Field UI 2023 User Research

Seven participants tested Drupal 10, all with a background in web development, some with prior experience with content modeling using Drupal and some without. A set of scenarios were prepared that lead participants through modifying a content model of an existing Drupal site, both with and without Layout Builder. All of the testing was done using Drupal 10.0.2 with Umami installation profile.

The research objectives were:

1. To understand the ease of use of the Field UI for implementing content models (i.e. content types with fields)
2. To identify pain points or issues that users encounter while implementing a content model
3. To understand the user flow and steps taken by users to implement a content model
4. To identify areas where the current Field UI could be improved to enhance the usability and desirability
5. Provide recommendations for improving the user experience (ease of use + desirability).

Full testing protocol for the research can be found here.

Quantitative metrics

1. How easy was it to visualize the content model of the site? (1 very easy, 5 very challenging) Result: 2.7
2. How confident are you that the changes you have made to the content model are correctly implemented? (1 uncertain, 5 very confident) Result: 3.7
3. How easy was the process of making the changes to the content model? (1 very easy, 5 very challenging) Result: 2.9
4. How satisfied are you with the overall experience of implementing a content model with Drupal? (1 very satisfied, 5 very unsatisfied) Result: 2.6

Insights in the Field UI

Insights in the Layout Builder

Recommendations

1. Users find navigating between "content" and "edit content types" burdensome. When a user makes changes within "Manage Form Display", it should be easier for the user to find out what the outcome of those changes to the form looks like.
2. Users find navigating between "content" and "edit content types" burdensome. When a user makes changes within "Manage Display", it should be easier for the user to find out what the outcome of those changes to the displayed content looks like.
3. Users struggle understanding which view mode they should be editing. They tend to assume that they can achieve what they want by modifying the default view mode, without even paying attention to the view mode selection. Make the view mode selection more prominent, at least in the cases where the full page view mode is in use. It might also make sense to show the full page view mode by default when it's in use because that's what users expect.
4. When configuring a field, some settings within that form are more important than others. In some cases, however, the less-important fields are more prominent to the user. For example, the help textarea is prominently displayed but isn't critical to adding a field to the data model. Revisit how the form elements are organized to ensure that the most important fields are more noticeable than the less consequential ones.
5. Users struggle to understand which view mode/block/etc they should be editing. View mode was the most frequently mentioned as a point of confusion. It should be easier for a user to know what block/entity/view mode/field/etc is in use on a given part of a page, so users can better identify what they would need to change in order to get the results they seek.