UX leadership in open-source Drupal: Insights, lessons and future aspirations
In March this year, I was asked to join the Drupal leadership team, to bring my UX knowledge and expertise both to Drupal’s newest product, Drupal CMS, and to Drupal core. I reflect on six months of contributing to an open-source community in a leadership position.
My first encounter with Drupal was learning about EdWeb, the University’s main content management system. EdWeb (and its successor, EdWeb2) are built on Drupal, which is an open-source technology supported by a thriving international community and adopted by many higher education institutions worldwide. I recognised the dependency of the quality of content web publishers are able to produce on the content management system they use, and saw an opportunity to get involved contributing to the open-source Drupal community to help make Drupal better for everyone. Over the next few years, I worked on the improvement of Drupal.org, started a drive to reduce the complexity of Drupal’s language and led UX research for Drupal CMS – a low-code site building and management product aimed at non-technical audiences.
Read more about how I became involved in the Drupal community in some of my previous blog posts:
Contributing to open-source Drupal as a non-developer – reflections and projections
UX leading the newest developments in Drupal – a mindset shift for Drupal CMS
Following the launch of Drupal CMS 1.0, I was appointed to two leadership roles: UX Research Lead for Drupal CMS, and UX Manager for Drupal Core (along with Cristina Chumillas). This appointment presented an exciting opportunity to improve UX in Drupal and to transform the way the community viewed and regarded UX. In this blog post, I reflect on what I’ve learned and achieved so far and what’s next.
Leading on UX has provided me with a new perspective on the Drupal ecosystem
Working as UX Manager for the University enabled me to become very familiar with different aspects of the content editor and developer experiences of Drupal as a content management system, however, I was less familiar with the perspectives and expectations of agencies, Drupal certified partners and specialised distributions of Drupal. Attending regular meetings with others from the leadership team, including product brainstorms, milestone planning meetings and core maintenance check-ins I have been able to learn more about what Drupal can do, not only in the content management space, but also more broadly as a robust, secure system for handling and connecting structured data. I’ve also been able to improve my understanding of how Drupal as a community works, familiarising with underlying forces at work and key players.
Seeing Drupal from different viewpoints helps me to keep seeking opportunities, identifying approaches and mechanisms to optimise use of Drupal, and ideating on ways to improve Drupal UX. From a practical perspective, joining channels in Drupal Slack has provided a rich source of background reading and importantly, contacts to reach out to with questions. ‘The drop is always moving’ is a well-used phrase in the Drupal community, and it resonates strongly, I’ve learned that things regularly change and there is always something to learn, and having obtained fresh eyes on the different parts of the Drupalverse, I have collected a suite of ways to keep up with all of the developments.
Continual UX research helps me visualise who uses Drupal and how it can meet their needs
UX is a profession that depends on knowing about people and their behaviours in the context of specific products, services and systems. I recognised that to be effective as a UX leader in Drupal I needed to develop and retain a sound understanding of its main audiences and their associated needs and tasks, as well as to learn about new emerging markets and potential for Drupal. In user research, learning about the current state is a good way to uncover opportunities for improvement, and I have found that investing time revisiting previous Drupal research, as well as seeking every opportunity to learn from Drupal users at the University and in the wider community has helped me establish what is known about who uses Drupal and why, but also what is not yet known, therefore identifying and prioritising directions for future research.
For example, making use of data from interviews conducted with Drupal users provided by the Drupal Association helped me understand reasons why people choose Drupal – which was knowledge I was able to apply to support the Promote Drupal initiative. Drawing on persona data created by Drupal experts Acquia, and bringing knowledge from my own EdWeb research with University web publishers facilitated the construction of archetypes for the new Drupal CMS product. Acquainting myself with data from ‘community listening sessions’ carried out at previous Drupal events and interviewing University Drupal developers helped me establish use cases for people wishing to add functionality to their Drupal sites which in turn has facilitated further designs and tests for the section of the administrative interface which displays modules, recipes and add-ons for site builders to install. From a recent round of surveys probing the community response to a Marketplace initiative, I took the opportunity to set up interviews with respondents and to interview University colleagues about Drupal site design and theming to gather more insight to feed into decision-making about Drupal Marketplace.
