Why Profile UX was created

Almost a month ago, I started a project to rewrite the Profile and the Edit Account pages, the module was created as a proof of concept to how Profiles and Account settings should be handled in D8. The module was never intended to make it to a stable release. But the module quickly evolved, I even started backporting it to D6 so I could use it in a project.

I soon realized the module should be separated into two modules, and that the approach I was taking with Profile Pages wasn't the right one. I then started from scratch, created some mockups and started coding.

The reason behind this module is really simple, and I identified some recurrent problems I've been having when using profiles in a site.

• Profiles don't look like profiles by default. Tabs like "View", "Edit", "OpenID", etc. are for different things.
• A profile is a representation of the user, usually there is content related to the user. Edit, OpenID and more, are account settings, they are different things and they should not be in the same place.
• The profile page is not easy to change. An easy thing, like removing the "History" block, or moving arround the User picture, can be a hard thing to do.
• Using the Context module, is very easy to create cool profile pages with minimum effort when you have all the pieces.
• On the account settings page, forms are usually confusing and very long if you install many modules.
• Other modules already are trying to move the Picture and password to other tabs.

You can see the mockups I created during this process and screenshots of the result.

Difference with other modules

One of the cool things about Drupal is that there is always one more way to do the same thing.

Profile 2

Profile 2 allows you to create multiple Profile pages. This is actually a great thing. PUX is simpler in that way. Also, Profile 2 does not address the User Account Settings page problems (at least for now) and it cannot be backported to D6.

Advanced Profile Kit

The main reason I don't use this great module, is because it depends on Panels. Panels is a great module, but sometimes it can be too much for a simple site, but that doesn't mean that you can't have cool profiles. This module, won't address the issues with the Account Edit Settings.