Metamorphic Web Design

I love what Drupal can do, but I'll be the first to admit that it's not the easiest thing to use out of the box. I mean, I would be the first if other people hadn't admitted it before me. There's lots of great usability work being done for the upcoming Drupal 7, but that's not out yet.

One of the main issues is that the Drupal administration controls sprawl over multiple pages, and for a new user it can be rather daunting to be confronted with huge lists of things to do. Worse, you frequently have to wait for pages to load as you navigate the administration hierarchy, which is particularly off-putting if you aren't certain where you're going.

For Metamorphic sites, I've been developing an alternative approach to Drupal administration. Once users are logged in they get a fly-out menu with all their administrative controls, which allows them to select where they want to go without having to wait for any page refreshes. It's interesting how much smoother and easier this makes Drupal: you can browse around the menu to find what you're looking for without penalty. It's all built with common Drupal modules, and won't startle any other experienced Drupal developers, but often the right solution is to think hard about how to improve the tools you have.