Read the Drupal CMS archetypes on Drupal.org
Read about the tests for adding functionality to Drupal in the issue on Drupal.org
Read about the Marketplace initiative on Drupal.org
Immersive learning, combined with University insight helps me spot innovation opportunities
In addition to specific research, I have learned that absorbing information about Drupal immersively is a worthy endeavour, even if at the time, the specific relevance may not be clear. Joining working groups, participating in calls, contributing to individual issues on Drupal.org and generally taking time to familiarise myself with happenings in the Drupal community have all helped me gain contextual knowledge to connect the dots and ensure that I can participate in larger initiatives in more meaningful ways in the longer term. Furthermore, the more I learn about Drupal, the better equipped I am to bring in my contextual knowledge of the University’s uses of Drupal to guide improvement pathways to benefit everyone.
My interest in Drupal AI developments in summer 2024 led to me being involved in streams of work to shape the user interface of a Drupal AI chatbot, to test the Drupal AI Agent framework and to experiment with using AI to migrate content. In the regular meetings, there was a lot of technical discussion which was largely beyond my comprehension, and at times I questioned whether it was worth being involved. My perseverance paid off when we were able to bring Drupal AI experts Freely Give to work with our team at the University to look at ways we could use AI to enhance website experiences and when our Content Design Style Guide summer intern Mostafa Ebid recognised an innovative opportunity to integrate ELM into EdWeb2 to create a style guide AI assistant and I was able to direct him to relevant documentation as well as people in the community to connect with and learn from.
Content design and careful word choices remain powerful ways to open up Drupal
For me, one of the most exciting areas for user-centred improvement in Drupal is the potential to make the terminology used in Drupal clearer, and to reduce the number of ‘Drupalisms’ which prevent Drupal novices from learning and applying the system’s capabilities. Drupal has many varied capabilities and explaining what is does is a nice challenge to have, and I was keen to apply my content design background to address it.
In 2023, I began a ‘Drupalisms’ initiative which proved to be a significant piece of work. Working with fellow Drupal community members, I formulated a multi-stage plan which set out to initially gather a list of Drupal terms, and subsequently to prioritise the most confusing ones to tackle, ultimately resulting in a controlled vocabulary. Beginning the first stage of the plan quickly generated a spreadsheet of over 700 words and it became clear that prioritisation would be required sooner in the process. Adapting the original plan, I worked with Drupal experts to create a survey to circulate to the community to gain a steer on which terminology was most in need of simplification. The survey received more than 400 responses, demonstrating the community commitment to and interest in this cause, and producing a very rich dataset to analyse.
With the advent of Drupal CMS in 2024, the analysis of the survey results was put on hold as it became clear that since this new product was aimed at non-technical users, there was a need for a specific drive to make careful choices about terminology from the start. A voice and tone workshop helped establish an approach to using words within Drupal CMS and our emphasis switched to making sure the addition of new Drupal terms was tightly controlled to avoid confusing terms being used in the Drupal CMS installation process, the dashboard and other user interfaces. A chance encounter with the team behind Drupalisme (a Drupal training package used by many, including the University) at a Drupal event presented the opportunity to synchronise efforts and ensure terminology on interfaces and guidance aligned.
The initiative to reduce complexities in Drupal’s language continues, and tackling this area of work has taught me the value of persistence when working to improve open-source software. It has also conditioned me to adopt an agile mindset and to be ready to change tactic, being mindful that things change in the community and priorities shift. Furthermore, it was another reminder that opportunities to improve Drupal are linked, that starting to effect change in one part of Drupal can often a domino effect and, over time, can re-emerge and have impact elsewhere.
