1. 5 things that are STILL!
TOO! HARD! in Plone 5
UX Hitlist
Dylan Jay @djay75

2. Plone 5 is awesome!

3. It’s slick and modern!

4. This creates interest

5. but it works pretty much
the same
(except bulk editing)

6. But Plone UI is good right?
Maybe we have Stockholm syndrome?

7. The UX HitlistShowing where we suck since 2013

8. Not much
ticked off

9. UX issues are bugs too

10. But these are hard problems!
• We have the will but...
• Often no obvious correct solution
• Often conflicting opinions
• Often conflicting strong opinions
• Often Subjective
• Developers don’t have user
problems
• Developers don’t scratch other
people's itches for free
• UX team can’t tell you developers
what to do
• No Limi to follow

11. –me, (just now)
“We choose to make the easiest to use CMS, not
because it is easy, but because it is hard; ”

12. –a friend of mine, (ages ago)
“A good startup is something that is doing something
that is either really hard or really boring”

13. Plone 6 USP
Plone 6 is the easiest CMS
Easiest to use
Easiest to theme
Easiest to get started
Easiest to keep secure

14. Problems before
solutions (PBS)
(was SOAPIE - Subjective/Objective/Analysis/Plan/Implementation/Evaluation)
“5 why’s” to the get root USER problem
List ALL the options not just your favourite
Problem centric - focus on the best compromise
Solution centric - choose +1 or -1 and fight!
PLIPs are Solutions before Problems :( PLIPs broken

15. #1- Folders are broken
• “I added a page, how do I add a subpage?”
• “I clicked on display and now my landing page is gone”
• “How do I edit a menu name?”
• “How do I publish a folder?” (it has a default page)
• “Why do users get a login? it says the page is published”
• “I made a page, but now I want to turn it into News?”
• “Where do I add new news?”
• “It’s tedious move around the site to add things”

16. Keep display views but provide more help

17. Folderish content
• Pages are folders but keep display views
• How to make other content types landing pages?
• Pages are folders with tiles
• Remove the display views
• Remove default views
• Replace with tiles and composition
• Default page = embed tile
• Doesn’t have to be mosaic

18. Placeless content
• Assign content to menus?
• How other CMS’s work.
• Create first, add menu item, link the two.
• con: possible to create bad IA
shortcuts to recent folders
or hybrid. “move inside edit/add”

19. “Add new” and “edit” let you “place” content.
Sensible defaults
Limits you to where type is allowed

20. #2 Content types are broken
• “How can I have a map in the middle of my content?”
• “I want a collection but have text above and below it”
• “How do I insert a flash video?”
• “I want three kinds of listings on my page”

22. Mosaic
The art of theming is deciding how much control you
give to editors
Mosaic is editor friendly
Let’s hope it’s themer friendly
Protected tiles?
what if you want to not let editors layout?
What if you theme doesn’t use grids?

23. #3 Sharing is confusing
• “I have 20 different roles in my organisation, where is the custom role
button?”
• “Is ‘can edit’ the same as Editor?”
• “If I click on submit for publication, what happens?”
• “How do I know I’ve been given the editor role?”
• “Why is my content still viewable in a private folder?
• “how can I share my content without publishing it?”
• “How can I share my content with outside users?”

24. Sharing ideas
• Get rid of the word “roles”. Permissions? Capabilities?
• Get rid of global roles. Do it via sharing in the root
• Combine workflow and sharing. Dialog should show which
users/groups can do what in which states
• Encourage groups as roles. Groups first in the UI. Ability to
classify groups
• Content rules on sharing changes

25. One idea: show both who can review your content if you want to submit for
review

26. #4 - Buildout is broken/
Getting started is hard
“I create an empty site but how do I make it into
shop/blog/intranet/brochureware site?”
“I just want to start with a simple blog, do I really have to run
my own server?”
“I want to try a plugin. Do I really have to use this command
line thing?”
“adding this plugin broke plone by upgrading something”

27. Distributions/Cloud
• Known good sets of plugins
• Paragon as a versions.cfg in the collective
• Installers with plugins included
• Installers with default site content included
• Install Plone - do you want a blog site?
• Cloud first on plone.org.
• Cloud before installers
• Distribution dependent themes - plugins are there
• ploneblogs.org - Medium for ploners.

28. Hackability
• Customising a CMS to build an app is stupid
•jbot is evil
•We need TTW plugins
• buildout hates new users
•Plomino/rapido - app framework on top of plone
•Get rid of tutorials promoting Dexterity to build apps

29. #5 Theming/Customisation
“I want to script something. buildout/packages/mr.bob wtf?”
“why do I need these rules when I can hack an html file?”
“why do I need to hack an xml file when wordpress has so many themes?”
“Why do I need to theme the backend? No other CMS does.”
“I have to do what to change this wording?”
“I have to do what to change a LESS variable?”
“grunt/bower/bootstrap/registries/jbot/…?”

30. Theme ideas
Remote theme browser built into Plone. One click install.
Promote TTW first - Single Integrators UI
Include integration code in a theme (fragments)
Include translations in a theme
Include Generic Setup in a theme
Include default site content in a theme
Custom tile types in a theme
Single zip export + Pull and push as git built into plone

31. Gloss
• “Diazo is great but not a low enough bar for the average designer” -
David Bain
• Gloss - preset rules using standard classes
• Learn css classes so you don’t have to diazo: pro or con?
the-gloss-project.readthedocs.org

32. Include Backend.xml + if-content:css=”body.frontend”
In plone 5 - yah! - reduces the time to theme

33. I think UX is more
important than
Refactoring
Switching away from Zope
Switching away from ZODB
New content type frameworks
Who are we trying to attract?
We will never win over python developers. Stop trying.
We should target Drupal/Wordpress/Craft/EE devs +
designers
“Upgrade to Plone”
removing zope only helps by removing negative
brand

34. Let’s make Plone 6 really “end” user-driven!
The end - Dylan Jay - PretaGov UK/AU