How to Train Your Drupal Clients

Training Your Drupal Clients

Steve Burge

1) What should I teach? 2) How should I teach? 2) How should I teach?

1) What should I teach?

What should I not teach?

“Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left.” - Steve Krug
What should I not teach?

2007
Morning : Content, Menus, Users, Settings, Modules, Themes
Afternoon : Ecommerce, Kitchen sink ...
Our training has changed
2011
Morning : Content
Afternoon : Modules

Principles
Processes
Concepts
Facts
Workflows
Level of Difficulty

Workflows = Download the module. Install it. Enable it. Use it.
Facts = You get modules from Drupal.org
Concepts = What is a module?
Processes = How does a module work?
Principles = How? What? Why? Putting everything together
Levels of Difficulty

Principles
Processes
Concepts
Facts
Workflows
Level of Difficulty

Developing Technical Training
by Ruth Colvin Clark
Suggested Book

Perfect beginner usability

Why Administration Menu?

Editing a field
4 clicks, 5 screens
1 click, 2 screens

Adding a menu link
3 clicks, 4 screens
1 click, 2 screens

Why WordPress?

WordPress Categories
1 click, 1 screen

Drupal Categories
3 new words: Taxonomy, Vocabulary, Terms

Drupal Categories
Click Structure
Click Taxonomy
Click Add vocabulary
Click Save
Click Add terms
Repeat until finished
Click Structure

Drupal Categories
Click Content types
Click Manage fields
Enter field details. Click Save
Click Save field settings
Click Save settings
Click Add content
Click a content type

WordPress Drupal
1 click.
1 screen.
1 click, 1 screen
1
3 new words. A new concept. 14 clicks. 14 screens.

Why Drupal 7?

Why Drupal 7? One click to edit items on the page. Drupal 6 required 4+.

Creating a block w/ Views 2
2 pages. 21+ clicks.

Creating a block w/ Views 3
1 page. 2 clicks.

What should I aim for?

What to teach Beginners?
Simple, repetitive tasks with few clicks
Use workflows

Principles
Processes
Concepts
Facts
Workflows
Level of Difficulty

Drupal Workflows

What if I can’t get that simple?

The Checklist Manifesto
by Atul Gawande
Suggested Book

“Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly” - Bruce Lee

Repeat, repeat, repeat

Manh.com

Economist.com

A more advanced workflow
Content types
Fields
Add Content
Views
Panels / Display Suite etc.
Theme
Users

What should I teach?
Confidence.

Drupal’s reputation precedes it

2) How should I teach?

Off-the-shelf
Classes
Books
Online video
How should I teach?
Custom
Small group sessions
Screen-sharing
Screencasts
Documentation

Off-the-shelf
Custom
Level of Difficulty

Don’t try large groups yourself unless you really are a teacher.
Professional live classes can help clients see the bigger picture.
Off-the-shelf: Public Classes

Most books are not good. Badly written and confused about their audience.
Honorable mentions:
Drupal 7 Visual Quick Start (Beginners)
Drupal’s Building Blocks (Site Building)
Pro Drupal 7 Development (Code)
Off-the-shelf: Books

Explosion of online video in the last year.
In alphabetical order:
BuildaModule.com
Drupalize.me
Lynda.com
Nodeone.se
OSTraining.com
Tutr.tv
Off-the-shelf: Videos

Small group and one-on-one sessions work really well.
Problems are being getting to the client’s site and not getting interrupted.
Custom: Small group sessions

Paid : Gotomeeting superior to Webex
Free : Yuuguu, DimDim, TeamViewer
Good for quick one-on-ones.
Difficult to get true back-and-forth and attention spans are short.
Custom: Screen-sharing

Paid : Camtasia, Screenflow
Free : Jing, iShowU, Showmewhatswrong.com
A very successful technique for showcasing smaller tasks.
Custom: Screencasts

Screensteps
Custom: Docs

Confluence
Custom: Docs

People Forget

Simple workflows
Custom training based on their site
Constant reminders
Your core training should be custom documentation, supported by other methods.
How should I teach?

Principles
Processes
Concepts
Facts
Workflows
Level of Difficulty

Off-the-shelf
Custom
Level of Difficulty

How to Train Your Drupal Clients

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How to Train Your Drupal Clients Presentation Transcript