me to the next announcement that the Lullabot team will henceforth be dedicating itself exclusively to building and supporting Drupal UE. All of our future workshops will be about Drupal UE. Our future consulting will be about Drupal UE. All of our future videos and DVDs will be about Drupal UE. And all of our future podcasts will be about Drupal UE. We certainly value the time that we've given to the Drupal project and all of the wonderful people involved with it, but our company's future lies with Drupal UE. And speaking for the rest of the team individually, we lie as well.
It's sort of a shame really, because we've been so proud of our new CCK and Views videos. But we need to face facts. These complex Drupal modules are a thing of the past.
We've been working on this project for months. And I'm sure we have months ahead of us before it's perfect. We hope that many in the Drupal community will see its significance and that Drupal UE will eventually build as large a following as Drupal.
So without further ado...
Drupal UE beta
Comments
Oh, dear. I'm afraid I just
Oh, dear. I'm afraid I just almost plotzed laughing. And not for any reason you could have known about.
See, I used to work for a company (which shall remain nameless except that the name of its parent company rhymed with Spiff Mavis) that had exactly one software product: A system for re-combining software training manuals into custom builds, then packaging them as Word docs for bulk printing.
The divisional President had pretty much veto power over any UI decisions the software team made.
His idea of constructive feedback was to say that in his vision for the UI, it had exactly one button, labeled "Make Courseware."
Great. The best thing: I
Great. The best thing: I have convinced by Boss as well.
wtf?
NO WYSIWYG, I'm out :P
Frustrated with UE
Spent 30 frustrating minutes trying to get video and images on the Internet with your new Usability Edition. All I could get it to do was put text on. Does anyone else feel like this is a step backwards?
;-)
So wishing this wasn't an April Fool's Joke
nuff said
Time zones
I was wondering what on earth you were going on about when I realised that while it's the 2nd of April here, you're still living in the past :)
Nice try!
For those who aren't used to these types of jokes on the 1st of April but on the 28th of December this can be really frightening. You almost got me down the chair! :-)
took a second to get it, I
took a second to get it, I forgot the date.
:)
LOL!
Totally HAD
Since this update came to my inbox, I didn't even think to question it as a prank. I was totally impressed w/ the attitude of the post, with the bold move of the Lullabot team, and with the conviction you displayed, that I was honestly ready to make the move with you and in fact, read the entire article out loud to my wife. "Listen to this, these guys have got guts and style" I said. "They're taking a path they have passion about and they're saying, 'come with us if you'd like, if not, that's OK, too.'"
Then I clicked the stupid link.
I don't think I can truly express the let-down that followed.
Its a good thing I love you guys.
The Vision
Even though this was a joke, this is the vision of Drupal Development - a great User Experience. And it won't be a fork. It will be Drupal 7. OK, Drupal 8. I expect Drupal 9 will be that we just have to think what we want and it will appear on the page! :)
This works good.
I typed something in to that field and it replicated it perfectly. I was able to publish 'something' on the the internet! Thanks for making my life so much easier! I like the blue alien picture, too. Who is that?
Commerce Module
New Commerce module. One click button. Transfers all of your money to me - no product, no shipping!
Thanks a lot guys
Geez - now how am I gonna justify those big bills to my clients every month? You're running me out of business here - this does EVERYTHING that my sites do for people, and more elegantly. No whacky gradients all over the place, no annoying audio and video - just plain old communications. Tell me the truth - this is because Karen started working there and slapped the rest of you into shape, isn't it? I'm sure that underneath it's chock full of CCK fields and other sorts of arcane magic - how else could you make it look so simple?
Why not drop the Drupal altogether?
Just call it Web 5.0 - the only software you will ever need!
Feeling lucky
Hehe, what about leaving it empty and clicking "I am feeling lucky" and then it showing the content you wanted to put up?
Love it
+1 subscribing
Scary
You are crazy !
really good one, I fell for it and read the entire article trying to actually download the UE version !
ACK!
Ok i knew it was april fools day but i still fell for this for about 5 panicked minutes! You guys scared the piss out of me with the "announcement that the Lullabot team will henceforth be dedicating itself exclusively to building and supporting Drupal UE... etc" paragraph.
I didnt click on the picture or the link to the real joke, just read, so i was thinking you had gone and done something like Acquia Drupal... which is perfectly reasonable.
panic mode off..
XHTML 1.0 Transitional??
If you really cared about standards, you would have made it XHTML strict. I hope you'll correct that in the next version. If you want to get the new version out really fast, it may be useful to follow RFC 2795.
Awesome!
but where's the "any" key?
GOOD TIMES!
I have to say... This beats last years "Webchick leaves the community" prank!
I haven't laughed this hard in a very long time.
You made my day!
- dougvann
- twitter.com/dougvann
forum
Is there a support forum for Drupal UE? It would help me a lot!!!
FINALLY
Gosh, what took you so long .. can't wait to migrate my sites!
Best thing ever!
My clients are going to love this. Especially the part where you call them "genius," as they're pretty convinced of that already ... but a little extra validation never hurts. :)
love it
I was so caught up by the implications, the arguments, the drama, the excitement a fork from Lullabot would create that it took me 2 secs more than usual to register the joke. love it - want to use it - will pay money for it. Only complaint - it is a bit too aggressive... how about "what would you like to put on the internet - but, mind you, you don't have to do it right now" - that I think would intimidate newbies less ;-)
Finally!
