In a perfect world, it wouldn’t matter to a designer what content management system a site uses. But for most of us, projects are actually a combination of design and site building. It’s with this last bit that things get tricky.

Each content management system that we work with requires a significant investment of time to gain the expertise required to make our projects successful. The preferred CMS among designers has long been WordPress. There are some good reasons for this, but I’d like to discuss why designing for Drupal is something you might also consider.

Now before we get too far, I want to say this isn’t a Drupal vs. WordPress thing. I have personally used WordPress on projects and I think it’s a great content management system. Another large Drupal firm, Phase2 Technology used WordPress on the latest redesign of their main site. So although the two systems often compete, they can peacefully coexist.

So why would you consider designing for Drupal Let’s start with one of the best reasons.

You’ll Make More Money

A while back Mashable had a piece on average CMS project costs based on data from DoNanza, the freelance site. On average, Drupal projects earned twice that of those using WordPress. Think about that…double your income on a per project basis.

That article is a couple years old, but I can tell you from conversations I’ve had with my Drupal friends who work with both systems that this still holds up. Drupal projects are just better earners, usually because the projects have more advanced requirements that Drupal is better suited to meet. Now this last point may have you thinking, advanced requirements = project from hell.

Not necessarily.

Drupal Has Changed – a Lot

Let’s just come out and say it, Drupal used to be a big pain in the ass with regard to usability. I say used to be because with Drupal 7, things dramatically improved thanks to the work of Mark Boulton who was hired to design a new admin interface for Drupal. The result is a learning curve that is now very much the same as WordPress.

I say this quite confidently because I have personally trained clients on both systems and I haven’t been able to tell that either is more difficult to learn for someone coming at it with a fresh pair of eyes.

With Drupal 6, this wasn’t the case. Clients would inevitably become frustrated with the maze-like administrative backend. In truth, it made a lot of people hate Drupal.

So although it was admittedly bad, it’s actually quite good now and slated to get even better with the release later this year of Drupal 8. The usability problems of early versions of Drupal have provided lessons to the community that have been taken to heart. It’s become a major and ongoing focus for improvement.

Installation Profiles

A comparison of WordPress and Drupal isn’t really apples to apples. When you download Drupal, it’s not actually a completed CMS and this is by design. Drupal is amazingly flexible and the intentional blanks that have been left are so site builders can customize things to their liking.

Sure, both WordPress and Drupal almost always require additional plugins or modules, but there is more left undone with Drupal. The parts that are missing – a rich text editor for example – are not included so that a designer or developer building a new site doesn’t have to undo something they don’t want included in their work. This is why when you download Drupal it’s said you’re downloading “core”.

Sounds like a big headache if you’re trying to get up to speed with Drupal on a deadline, huh You bet it is, and the solution is using an installation profile.

Installation profiles are something that I’m not sure has an equivalent in WordPress. It’s a version of Drupal that you install – same process as generic Drupal – but the end result is a completely configured site, often including sample content. The best way to describe them is “websites in a box”.

Oftentimes installation profiles have a specific purpose. For example, the first profile on the previous link is for Commerce Kickstart. It’s an e-commerce profile (aka distribution) that comes with almost all of the site building completed. No wonder it’s the top download, right

So another great reason to design for Drupal is the huge time savings that installation profiles can provide. Remember when we were talking before about more money per project because of more complex requirements Installation profiles are a great shortcut that can reduce time spent on site building and make those projects even more profitable.

Drupal Is Growing

While overall use of content management systems continues to grow, Drupal is outpacing the pack. The table below shows the market share of the “Big Three” systems over the past year. Take note of the column on the far right.

You’ll see that Drupal grew its market share by 21% – not too shabby! The data is from W3Techs, but the numbers from Builtwith show a similar trend.

My own feeling is that the improvement is due to the changes with Drupal 7. It’s been a game changer. It’s also quite likely that in the future, if you want projects in some industries, you’ll have to be open to working with Drupal. One example is higher education, which has been seeing a major shift toward Drupal over the past several years.

The Right Tool for the Job

You now have four good reasons to design for Drupal, but like I said at the top, both systems can coexist. It’s really about picking the right system for a given project.

Let me tell you a story about a redesign project at the university where I used to work. The project was put out to bid because the particular unit was small and didn’t have their own IT or design staff. One firm submitted a very competitive bid and they had great design skills. But when the time came for a review of their bid, they pushed back hard on Drupal. “Wouldn’t WordPress be better” they insisted.

Sometimes WordPress is a better choice, but in this case it was clear they were simply uncomfortable with Drupal and were selling a solution that wasn’t best for the client. In the process they lost a chance at a five figure contract on a project that wasn’t particularly complicated.

By expanding your tool kit, you can avoid situations where you lose potentially lucrative projects – I guess that makes five great reasons to design for Drupal!

What Does it Matter

Now you may be asking why I care if more people design for Drupal. What does it matter

Drupal actually needs more designers. We need the enormously valuable perspectives designers bring, perspectives that are different from those of the developers that make up the majority of the Drupal community. More people designing for Drupal means a richer, more diverse group of contributors and ultimately, a better product. I hope you’ll consider giving it a try.

