We are all contributors, let’s take care of ourselves! In a recent project, we chose to use Layout Paragraphs, which goes a bit further than the standalone module and tends to resemble Layout Builder… While providing a more guided contribution experience. We even went as far as modifying the administration interfaces for an enhanced experience (CSS included)!
Layout paragraphs
The Layout Paragraphs module for Drupal provides site contributors with a framework for customizing their layouts. It grants them a form of guided autonomy, leading to more flexible content management. To improve the contributor experience, we have customized its interface as well as the Drupal back office.
It is often seen as a simplified, and interesting, alternative to the experience offered by Layout Builder, now included in Drupal Core.
Layout Paragraphs offers an innovative approach to page creation. Instead of being limited to predefined areas or rigid grids, Layout Paragraphs allows users to build pages using modular content blocks based on Drupal "paragraphs." These paragraphs can be moved, rearranged, and styled easily, providing great flexibility in page design.
Practically speaking, what does this change for site administrators?
- Flexibility: With Layout Paragraphs, users can create custom layouts by combining different content management zones (1, 2, or 3 columns) and then add paragraphs from a pre-configured library.
- Customization: Users can customize each paragraph individually by adjusting styles, colors, and margins, without needing programming skills.
- Simplified content management: Paragraphs can be easily reused across multiple pages, simplifying content management and ensuring consistency throughout the site.
- Contributor autonomy: Contributors gain autonomy. There’s no longer a need to involve your developers, designers, or service providers.
Transforming the contributor experience
The contributor experience is a bit like the user experience, but for those who manage the site—that is, the contributors. Contribution means creating and publishing content on the site. This ranges from writing text, laying out images, assigning taxonomies to different content (tagging), and more. Sometimes, this can be a painful moment for teams who have to find time, write content, and learn the logic of the back office. For us, as web agencies, this topic is central to our concerns: How can we provide our clients with an intuitive and flexible back office that meets their needs over time?
Whereas back offices were once very complex, they have since been greatly improved. Nevertheless, the experience often degrades with the level of independence granted to contributors. The more autonomy they want, the harder it is to offer them a simple (and logical) experience.
Improvement of the experience offered by the contrib module
As part of a project to redesign the Stef Group website (scheduled to go live in March 2024), we designed a custom back-office model. Specifically, we carried out:
- The improvement of the Layout Paragraphs interface (CSS interventions and admin interfaces);
- Better button positioning;
- The design of custom illustrations to present each paragraph.
A graphic and front-end development project that now allows us to build upon this work for our future projects, offering our clients ever richer experiences.
Drupal, the tool that cares as much about the user experience as it does about the contributor experience
In summary, Layout Paragraphs is a powerful tool for creating flexible and dynamic layouts in Drupal. By using this module effectively, you can provide your users with a rich and engaging content experience while simplifying content management and customization on your site.
Drupal could very well be the ideal tool not only for your users but also for your contributors. It gives them flexibility and autonomy while offering the possibility to improve the back-office interface to make it easier to use.
Are you looking for a flexible, customizable, and intuitive back-office?
Then you should definitely take a closer look at the possibilities offered by Drupal and its modules!
Want to talk about it? Contact us to discuss your issues and web projects.
