A UX mindset is our superpower in making Drupal CMS the gold standard for non-technical audiences. As Drupal CMS UX Research Lead, I’ll share how UX research is driving a product that’s changing the narrative about Drupal. You’ll learn about our ongoing user research schedule - what we’ve learned, how we’re learning it and what’s next. Curious to know what non-tech users want from AI and what they think about recipes and site templates? Excited to understand how Experience Builder supports intuitive user flows? Eager to get involved with future research or feedback on findings so far? This is the session for you.

Prerequisite
This session is for anyone excited about Drupal CMS and its potential for non-technical audiences. Maybe you’re a Drupal CMS user yourself, already putting it to use to build sites, maybe you work on Drupal CMS and want to embed user insights into your work. Maybe you’re interested in how it’s shaping up and curious about upcoming features and functionality. Maybe you signed the Starshot pledge, and would like to learn some ways to make sure your contributions keep Drupal as user-centred as it possibly can be. All are welcome!

Outline
Drupal CMS is well on its way to becoming the first choice for marketers, content creators, and everyone in between. At the heart of this is a comprehensive UX research programme — helping us deliver a blend of intuition, innovation and inclusivity to open up Drupal to new audiences. I'm thrilled to be leading this work.
In this session, I’ll take you behind the scenes of our UX research journey — sharing our purpose, progress, and plans for the future. You’ll get consolidated learnings from our multi-method approach, including first-hand insights from AI feature testing, surveys, interviews, concept exploration, and usability testing. I’ll show how telemetry revealed the real experience of trialling Drupal CMS, and unveil what a community quiz on Drupalisms taught us about our terminology challenges. From a leadership perspective, I’ll explain how we’re using this rich data to guide product decisions and how we’re embedding a continuous discovery model to keep learning and iterating.
There’ll be time for feedback, wishlist-sharing, and an open discussion — plus I’ll share a few of my favourite UX techniques that anyone can use to contribute to a more user-centred Drupal.

Learning Objectives
-Understand what people really want from Drupal CMS and what they think of it so far (from authentic UX research insights)
-Appreciate how UX research is shaping the next generation of Drupal CMS, from leadership decisions to front-end experiences.
-Share your thoughts, suggest research ideas, and find out how to contribute to shaping a future user-centred Drupal CMS.
-Learn practical UX techniques like empathy mapping, consequence scanning, and roleplaying to easily embed UX into your work

Experience level
Beginner