Problem

The "manage" prefix before several different administrative UI names eg. "manage fields", "manage display", makes these options more similar to one another and harder for the user to scan and quickly disambiguate.

"Manage" adds no additional meaning since everything an administrator does is to some extent about "managing" (ti is, after all a content *management* system).

Addtionally this one extra word often repeats itself four or five times in a row of tabs, lengthening the set of tabs and making it needlessly more complex.

Solution

Remove the word "Manage" from interface text wherever it is part of a UI name/tab. Discuss removing it everywhere.

Impacts

AFAIK in Drupal 8 UI text changes do not impact APIs as the machine names can remain the same. Obviously there would be non-trivial impact on documentation.

Comments

tkoleary created an issue. See original summary.

tkoleary’s picture

Title: "Manage" at the beginning of admin UI page names makes them less easy to quickly distinguish. » The word "Manage" at the beginning of admin UI page names makes them less easy to quickly distinguish.
tkoleary’s picture

Version: 8.1.x-dev » 8.2.x-dev

Drupal 8.1.0-beta1 was released on March 2, 2016, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.2.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Gábor Hojtsy’s picture

I agree "Manage" makes things much harder to scan. I think we used to have or still have rules in terms of having a verb in a tab to express the act. "Manage" being a higher level task compared to "Edit". Edit would manipulate an object directly while "Manage" would manipulate a group of objects (in most cases). Not sure that distinction needs to be spelled out so well though, and people still need to figure out what is a "Manage form display" vs. a "Manage view display" in the first place.

ifrik’s picture

This issue duplicates part of #2521780: The 'Edit', 'Manage display' and 'Manage form display' tabs were hard to understand and might be better to keep it together in one place.
Based on the outcome of the discussion going on in that issue, we might come to the conclusion that removing "manage" is a good idea, or we might find a different solution there.

Gábor Hojtsy’s picture

Yeah I think the point is "manage" appears many other places :)

Version: 8.2.x-dev » 8.3.x-dev

Drupal 8.2.0-beta1 was released on August 3, 2016, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.3.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Version: 8.3.x-dev » 8.4.x-dev

Drupal 8.3.0-alpha1 will be released the week of January 30, 2017, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.4.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Version: 8.4.x-dev » 8.5.x-dev

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Version: 8.5.x-dev » 8.6.x-dev

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Version: 8.7.x-dev » 8.8.x-dev

Drupal 8.7.0-alpha1 will be released the week of March 11, 2019, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.8.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Version: 8.8.x-dev » 8.9.x-dev

Drupal 8.8.0-alpha1 will be released the week of October 14th, 2019, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.9.x-dev branch. (Any changes to 8.9.x will also be committed to 9.0.x in preparation for Drupal 9’s release, but some changes like significant feature additions will be deferred to 9.1.x.). For more information see the Drupal 8 and 9 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 and 9 release cycles.

Version: 8.9.x-dev » 9.1.x-dev

Drupal 8.9.0-beta1 was released on March 20, 2020. 8.9.x is the final, long-term support (LTS) minor release of Drupal 8, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 9.1.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 and 9 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 and 9 release cycles.

Version: 9.1.x-dev » 9.2.x-dev

Drupal 9.1.0-alpha1 will be released the week of October 19, 2020, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 9.2.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 9 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 9 release cycle.

Version: 9.2.x-dev » 9.3.x-dev

Drupal 9.2.0-alpha1 will be released the week of May 3, 2021, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 9.3.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal core minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal core release cycle.

Version: 9.3.x-dev » 9.4.x-dev

Drupal 9.3.0-rc1 was released on November 26, 2021, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 9.4.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal core minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal core release cycle.

Version: 9.4.x-dev » 9.5.x-dev

Drupal 9.4.0-alpha1 was released on May 6, 2022, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 9.5.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal core minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal core release cycle.

Version: 9.5.x-dev » 10.1.x-dev

Drupal 9.5.0-beta2 and Drupal 10.0.0-beta2 were released on September 29, 2022, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 10.1.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal core minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal core release cycle.

Version: 10.1.x-dev » 11.x-dev

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dqd’s picture

Title: The word "Manage" at the beginning of admin UI page names makes them less easy to quickly distinguish. » Word "Manage" at beginning of admin page names makes them harder to distinguish.

Still an interesting issue which I would not consider to close too early. Found this in #16 of #3381734: Locate drupalisms that might create confusion among users to be discussed as close candidates.

While this:

I agree "Manage" makes things much harder to scan. I think we used to have or still have rules in terms of having a verb in a tab to express the act. "Manage" being a higher level task compared to "Edit".

is important to take into account for the reasons it is designed yet as is, more over this:

I think the point is "manage" appears many other places

evaluates this issue to be still relevant.

Apart from that, I would like to put into account the readability of mass open Browser tabs (not Drupal tabs), where you only can see the word "manage..." quite soon in case of a narrowed screen or too much tabs open and makes it hard to distinguish display from form-display and other tabs starting with "manage...".

