HiyaI’m Paul, Lead UX Designer

Elemental

NZ Government Common Web Platform

The Common Web Platform (CWP) is a

platform-as-a-service offering for the creation

and hosting of government websites.

Research

Aim: to better understand

adding/editing content on

pages using modular

designs/content blocks.

12 in-depth sessions (8 public sector

/ 4 private sector), built by different

dev agencies

Photo by Pat Ho on Unsplash

What we were hearing

• Inconsistent user/developer experience

• Block modules don’t play nicely with CWP core

modules

• Varying search functionality

• Not enough version history

• Expectations of functionality differed

• Terminology was inconsistent

• Increase in site-specific support for CWP

agencies using blocks

What we were hearing

• Inconsistent user/developer experience

• Block modules don’t play nicely with CWP core

modules

• Varying search functionality

• Not enough version history

• Expectations of functionality differed

• Terminology was inconsistent

• Increase in site-specific support for CWP

agencies using blocks

Easy to use!

Considerations

• New module vs existing

• Technical support as part of CWP

• Ongoing maintenance

• Compatibility with other modules

• Benefit to open source community

• Integration with CMS user interface

Elemental

4 blocksOthers moved to extensions

Next steps• Publishing models

• Gridfields

• Layout groups

• Preview enhancements

• Forms

• History

• States

• Inheritance

• User testing

• And much more…

• Improved usability and functionality

• Standardised experience for users and developers

• Flexibility for content authors, devs, designers

• Rapid customisation

• Auditability

• Integration with CWP core modules

• Reduced support cost for people using CWP

What you’ll get

Get involvedElemental

https://github.com/dnadesign/silverstripe-elemental

https://github.com/silverstripe/silverstripe-elemental-blocks

OS slack community (#SS4 #content-blocks)

silverstripe-users.slack.com

Research Panel

silverstripe.org/research

UX patterns available (designs/pattern library)

github.com/silverstripe/silverstripe-ux

Thanks :)

Questions?

Paul Clarke

@clarkepaul

John Milmine

@pitchandtone