My CMS journey
Threw out proprietary CMS in 2008.
Started with D6
Early experiences
Massive learning curve.
Brought in contractors really early.
One good, one not so good
Early d sites
Took longer
Difficult to maintain
Different techniques from one site to the next
Confusing for site owners - didn't like admin backend. Way too complicated
Generally disappointing
Used to do this way
Designs
Web kit
Build structure
Then rework web kit
Rework design
Multiple loops of iteration
Not like that any more!
Time for a reboot
Could change everything
Design, ux
How selling
How developing
How training
Consider every role in the company
Designer visual and ux
Developer
Themer
Site owner
End user
Trainer
Business dev
Sysadmin
Looked at common causes of project slippage
Scope creep - clients don't know what they don't know
Unclear requirements
Impractical designs
Communication
Our system
Complexity
Estimated saving
Learning curve
Resistance
Overall benefit
Design to a grid
Consistency
Speed of production
Doesn't have to limit design scope
Develop a toolkit
Admit the truth, that every site is the same to some extent
Learning curve is short
Very high benefit
Sell out of the box
Sell the toolkit
Divide features up into bespoke and toolkit
Features you don't have in the kit will cost more.
Easier to price jobs.
Design LAST
Build a prototype site as a wireframe
Difficult to do
Difficult adoption
Prepare the client?
[Does that not decouple design from ux?]
Evolutionary prototyping
Parallel running
Work out kinks
Start Point
Start with a good site install.
Just turn OFF what you don't need
Focus on the site owner
Doesn't care about Drupal
Select your team
Needed more non-dev "builders"
Less technical but more business savvy
Client facing
Live demo
Better starting point
Basic shop
Lightbox overlays
Postcode lookup
Overlay widget as per RationalMedia
80%? Er, not sure...
"How does this restrict the clients?"
Actually gives them more. We have to rein in developers. We need to make R&D back.
Don't give clients admin, generally. Content moderation etc.
["Late design divorces ux?"]
We don't find that. We actually do early prototyping and implement that layer as a sort of wire framing of the site, so that gets a lot of the UX in. Our ux and design person is one and the same, so it works when we get round to prettifying.
Change management is hard with our Start Point system. avoid change other than security.
"hard about this?"
Change management. Everyone accepting new way of doing things. Designers not creatively restricted, [but have to keep working at that?]
