Wireframes & Drupal Sites - For Noobs [closed]

Question

I'm an information architect/UX designer taking my first run at a Drupal site...I'm curious whether any other IA/UX or developers can share tips for a team about to engage in a maiden Drupal voyage.

In particular, I'm interested in hearing about what tends to work/not work with regards to wireframes when working with Drupal modules.

For reference, our team will be working on a Drupal 7.x install and is armed with a pre-set list of Drupal modules to pull from in our design & build cycles.

My game plan at present is to inspect the modules we'll be working with and structure my wireframes to account for the module constraints for layout and functionality.

I've taken a look through the forums for a discussion of UX process tips in the context of a development effort but can't see anything at present...does anyone have tips or stories about how to avoid pain our first time out of the gate?

Thanks all!

Answer 1

A few different responses based on my experience with Drupal.

To work out where module interfaces should be located in the site, wireframes are helpful. For example, you are enabling the Events module and want to know where it should be on the site - use a wireframe.

I generally have not done wireframing for standard out-of-the-box modules as the tweaking you do often only affects behind the scenes settings, not the module's UI. Better to enable the module on your test site and get the users to test drive it. This is especially important if you are choosing between two similar modules. Of course, this all changes if your PHP developers are going to be doing significant coding to alter the modules - if they are then follow your standard design process.

If you are creating functionality using Views then wireframing is essential - follow your regular design processes.

If your development team is writing unique modules, then again, I'd follow normal design processes. In all these different scenarios the fact you are plugging them into Drupal is no more important than plugging them into any other site.

Bottom line: Don't be distracted by Drupal. It's a website to which you are adding functionality - how would you handle it if it wasn't Drupal?

/I've worked on two Drupal installations for large corporations - feel free to ask away if you have any other questions/specific issues.