Planning and Managing Drupal Projects

by Dani Nordin

Overview

If you're a solo website designer or part of a small team itching to build interesting projects with Drupal, this concise guide will get you started. Drupal’s learning curve has thrown off many experienced designers, particularly the way it handles design challenges. This book shows you the lifecycle of a typical Drupal project, with emphasis on the early stages of site planning. Learn how to efficiently estimate and set up your own project, so you can focus on ways to make your vision a reality, rather than let project management details constantly distract you.

• Plan and estimate your project by discovering your client’s goals and audience perceptions
• Discover how Drupal works under the hood, and learn basic DrupalSpeak
• Frame the UX design challenge through a deeper understanding of your site’s intended users
• Get real content for your project as early as possible—before you start prototyping
• Choose the right modules for your project, and learn about several go-to modules
• Understand how to walk clients through the Drupal design and development process

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449317102
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/15/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	100
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Dani Nordin is the founder and principal designer of the zen kitchen, where you'll find tasty marketing and design ideas with an eco-friendly twist. She has over 10 years of experience designing award-winning work for small to large businesses and non-profits.

Table of Contents

Preface; Contents of This Book; A Caveat; Conventions Used in This Book; Using Code Examples; Safari® Books Online; How to Contact Us; Acknowledgments; About the Author; About the Reviewers; Chapter 1: Introduction; 1.1 A Quick and Dirty Guide to DrupalSpeak™; 1.2 Talking to Clients About Drupal; 1.3 Organizing Your Files; 1.4 Lifecycle of a Drupal Project; 1.5 Implementation Plans: Breaking up your work; Chapter 2: Setting the Stage: Discovery and User Experience; 2.1 Breaking Down the Project Goals; 2.2 Project Discovery; 2.3 Framing the Design Challenge; 2.4 Getting Your Hands Dirty with UX; 2.5 User Experience: Bringing UX Design to an embedded team; 2.6 User Experience: Techniques for Drupal; 2.7 UX Techniques and Drupal: Practical issues to hammer out; 2.8 Go Deeper: User Experience and Project Management; Chapter 3: Fleshing Things Out: Getting ready to prototype; 3.1 Working with content; 3.2 Trial by fire; 3.3 Working with Content Types: a High-Level Overview; 3.4 Putting this all together; 3.5 Choosing modules; Chapter 4: Working with Clients; 4.1 Proposing and Estimating Projects; 4.2 After the Handoff: The project retrospective; Project Brief; Hey there! It's nice to meet you.; Work Agreement (with Professional Relationship Clause); Work Agreement; Terms and Conditions; Payment Notes; Additional Terms; Project Proposal; Project Proposal; Section 1.0: Project Background and Objectives; Section 2.0: Statement of Work; Section 3.0: Development Process; Section 4.0: Budget Estimate; Section 5.0: the zen kitchen Background & Capabilities; 6.0 Terms and Conditions;