Designers and Information Architects

Folks, we're happy to roll out yet another module for Drupal. It's called “Accordion Blocks”. As the name says, this module provides an accordion effect to all your blocks. You can also apply jQuery UI themes through the configuration settings of the module.

This block is for those of you who deploy apps with a lot of blocks on either side bars, and are looking for newer usability enhancements with regards to visibility of the blocks. It not only minimizes all blocks on a Drupal page, but provides a cool accordion effect to help your user to concentrate on a single block at a time.

For over a year LA Drupal has been recording our meetings and many of our events. View the videos online... http://drupal-la.blip.tv

Subscribe to our video podcast... http://drupal-la.blip.tv/rss (available directly on iTunes too)

We provide these videos for free for people to learn Drupal of course. Over the next handful of weeks you will see us release videos from our meetings and DrupalCampLA '08. Learn the basics of Drupal, theme design, module development, advanced views, Services module (Flash + Drupal), and many, many more topics all relating to Drupal.

Follow us on twitter... www.twitter.com/ladrupal

The Drupal Design Camp Boston website is launched and we are getting ready for the June 13-14 event at MIT.

The attendee list is growing, and the sponsors are almost as excited as we are!

If you plan to attend, jump in at http://boston.design4drupal.org and sign up before it fills up completely.

Attendees can submit sessions, post to forums, join live chat on IRC, make small financial donations, and check out the latest News.

You can also follow us on twitter at D4DBoston. 

Please note: The following was originally posted at http://groups.drupal.org/node/20016 in relation to starting a theme design competition to get some new "Quality" themes at Drupal.

-------Original post--------

Hey all,

In my opinion competitions tend to create more alienation than quality. If you really want to get professional themes for Drupal then here is what I would do.

Drupal Design Camp Boston is a free, two-day Drupal conference on June 13-14, 2009, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is being organized by members of the Boston Drupal group as part of the growing Design 4 Drupal initiative that launched when designers and themers took DrupalCon DC by storm this past March.

This camp also coincides with the drupal.org redesign sprint at the MIT Media Lab on Friday, June 12. The sprint picks up where the San Francisco redesign sprint left off and participants at the Boston sprint will be learning how to contribute to theming drupal.org as well as implement the redesign.

Project start : beginning of May

Progammer(s) needed to build an inventory/CRM system to :

-Create an inventory of products to associate to multiple locations.
-Manage product purchases through a sales form.
-Manage a team of sales persons through a calendar and location list.
-Manage customers history of purchases and discounts based on different criteria.
-Reporting system for each purchase/discount used grouped by customer, product , venue, sales person, date.

Please contact me for more details in order to talk about pricing.

Thank you.

Displaying fields in tpl files, like the node.tpl.php files, is a common desire to designers/themers. After conversations in IRC, at drupalcon, and in the parking lots of the Internet the common thought is that you need to make calls to something like $node->content['field_FOO']['#XXX']; to get to the information.

I've recently learned that there is an easier way to get to it. According to yched, on of the gurus of CCK and fields, you can use $FIELD_NAME_rendered in your .tpl files where fields are attached. This is true in Drupal 6 CCK and Drupal 7 fields.

Looking for DRupal Architect for Bangalore location

Please find the JD below

Drupal Architect

· 8+ years of Experience in IT industry of which 2+ years as Drupal/CMS Architect – Should have experience in leading teams and in client interaction

Should be able to evangelize CMS and Web 2.0 architecture into product road-map. Experience with Content Management System – Drupal (preferred) or others. Should have domain knowledge in integrating with Web 2.0

(Wikis, Blogs, REST,RSS etc) with Enterprise Applications - Mandatory

You may have heard the excellent and very exciting news that following on from our work on Drupal.org, Mark Boulton Design has been contracted to take a look at the User Experience for the upcoming Drupal 7, and I'm very happy to be working with him on this project as well.

Note: This proposal envolved for discussion over http://groups.drupal.org/node/19817. Go there to get the background and continue the discussion.

This proposal is designed with following goals in mind:

• Minimal amount of code changed, most of implementation is just reorganization of existing files
• Better visibility for Drupal core templates and CSS
• Clearer separation of functional and aesthetic parts of the theme layer
• