Drupal for Designers
Dani Nordin
(O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle)
Drupal has (1) a lot of fans, (2) a lot of people who wonder what the heck it is, and (3) a lot of people who complain about it.
Sometimes, a Drupal user is each of these at the same time.
Officially, Drupal is “an open source content management platform powering millions of websites and applications.” Thousands of add-on modules and designs are available, and individuals, groups, organizations and companies use Drupal “to build everything from personal blogs to enterprise applications.” Indeed, some big and well-known sites use Drupal, including The Economist, Examiner.com and the White House, to name a few.
There is a learning curve, but Drupal specialist Dani Nordin’s new book can help you (1) get started with Drupal, (2) help you wrap your mind “around the way Drupal handles design challenges,” and (3) help you master important techniques and tools. You will also learn the importance of doing detailed site planning first and keeping up with version control, even if you are a solo designer.
The book focuses on Drupal 7, but much of the material can be used with Drupal 6. Some parts of the book are “version-agnostic.”
Dani Nordin also offers case studies involving two of her ongoing efforts, so readers can “see how these ideas work in the real world, with all the frustrations and moments of unexpected joy that happen in real projects.”
She adds: “Through these projects, I can show you a typical Drupal design process—from creating the project brief to ideation and sketches to prototyping and applying our look and feel to the site’s theme.”
Drupal for Designers is a compilation of three previous short guides, with new materials added. It is aimed, the author says, at “the solo site builder or small team that’s itching to do interesting things with Drupal but needs a bit of help understanding how to set up a successful Drupal project.”
To work with Drupal, you should have some familiarity with HTML and CSS, and you should be open to learning some PHP.
Drupal for Designers has 303 pages and 22 chapters that are grouped into seven parts:
- Part 1: Discovery and User Experience
- Part 2: Sketching, Visual Design, and Layout
- Part 3: Setting Up a Local Development Environment
- Part 4: Prototyping in Drupal
- Part 5: Making It Easier to Start Projects
- Part 6: Working with Clients
- Part 7: Sample Documents (for designers, including a project brief, a work agreement, and a project proposal)
There is no one “right” way to use Drupal, the author notes. “Every Drupal designer and site builder has his or her own approach to creating projects….”
But careful planning and design work up front will be essential to your success, she emphasizes.
— Si Dunn
Books, Commentary, & More 