Read more about my work on Drupalisms in this blog post:
De-jargoning Drupal – working with the community to open up Drupal’s terminology
Speaking about my Drupal work helps me combat imposter syndrome and lead more effectively
As one of the few non-developers in a Drupal leadership role, I often feel outnumbered and question what I can bring to a developer rich community. Technical conversations (of which there are many) can leave me feeling a bit overwhelmed, and it can be challenging to keep up to date with all the developments and to appreciate their immediate significance. To ensure I stay focused on my role, I have found it useful to keep talking about my Drupal plans and work, both to Drupal audiences and more broadly, both within and outside the University.
Going through the process of preparing narratives, slides and visuals helps me reflect on my place in the community, what purpose I am there to serve, what I’ve done and what I need to do next. It also tests my knowledge, encourages me to explain concepts I find complex, and forces me to find answers to things I have questions about, so that I can present with confidence and authority. I feel that all of this helps me become a more-informed leader and a better-contributor.
My first Drupal presentation took place at DrupalCon Prague in 2022, and since then I have taken the chance to present and share at Drupal events closer to home, including DrupalCamp Scotland in 2024 and DrupalCamp England in 2025. There are also various opportunities to present online, to specialist groups. Being part of these events not only affords the opportunity to share about my work but also to keep learning about others’ in the community and to make more connections.
Access some of my talks from Drupal events:
AI Assistants UX research (from Drupal AI Tech Talk 2025) – on Drupal.org
Discussing Drupalisms (from Beyond Blocks podcast 2025) – on Oliver Davies website
Opening up Drupal’s terminology (from DrupalCamp Scotland 2024) – on YouTube
My plans for the next 6 months (subject to change – in the spirit of open-source)
Being part of the Drupal community is the very embodiment of a series of waves of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, where as I learn a new thing and gain confidence and competency, I quickly find another area I know nothing about. With that in mind, my overarching goals in current Drupal UX leadership capacity is to keep learning and turning what I learn into opportunities for improving the experiences Drupal provides. Due to the nature of the open-source model and the ever-evolving worldwide community, Drupal changes at an accelerated pace, and since innovations are democratised, driven by the community for the community, they are somewhat unpredictable. For these reason, I have found it ineffective to make detailed plans of UX activities or to draw up lengthy programmes of user research. Instead, I have found it more productive to identify broad areas to keep working on in alignment with wider goals both from the Drupal and University perspectives, and to work reactively within these areas based on the most up-to-date insight I have.
I have a (current) shortlist of areas for UX improvements
Reflecting on developments in the last 6 months, several areas of Drupal have stayed steadily on the radar, with questions about the best ways to design interfaces and present user experiences repeatedly being asked. These, and my associated long-term goals for each are as follows:
- Shaping and adapting Drupal sites – ensuring that the different mechanisms for extending Drupal sites and making changes to them are presented clearly and understandably, so that site builders are supported to make the right decisions about what to include, and gain the functionality, features and look-and-feel they expect after making choices, at all stages of whatever site-building and site-shaping pathway they follow.
- Drupal AI – ensuring that all AI functionality is presented in a way that makes sense to the Drupal user (from content editors to developers, to site builders), is useful and usable and provides the expected results consistently and reliably.
- Drupal interface labels – ensuring that the different regions of Drupal administrative interfaces have labels which accurately reflect their function and purpose, which align with terms Drupal users would naturally use.
I want to drive a broader uptake of a UX mindset in the Drupal community
The creation of the role of UX Manager in Drupal Core represented a shift in the Drupal community. Recognising UX on a level par with technical development in Drupal was a change which many regarded as long overdue. Six months into the role, things are already starting to change, with a greater emphasis on the value of doing user research, and with recognition of the ways user research can unlock innovation, rather than suppress it. Drawing on my experience embedding UX at the University, and working with teams to support and empower them to adopt and apply user-centred practices themselves, I intend to develop a light-weight playbook of UX techniques that anyone can apply, and in the process I hope to encourage more members of the Drupal community to appreciate that UX can be regarded as a tool available to everyone, and subsequently, to recognise the benefits and the accelerated innovation potential it can bring.
