User interface (UI)

The user interface, or UI, is everything on screen that a person uses to operate a Drupal site: menus, forms, tables, buttons and the pages a visitor reads. Drupal has two. The administrative interface is where editors and site builders work; the front end is what visitors see. A theme draws each.

How the Drupal UI is built in Drupal 11

In the released Drupal 11.4 line, 11.4.10 and 11.4.11 when checked on 26 October 2026, the Standard installation profile sets Claro as the administration theme and Olivero as the default theme. Both descriptions call them clean and accessible. That line also contains an administration theme named Default Admin, whose info file marks it experimental and says it focuses on the editorial experience. In 11.5.0-beta1, a beta released on 15 October 2026, Default Admin has no lifecycle flag, the Standard profile sets it as both administration and default theme, and Claro and Olivero are marked deprecated.

The core help topic on the administrative interface lists its components:

• A menu system. The Toolbar module shows the administrative menu at the top or left of the page. The newer Navigation module provides a sidebar instead, and in Drupal 11.4.10 the Standard profile installs it rather than Toolbar.
• Contextual links. With the Contextual Links module installed, pages show links to related administrative tasks. See contextual link.
• Help topics. The Help module shows topics and a block that summarizes an admin page.
• Accessibility features. The help topic on accessibility names two: the Show row weights link, which replaces drag and drop with numeric fields, and the Inline Form Errors module, which puts error messages beside the field they belong to.

Several core modules carry "UI" in the name: Field UI, Views UI and Menu UI. Their info files describe each as providing a user interface for a feature. See Views UI.

Example

Where to find a task depends on the section of the administrative menu. According to the core help topic, Structure covers blocks, content types and fields, menus and taxonomy; Appearance switches themes; Extend installs and uninstalls modules; People manages user accounts and permissions; Reports shows site security, updates and activity. The menu shows only what your installed modules and your permissions allow.

Common mistakes

• Treating the admin UI as the only record. Settings saved in an administrative form are stored as configuration, and the help topic on configuration says it can be exported and imported between sites. A change made on the live site stays there until you move it. See configuration management.
• Assuming every site has the same menu. A site may use Toolbar, Navigation or a contributed replacement, and the menu depends on enabled modules and roles. Check what your site runs before you follow a tutorial screenshot.

For marketing and content teams

The UI is the part of the site your team touches every day, so judge it by tasks: can an editor find the page, change it and publish it without help? Roles and permissions shape that interface, because people see only the menu items they may use. How well those screens serve people is a separate question; see UX.

With DXPR

DXPR Builder adds an editing interface on the page itself. Its product page describes drag-and-drop elements and editing text directly in the page layout. See DXPR Builder.

Sources

• Drupal core 11.4.10 help topic: Using the administrative interface
• Drupal core 11.4.10 help topic: Accessibility of the administrative interface
• Drupal core 11.4.10 help topic: Managing and deploying configuration
• Drupal core 11.4.10 Standard profile: standard.info.yml
• Drupal core 11.4.10 Standard profile: system.theme.yml
• Drupal core 11.4.10 theme: Default Admin info file
• Drupal core 11.4.11 Standard profile: system.theme.yml
• Drupal core 11.5.0-beta1 Standard profile: system.theme.yml
• Drupal core 11.5.0-beta1 theme: Default Admin info file
• Drupal core 11.5.0-beta1 theme: Claro info file (lifecycle: deprecated)
• Drupal core 11.4.10 Views module help: ViewsHooks.php
• Drupal core 11.4.10: Views UI info file
• Drupal core 11.4.10: AdminRouteSubscriber.php
• Drupal core 11.4.10: NodeFormHooks.php (administration theme for content forms)
• Change record: New Navigation in core as an Experimental module (10.3.0)
• Drupal 11.3.0 release announcement