Finally somebody get's it! Can I publish directly from my MacBookWheel?
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/apple_introduces_revolutionary
I can't get Drupal UE to
I can't get Drupal UE to work on IE6. Where is your issue queue?
Alt bot-tags
My favorite part of this 4/1 fun is the ALT tags.
"WTF?" & "Don't just hover, **click it**!"
Poll module in UE core?
You better keep the poll module in core. It will help is beat WP.
For shame!
Call me a stickler, but it would appear that Lullabot didn't even use Drupal to create the page... and nothing I post seems to stay. I guess it broke the Internet. :p
Themes
Will Bluemarine be ported to Drupal-UE? I need a fluid layout.
Logo
The logo needs to be bigger.
You Got My Hopes Up
When I first started reading I thought "YES!!!". Then I remembered the date. Maybe someday it will be for real!
UE
HOW DO I UPLOAD A F%$#&%^$ PICTURE?
Still cant. See they aren't
Still cant. See they aren't forking drupal. :)
You really should not call
You really should not call your newsletter subscribers IDIOTS when submitting a blank form.
Agreed!
This is an ongoing project and we're happy to accept feedback and patches to help us improve it. To show our dedication and determination, we have already updated the project, improving the "user friendliness" of this message.
Error messages will now refer to the user as a "genius" and not an "idiot". Much more positive and friendly!
LOL Another part of
LOL
Another part of usability: do stuff no one thinks of.
Didn't really think that one could enter nothing there.
And I vote +1 for...
replacing Drupal's default message for no search results with
Search anything but this, bastard!
Fantastic
This seems like a great idea. My site users would also like to be able to export their stuff as Excel, Word, and animated GIF files. Is there a button for that?
LOL
LOL
It really should be Drupal
It really should be Drupal XP... the Drupal XPerience!
Where's the freaking create content link?
So I can't find the create content link. I don't know how to create content. I'm looking all over the page, and I don't see it. I see a button, but that doesn't say "Create content". How can I create some freaking content?
Lullabot, you are too great. I heart you! :)
Um... what's the Internet? I
Um... what's the Internet? I thought it was the 'Internets'.
now how are we going to make $$?
That was so easy I can't believe it. But no need for our services anymore. You guys hiring?
Making $
I'd say this would change market focus to selling individual links to clients. Different colors and words, of course. On the basis of economy of scale. Web 4.0 is here.
And it is here to stay!
We've been doing extensive market research. This is what was found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ-s3DRZJKY
Links for sale!
Where is the navigation?
I can't find the navigation? How do I go to another page?
Solution
I worked around it by adding /feeds to the URL, and then subscribing to it in my RSS reader. Thank goodness for the AutoDrupal add-on to FireBug, or I never would have figured that out.
Nice information
I have also the same problem to worked around it by addidng/feeds to the URL,, and then subscribing to it in my RSS reader.Very very thanks to AutoDrupal add-on to FireBug.
Telecommunications
mE too
Yeah, and I can't get to the admin screen either. How do I share my page? On the plus side, I have to admit the bandwidth on my server dropped to 0 after installing the new leaner version.
What an excellent idea!
I tried the demo and I must say that it is a really easy to use CMS!
Well done you guys!
Is there an official release yet or is it still in beta. Please put me in for the beta testing program!
I love you, Lullabot.
I love you, Lullabot.
Pictures?
I still can't post my pictures! I'm giving up and moving to Chisel&StoneTablet CMS. Kthxbi.
Wow
I'm an idiot - I forwarded this link to several people saying stuff like "Oh this is going to start some serious shit" before I realized what day today is...
Why can't you make it full screen?
Why can't you make it full screen?! It's so small and hard to see!
Am I spoiling this story by
Am I spoiling this story by pointing out today's date?
As they say in France: "April Fish!"
The best Drupal release
The best Drupal release ever, cant believe you launched it on the favorite day of the year !
it called me an idiot... I
it called me an idiot... I don't like my CMS to call me an idiot, even if it's true :(
Internationalisation
What about internationalisation? It would be so great if Drupal UE could autodetect the language of a user and then output my stuff accordingly.
This is crap
I give up. I can't figure this out. I mean, the Drupal community can come up with something better! Let's see if Mark Boulton says about it. Is this in the issue queue?!?!?
/joke
This is crap
I give up. I can't figure this out. I mean, the Drupal community can come up with something better! Let's see if Mark Boulton says about it. Is this in the issue queue?!?!?
/joke
I'm having trouble with Drupal UE
Where is this "here" I'm supposed to click before putting my stuff on the Internet? This is really complicated!
Drupal UE is the bomb
On april 1 we just flushed out all our SVN repositories of regular Drupal for Drupal UE.
Nice try
For a moment you left me wondering..
Blindly clicking links
I was really expecting to get Rick-Rolled when I clicked on that link!
you guys are some of the...
funniest geeks on the planet. Please send your research and processes to Bill Gates, perhaps windoze will be as good as Drupal UE.
Brilliant. I'm going to
Brilliant. I'm going to start migrating my sites immediately!