From UI concept/design issues in other software development projects where I needed to solve this: I would like to consider the "hierarchical/collapsible word composition concept". This is what I have named it just for my own purposes after making it to a thumb of rule for following projects. It describes the concept of making nested lists and hierarchies readable lines from top to bottom without repeating itself. It makes clear what the point in the middle or end is about when reading from top to bottom while saving space and following the DRY principle. Additional advantage: It prevents to change names or labels multiple times if requried.

That goes for folder trees but also for navigation and their respective page names. So this concept prefers table > legs > extensions over table > table legs > table leg extensions.

So we do not create hierarchies and navigations like:

table
-- table legs
-- -- table leg extensions

but rather:

table
-- legs
-- -- extensions

In Drupal we already do that in the respective path disussed here, since it correctly reads already: admin/structure/types/manage/article/display and not admin/structure/types/manage/article/manage-display.

While I see advantages in reading primary/secondary Drupal tab labels and page names like: edit | manage display | other settings because - like Gabor already stated - distinguishes better by verbs "edit" from "manage", it actually feels somewhat inconsequent and therefor rather would need to be edit content | manage display | other setting then instead.

To take all of this into account my suggestion for page names and Drupal manage tabs under "Manage " would be:

From:

-- Edit
 -- Manage display
 -- Manage form display

To:

 -- Content
 -- Display
 -- Form display

Or in case you need to keep it up with the verbs, then consequently to :

 -- Edit Content
 -- Manage display
 -- Manage form display

(I tried to shorten the title a bit.)

dqd’s picture

Title: Word "Manage" at beginning of admin page names makes them harder to distinguish. » Word Manage at beginning of multiple admin page names make them hard to distinguish.
Status: Needs work » Needs review
Issue tags: -d8ux, -D8UX usability +ux, +admin interface
Gábor Hojtsy’s picture

Still agree with myself from 6 years ago that Manage makes things hard to scan. I think what was not raised yet is the accessibility question. When navigating with a screen reader I think having the specific call to action well spelled out is super helpful. Maybe we can do that without displaying it though?

dqd’s picture

Still agree with myself from 6 years ago that Manage makes things hard to scan.

Same here. Then, we are 2 already. :-) Not sure if it shined thru the thoughts I layed out to show all sides of it is in the comment before yours, but that's exactly what I agreed to as well ;-) And made suggestions how to slidely change it. Actually not a big change since all information is already in place.

Can you give me an example regarding screen readers missing some of the respective information? From what I had to consider in such scenarios it turned out to be actually the same. All information is there in the "tree". Especially in case breadcrumbs are in place. Maybe it needs a visual example to see how it negatively affects Accessibility? Because I consider this as very important, like you do. If so, then yes, we can easely make additional text visible only for screen readers. Which is common practise.

smustgrave’s picture

Issue tags: +Needs usability review

Wonder if this should be closed for #3381734: Locate drupalisms that might create confusion among users though or minimum postponed till a decision is made over there. The linked ticket is the one going through ux reviews, imagine child issues will be opened or old issues repurposed when a plan is officially made.

Tagging though as @rkoller mentioned in #ux that this one has not been discussed.

dqd’s picture

Yeah, I see where you come from. To add my modest opinion: I consider #338173: How to place image as a part of a node/page, which I referred to already in #22, as a somewhat META-alike or parent to this here? This is why I see no further reason to close this here in favour of the other unless it is about to limit open issues at the moment. What I fully understand :-)

My reasons are that I think it needs more attention and opinions here from the community and a closed issue does maybe not encourage for that discussion? But maybe I am mistaken. I mean, at the end, this is not the most imortant issue we have, I agree. :-)

smustgrave’s picture

Another reason I'd defer to the other ticket, at least for now, is it seems to get more traffic and is having more discussion. This issue was opened 8+ years ago and never really got going. I'd love that putting in review would generate that discussion but based on how I've seen other issues appear I wouldn't be too hopeful. Joining #ux weekly usability meetings on Friday may help though.

Something I mentioned in the slack post in #ux is that there is currently a number of issues around the same stuff. Think first step is to clean those up before work is duplicated across multiple tickets.

We can leave in review though if others want to chime in but will eventually need to go through usability team, and again before anyone works on this usability review should happen before the work.

dqd’s picture

Joining #ux weekly usability meetings on Friday may help though.

Yeah, that's what I thougt too. Sadly for my schedule as a 3 times CEO it is hard to keep up with fixed appointments. But I will try my best if it helps.

there is currently a number of issues around the same stuff. Think first step is to clean those up before work is duplicated across multiple tickets.

This! Yep. You are right. I fully agree. Absolutely! +1

before anyone works on this usability review should happen before the work.

This is so important and thanks for you to ring this bell. I so often tried to explain why it is sometimes more important in issues to wait instead of kicking patches in immediately.

Let me bring up my 2 cents from #22 then on #ux if you don't mind, because I think that would be a good solution in the sense of "best of both worlds" alike.

smustgrave’s picture

Status: Needs review » Postponed

So this seems to have sat for about a month with unfortunately no movement. But looking at #3381734: Locate drupalisms that might create confusion among users there seems to be ongoing meetings being had with the usability team.

I imagine once a plan is made these tickets will be either closed, repurposed, or continued (seems to be a number of them). To avoid potentially duplicate conversations being had lets just postpone this one and follow what goes on over there.