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Last February we took our first look at web fonts and back then it was something new, so new in fact that very few sites had truly appreciated the benefits of using them, and perhaps because there really wasn’t that many sets readily available. Now, in this post, we are not going to list all of the benefits of using web fonts, that has been covered many times before, and we are pretty sure you will already know them. What we do have for you is a comprehensive list of ALL freely available web fonts. Here they are:

Number of Icons/Characters: 271
License: SIL – Open Font Licence

Elusive Icons

You probably know that putting too much food on your plate is usually a bad idea. Since research indicates that you’re more likely to overeat if you fill your plate, it’s not a good thing for your waistline. It’s also not a good thing for your eyes. If there’s no focal point, the food can overwhelm you, and you’ll find yourself lost in a vortex of scary, calorie-filled nightmares. You’re not going to process your eating experience; you’re simply going to start at the least offensive corner and chow down until it’s all gone and your stomach’s about to burst. That’s why, when you go out to nicer restaurants, the chef portions out your food in small amounts, so that you can take your time and absorb not just the actual eating, but also the sensory experience – the sights, the smells, even the sounds. Yes, people. Food is complicated.

Today, I’m going to talk about simplifying your designs using the very same principles a chef uses to ensure that you have the most pleasant eating experience possible. And just like you’re much more likely to return to a restaurant that serves you an experience, rather than a mess, your users will be more likely to do the same when your designs are clean, strong, and simplified.

Focus In

We humans are programmed to make things complex. In the field of cultural anthropology, there’s overwhelming evidence of this fact, as societies around the world have progressed over the millennia from simple (think ‘hunter-gatherer’ type societies) to complex (modern “post-industrial” countries). It’s in our DNA to want to add on rather than take away, which can make the average designer’s job pretty difficult.

From your end as a designer, it’s generally quite hard to be objective about which information or design elements are “necessary,” versus which are not. Getting a second opinion can help sometimes, but if the person you’re asking is not a seasoned designer, he or she might not have the experience to tell you what’s not working and why. When I’m working on a project that’s gotten too out of hand, I usually stop and take out the notes I took at the beginning of my process. The mind maps, diagrams, and lists that illustrate precisely what my main focus was supposed to be for the project. It’s inevitable that you’ll lose sight of your main focus at least once during the design process. That’s okay, as long as you refer to your notes and refresh your memory. Designing around your main focus helps you to be more discerning about the content you include in your design, as it makes it clear what’s directly related to that main focus and what isn’t.

Use the Pareto Principle

The Pareto principle is something that’s been getting quite a bit of attention in recent years, thanks to personal development gurus like Tim Ferriss. But just in case you haven’t yet heard the basic idea behind it, here’s a quick run-down. The Pareto principle, or the “80-20 Rule,” as it’s sometimes known, basically states that 20% of any given element is responsible for 80% of the results, and vice-versa. Designers love the 80-20 rule, since it’s so applicable to the design process, particularly in those areas where information or sales are at the heart of the design goals.

While you’re designing your product, website, or other deliverable, here are two important questions to ask yourself so that you don’t “over-design” those elements that don’t need it, and so that you can keep your focus on the 20% of the elements that are the most important:

1. Who, specifically, is most likely to benefit the most from this design element
   I’ve talked at length about narrowing down your career focus to zero in on one or two specific markets. This question is one you can ask yourself at any time during your creative process. If you devote time to researching exactly the target markets you’re best equipped to serve, you’ll have a much easier time finding and understanding the needs of clients. And when it comes time to simplify your designs for this target group, you’ll know exactly what they’re looking for, how they look for it, and how to provide it to them simply.
2. How can I deliver the most value to this group of people using the least number of steps
   As an extension to the above idea, your process will become much simpler when you begin focusing on the number of steps it will take your users to get from your design to the information or product they’re looking for. It’s helpful to write it out in a literal list; start with the key action step on your website, brochure, poster, etc., and document exactly what needs to happen from there to making the sale. Once you’ve done that, the path usually becomes very clear in terms of what’s actually needed to get the user to his or her destination, and what’s not.

Smart It Up

A lot of the advice you may read about simplifying your designs might make it seem like designers think their users are the stupidest people in the world. Skim a few articles and you’ll see what I mean – everything is concerned with making the important elements as obvious as they can possibly be, so that the user doesn’t have to use his or her brain for anything. It can actually make you start to feel a bit sorry for the average user at first, since designers seem to think so little of them.

But if you understand the underlying principles behind this philosophy, you’ll begin to realize that, not only do designers not think their users are stupid, they’re actually being very smart about creating an experience that caters to the needs of the very top of the user “hierarchy.” It’s not that you should automatically assume that people are stupid. Rather, your assumption should be that everyone is smart – each of your users is far too busy living productive, interesting lives to waste time where they don’t need to. Once you embrace this mentality, it will become easier for you to zero in on exactly what makes these smart, productive, interesting people tick, and how you can help them absorb the exact information they need to go on about their awesome lives. This has the added effect of allowing you to go on about your awesome life as well.

Your users should be able to get to the specific information they need with as little effort as possible. Whether that involves less reading, scrolling, or interactivity, make sure you keep your focus on the actual steps required to encourage the biggest results from the least amount of action.

What Do You Think

How do you simplify your designs Do you approach your users’ experience as something to accommodate their busy lives

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When it comes to code text editors, in the past year or so Sublime Text 2 has well and truly established itself as the most popular and most loved editor available. It’s lightweight, super-easy-to-use, supports a multitude of programming languages, split edit screens, distraction-free mode… no matter what feature you need, Sublime Text 2 has you covered!

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