This presentation, done for the Drupal Business Summit in 2012, covers factors that must be considered when planning Drupal implementations of medium to high complexity.

1. FACTORS TO
BUDGET FOR
When planning a Drupal project
Dani Nordin :: @danigrrl :: tzk-design.com

2. Dani Nordin
• UX Designer and
Strategist
• Specialize in Design
Strategy for Drupal
teams
• Founder, the zen
kitchen
• Author, Drupal for
Designers series
(O’Reilly, 2011–12)
• Twitter: @danigrrl
• Email:
dani@tzk-design.com

3. Lifecycle of a Drupal Project

4. Discovery
• Understand the client’s specific functional needs
• Get clear on the client’s marketing and business goals, and
how this project fits in
• Get a handle on resource issues, time investment and other
practical considerations
• Research the client’s competitive landscape and audience

5. UX/Architecture
• Get an understanding of the site’s target users
• Map out how users will flow through specific key tasks, and
what information needs to be there to support them
• Find out what content exists for the current site, what needs
to be created, and how the content will be organized
• Come up with a set of assumptions, and standards that will
govern the project as you move forward

6. Prototyping
• Start setting up initial Drupal architecture, and laying in
content to see how it works in “the real world”
• Test task flows and assumptions with real users, and see
where you need adjustments
• Refine functional requirements and understand what needs
to be done to finish the project

7. Prototyping
• Start setting up initial Drupal architecture, and laying in
content to see how it works in “the real world”
• Test task flows and assumptions with real users, and see
where you need adjustments
• Refine functional requirements and understand what needs
to be done to finish the project

8. Visual Design & Theming
• Sets up visual standards that will guide the site’s look and
feel
• Applies those visual standards to the templates that will
output the site’s content

9. Functional Implementation
• Often happens concurrently with visual design & theming
phase
• Takes the knowledge gained in the UX, Architecture and
Prototyping phases and works it into a more finalized
version of the site
• Can be the longest—or the shortest—part of the process

10. Testing and Launch
• Moves the site from development to staging
• Makes sure that everything is working correctly in the
new environment
• Makes last-minute updates to modules, content and
other customizations

11. Project Wrap-up/Retrospective
• Takes a look at what went well, what needed tweaking, and
assesses the client/design team relationship
• Creates documentation and understanding that will help
make future projects easier
• Identifies new areas for iteration, improvement or growth in
the future

12. FACTORS TO BUDGET
FOR
Discovery and UX

13. User Research
• Who are the site’s users?
• Customers/potential customers
• Content admins and editors
• What are their goals at the site?
• What is the context in which they’re visiting?
• Who are the major stakeholders in the project?
• What business goals do you need to achieve?
• Increased signups?
• Purchases?
• Contact requests?

14. Content Strategy
• How much content exists?
• Is the content on brand/message?
• Is there any new content that needs to be created?
• What types of content?
• Videos?
• Image Galleries?
• Articles?
• Who creates content?
• Does content have expiration dates or deadlines?
• Is there an approval process for publishing?

15. Information Architecture
• How is content organized?
• What “basic pages” (i.e. marketing pages) exist?
• What pages will involve listings of content (blog posts, news
items, etc.)?
• Are there specific tags, categories, or sections to consider?
• What does each type of content look like?
• Extra fields?
• Images?
• Video or audio?
• File downloads?

16. Requirements Gathering
• Who gathers stakeholder and user requirements?
• How are requirements delivered to the development team?
• Spreadsheet?
• Project management software?
• Who keeps the team on schedule?
• How are deadlines structured?

17. FACTORS TO BUDGET
FOR
Development and Maintenance

18. Hosting and server configuration
• Hosting
• Which provider?
• Shared hosting, private, cloud?
• Server configuration
• Integration with external APIs or software?
• Integration with other tools (advanced search, CRM, etc.)?

19. Users, Roles and Permissions
• Who has access to log in to the site?
• What types of access are required?
• Content editors
• Site administrators
• Site visitors/commenters
• What information is collected in the user’s profile?
• Should users be able to contact one another?

20. Content Entry, Migration & Display
• Does legacy content need to be migrated into the new site?
• Who will enter and manage new content?
• How many database queries (Views), i.e. blog listing, news
feed, etc. are required?

21. FACTORS TO BUDGET
FOR
Visual Design and Theming

22. Visual Design
• Do brand standards exist or do they need to be created?
• Are there any special elements (callouts, advertisements,
etc.) that need to be accounted for in the design?
• Who will create the visual design?

23. Theming
• Who will apply the look and feel to the site’s theme?
• Are there any dynamic features that need to be created?
• Does the design need to work on multiple devices in
multiple contexts?

24. Responsive Design
• In what contexts do users visit the site?
• How do those contexts impact:
• Content served?
• Navigation?
• Interactive features?

25. FACTORS TO BUDGET
FOR
Site maintenance and content administration

26. Maintenance and Backup
• Who maintains codebase?
• How are upgrades handled?
• How are backups handled?

27. Content administration
• Who authors/updates content?
• Who approves content?

28. QUESTIONS?