I'm considering posting a proposal to give a talk at DrupalCon Boston. The UX track looks interesting to me. I've been using Drupal and have been an evangelist of blogs for business for some time now, having done over a dozen projects using Drupal, WordPress, and Movable Type over the years. Each project was not readily recognizable as a site typical of each platform.
What I was thinking might be interesting to do is to talk through my process for creating these sites, using a specific site I'm working on as a case study, and focusing on user experience and design.
The outline below is what I was thinking of presenting. What do you think? Sound like a good session? I'm still kicking the idea around.
Drupal 4 Designers: Giving clients exactly what they want
Visual designers, now is the time to give up your fear of Drupal and use this powerful platform to express your designs exactly the way you want. This talk will begin to show you how. If you've never used Drupal before, you'll be convinced afterward that this is the platform for you.
The evolution of the platform has improved the implementation experience for designers and front-end site developers with each release. After doing your technology assessment, if Drupal is what comes out on top, and very often it will, you can feel assured that you've got a powerful engine under the hood. Now it's your job to connect that power to a usable experience. I'll show you that a high level of understanding of what Drupal will do for you and a methodology for researching how to implement specific user interface needs (i.e. finding recipes) will get you very far.
What we'll cover
- Plan the user experience
- Information architecture and UI requirements
- Sketching and schematics (wireframes)
- Making it simple and usable
- Scoping out features and matching up with Drupal modules
- Design with CMS agnosticism
- Introduction to Blueprint CSS framework
- Comping with the Blueprint Grid
- Slicing and splicing graphics
- Theme with abandon
- Embracing PHP Template
- Leveraging CCK, Views, and Taxonomy
- Using recipes
- Busting up blocks and putting things where you want
- JQuery for that sophisticated feel when you need it
- CSS tips to keep it tight
Comments
01/21/08 @ 20:57
This sounds absolutely fantastic! I've always loved your site (and url... dammit... coolest url ever) and this outline sounds awesome. We're really trying to attract more designers into the world of Drupal.
I'm a co-chair of this track so if there's anything I can help you out with, let me know!
01/21/08 @ 23:45
Sounds like a fantastic talk – if maybe a bit ambitious. As a graphic designer with a certain level of technical facility, I've managed with some struggle to theme Drupal successfully. But information directed at designers working with Drupal is spotty at best.
Thankfully, Drupal 6 is making some big strides towards drawing a few more designers out of the shadows by streamlining the theming process further. Drupal 5 made some real movement in this respect as well but there is still a barrier to those whose skills lie mainly in the visual realm. The ability to make XHTML/CSS only themes that require only the thinnest glimpse of PHP will be welcomed by many.
I would think that even if your talk was just the "Theme with abandon" section, it would be very popular.
01/22/08 @ 00:56
I think this would make a great DrupalCon talk. You could hold an audience with even just one of your three main bullets.
I wonder, though, if a presentation that is specific to a CSS-framework could be made more general to include some of the key Drupal CSS/markup themers will definitely encounter and either want to override or capitalize on (e.g. some key theme functions like theme_links, theme_item_list, theme_table, theming forms etc.). Including a session on something like Blueprint would be great for some folks but I know it's not everyone's cup of tea.
Please let one of the co-chairs (Steph, Konstantin, Kieran) know if we can be of any use!
01/22/08 @ 07:22
Thanks for the feedback! I know this is a rather ambitious set of things to talk about. One reason for sharing the outline here before I submit a proposal is that your feedback will help me get an idea of what people might find valuable. That way I can narrow down the topic and focus the talking points a little better.
The third bullet is the most implementation oriented, and I figured people might be interested in seeing examples of how to take challenging designs and make them work with Drupal. The most popular blog entries on this site, however, are my process-oriented entries showing how I approach design problems in Drupal, which is why the first 2 bullets are there--they show the process from beginning to end.
Will have to think about how to make this useful. Hopefully will have a better idea how to organize for this talk so I can post it today or tomorrow.
Thanks again!
01/22/08 @ 09:07
Yes, you should definitely submit a session proposal.
I think there will be LOTS of implementation sessions. Perhaps connect with some other folks and do a sort of panel session where multiple people talk about designs and their implementation.
I'm doing a talk about gap fit with modules. I think the whole approach to website planning is very valuable. And I use your OmniGraffle templates -- are you going to talk about those?
01/22/08 @ 10:40
Thanks, Boris, for the feedback. A panel is a really interesting idea, although I don't know if I'd be a good moderator. It might be interesting to be able to focus on real questions people in the audience might have about designing with Drupal. That's one way to keep such a session relevant, but a good moderator would have to keep the discussion on topic. Maybe Steph, Konstantin, or Kieran will have some ideas getting people together to organize that.
I am actually a bit more interested in getting people to think about user experience and visual design rather than in talking about implementation. That's why the outline is definitely weighted towards those topics. Perhaps this is 2 different talks?
I wasn't thinking about talking about the OmniGraffle templates, but I would show the outcome of their use and probably reference them when talking about doing template wireframes.
01/23/08 @ 20:25
Yup propose that talk man!
Would be awesom to have a drupalcon where we actually can talk bout other than form_api. and the next drupal release.
Hmm maybe do a 73-css-drupal-tricks session?
01/24/08 @ 07:52
I don't think I have 73 css drupal tricks. I have maybe 10 that I use repeatedly.
01/24/08 @ 10:28
Sounds like a fantastic talk – if maybe a bit ambitious
01/25/08 @ 12:44
I think this would be great. Wish I could attend the conference and present something, too.
02/07/08 @ 15:51
Perhaps the idea that you would like to share on conference if their would be a chance for are brilliant.. how about you'll make a proposal for that...
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