MODX Revolution 2.3 Manager Contest

Gabriel,

Thanks so much for starting this up. I am going to dive into the presentation later today or tomorrow but love the initiative!

What happend with this?

Interesting initiative!

I like the ideas behind this one:
https://github.com/pdincubus/MODX-Revolution-Responsive-Manager-Theme

What's the status on this project?

Good question - has this contest gone anywhere?

Was there a clear timeline? It would be a shame if this was one of those good ideas that ended up petering out.

Steve

Just a note, since I am catching up on this thread. Someone brought up Typo3 NEOS (which looks really stellar) and this reminded me of reading about Rasmus' (one visionary guy) quest for building an incredible UX/UI for NEOS. This wasn't design by committee but the result of research and inspiration collected and driven. He looked outside the usual suspects, he looked away from Typo3 and looked to the future of Content Management and didn't look just at fulfilling his own desires or scratching his own itches (which is a theme I see often in open source). Of course, he didn't do it alone, I am not saying that's possible, but design is not a collection of good ideas taped together it's a unified vision for how they can fit together cohesively and intelligently to solve one or more problems.

Here's his thank-you post: http://rasmusskjoldan.com/post/69678667241/typo3-neos-1-0-launch-my-thank-you-notes

Timbordrumbo,

I am all for the UXWG, I wish I had more time to get involved. I really like the initiative.

Yes, I know I work for MODX, but the real story is, especially now, I am a MODX user more than anything else. I.e. a content creator, publisher and maintainer.

I just thought it worth sharing the NEOS story as it was brought up. My concerns around OS have always existed as it relates to self interest vs building the best application. Through collaboration and intelligent discussion and seeking ideas from outside sources you can more easily filter out the self interest and bias. Of course as you know, research and facts can easily nix the self interest and bias. Mine included.

I do not wish to hijack this thread for the philisophical discussion. Lets continue this elsewhere.

Now back to your regularly scheduled design contest.

Quote from: timbodrumbo at Mar 13, 2014, 05:30 PM

Quote from: smashingred at Mar 13, 2014, 03:38 PM

I have requested feedback from you, JP and Mark H on Trello and I have one volunteer ready to evaluate/outline a series of user input exercises - please articulate your specific requirements on what information you would like to see gathered.

I think it is going to be important to draw a line in the sand between what happens in 2.x and what is put towards a full re-imagination of the Manager once breaking changes allow. I think one of the reasons we have seen many great design mock ups, but few of them coded out, is that we do not have Creative Freedom in the Manager.

Hi folks,

I mentioned NEOS on a Twitter a while back, and it is indeed very impressive.

As JP implies I would hate for this contest to get confused with reimagining the Manager. I think it was clear from the start that this contest was about quick fixes - solving problems and modernising design within the existing framework. We all know this is not ideal, but the power of it should not be under estimated.

A working Group is a great idea but without involvement from the Core team it has limited merit - people will quickly lose interest when their voices are not heard. Can the MODX team commit (actual commitment, not promises) to this project?

I realise we're driving for more community driven development and I applaud this, but it must surely be recognised that without sometype of positive evolution MODX will start (continue to?) to bleed out developers? This is simple human nature, and ultimately the tech community appreciate modern forward thinking dev, so it applies more.

I would really like to see some type of agile development process started - pace of change is important. There needs to be recognition of the statement "done is better than perfect".

The enthusiasm MODXpo and this contest generated was absolutely fantastic. If we look inwards can we honestly say this has been capitalised on?

Steve

I guess there's a difference between support and hands on involvement.

Equally a difference between talk and action. There is a time for both, and I value both, i think that I only meant to imply that the at the moment MODX seems to be at a point where the later is more appropriate.

I'm not suggesting a UX group has no merit - it's a great idea. I hesitate to say it's what MODX needs right now.

User journeys, client feedback etc etc aggregated in to one place and acted upon is a fantastic idea, and a great opportunity. But at this stage I'd argue taking 25% of the ideas contributed via mockups and write ups to date and implementing would constitute significantly more progress.

Some of the suggestions so far are so blindingly obvious to 99% of people with any UX experience does it really make sense to develop a complex documented approach at this stage?

The projects should clearly run in parallel.

Steve

Hi Steve,

I think timbodrumbo and you are very much on the same page. Where it is different is the way in which it is done. For some, there is a "let's be scientific about this" aspect, and for some, there's a "just get something out quickly". I myself vary between the two depending on the topic and my mood.

I agree that the projects should work in parallel so that both paths get what they want. What might be common is a thread (other than this one) which deals with UX issues and we just add to it as we go along.

Regards,
Tom