GHOP #88: Analyze and provide designs to improve the Drupal Download process

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Here's a link to this task in the Google GHOP queue:
http://code.google.com/p/google-highly-open-participation-drupal/issues/...

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I've got a question about this part:

Ask 3 to 5 people to "Download Drupal". Without giving them further instructions, analyze what they do, where they go, and any points of confusion in the process. Provide these notes and a summary analysis of the current process.

Can I tell these people where the Drupal website is, or do they have to figure it out themselves?

I think it's fine to give them the http://drupal.org URL, but I wouldn't direct them to a more specific URL.

I think it would be interesting to just give them the proper spelling and see what happens. Part of making downloading easy is making sure that the way we are represented in the SERPS (search engine results pages) is compelling. If they get completely stuck before finding Drupal.org then yes, guide them to the home page.

Here it is.

Edit: Wait, where's the file? I'll try uploading it again...
Edit 2: I've uploaded the file to Google Code.
Edit 3: I uploaded the wrong file. I might as well try to upload it here again.
Edit 4: The correct file is at Google Code.

The attachment is at http://code.google.com/p/google-highly-open-participation-drupal/issues/...

I happened to be watching this thread and decided to read your submission. I agree with what you pointed out. It isn't obvious how to download Drupal at first glance and making a large button would be an improvement.

The rotating features image with details on click is a cool idea as well.

Wow.....you did a great job with this. The document is very nice looking and you did a good job with the mockups. I noticed a few small mistakes:
1. Page 6 of the .pdf looks like it's missing the bottom half.
2. Page 7: One of the green blocks "Large panel helps...." obscures some of your text.
3. Page 14: The "Disadvantages" are incomplete.

I would also like to see a conclusions/wrap up section that brings together all of the work you did so that the end of the document isn't quite so abrupt.

But as I said, I think you did a great job with this and just a few additions/corrections should wrap up this task.

I started writing some feedback but aclight beat me too it - +1 to everything he said - especially about the quality and polish of the current work!

Here's the link to the file.
http://code.google.com/p/google-highly-open-participation-drupal/issues/...

ThatPerson, I've seen documents written by Ph.D.'s with full-time editing, design and production staff that did not have anything approaching the polish of your PDF. I mean really -- I am just so very impressed with this. It looks good, reads well, is informative and makes some very good points.

I made a couple of notes as I read through it:

• In the introduction, you have "Drupal is a great platform for content management, but the download process, while straightforward to developers, may not be as such to regular end users and newcomers to the Drupal project. This report will do this by:" "may not be as such" is an unusual construct. Something like "may not be as obvious" may be simpler and easier to understand. Also, when you say "This report will do this by", I'm not sure exactly what you are saying the report will do.
• "When asked about what Drupal does, he replied it as a web publishing system." has a small typo (I'm guessing "as" should be "was".)
• "The following are download process for other three open-source projects..." is missing a word or something.
• I really like the large download button you have introduced on your Mockup #2.
• "The features would randomly rotate every time the user refreshed the page." has a strange tense shift.
• I think both of your download page mockups illustrate some very good ideas!

Again, this is a really good job!

Great job with this.

If the file isn't too large to upload on d.o, can you please attach it to this issue as well just in case the google task tracker data isn't available to us in the future.

I'd also love to see you follow up with these suggestions and see if maybe they could actually be implemented on d.o. That would be separate from the GHOP task and totally optional, but I think you have some great ideas here and very good mock ups for your ideas. I guess I would suggest either creating a new task in the webmasters project (or you could probably just move this issue to that queue) with your suggestions. But perhaps someone else has a better/different idea about how to do this.

Again, great work. I'm very impressed with the quality of your report.

I've closed out this GHOP task and have given you credit for the work.

Moving to the documentation queue. All I can say is WOW.

Here's the updated link, the old one is no longer accessible.

Added link to the file from the usability research page http://drupal.org/node/126140