[META] Analyzing current state of Drupal.org content and IA

This issue and child issues that follow are based on the findings of the Content Strategy project performed by the Drupal Association staff in partnership with Forum One Communications during December 2014 - April 2015.

Current state of Drupal.org Content and IA

• Content on the site is largely organized by content type and not by persona or user task.
• Content types are siloed in separate sections of the site. Very few sections include more than one content type.
• A piece of content is generally only displayed in one section of the site.
• Primary ways of structuring content: ‘book pages’ hierarchy and custom-coded horizontal menus.
• Limited navigation to and between sections of content.
• Flat permissions structure - mostly anyone can create or edit any content.

Limitations of the current IA

Lack of clarity and duplication

Single user task can be performed in different areas of the site using different content types, making it hard for users (especially Newcomers and Learners) to know what is the “right” place for X.

Example: Work on an initiative can be organized using meta issue, issue tag search, group, book page or even custom external site.

Example: Announcement can be published in the forum, group on g.d.o, book page (e.g. press releases). None of those places is easily findable.

No discoverability

Users land on specific page mostly through search or by going directly to the url. It is hard to naturally discover other sections of the site or related content. There is little to no relation between pieces of content of different type, which have the same topic or support the same user journey.

Example: It is a common user habit to memorize the url in order to get to specific page on the site.

Limitations of book hierarchy

Big portion of content on the site is grouped in a few ‘top level’ books with very deep hierarchy beneath them. Such a book can contain very different content, aimed at absolutely different audiences.

Example: Sometimes ‘books’ include so many pages that navigating them becomes not particularly usable.

Example: Getting Involved Guide is a collection of various content aimed at different audiences.

Permissions and ‘maintainership’

Because there is no organization structure beside the content type, permissions system is pretty flat - either everyone can create/edit all content of specific content type or only a group of people (based on user role) can do that. Assigning a group of people to a set of pages of specific type (‘maintainers’) is not possible. To limit access to specific pieces or sections of content we have to use custom solutions that are nonstandard and not best practice for Drupal development.

Example: We use ‘full html’ input filter to “lock” certain book pages from editing by any user of the site.

Display and layout

Because there is no organization structure beside the content type, all pieces of content of the same type have the same display—independent of where they are located or what audience they are aimed at.
Without well defined display modes, it is difficult to build dynamic layouts, which aggregate content based on relevancy. Most of content also looks the same in search results, not giving users enough context.

Example: Press release, documentation page, contribution guide, and marketing content all have the same layout when we look at the node view. The same applies to search results for these types of content.

Summary

We need a better way to organize content on the site. This does not mean we need too many content types to meet all the different use cases and personas.

We need to separate content from structure. Use content types to create content, use other means to bring structure.

For recommendations and proposed solutions see child issues.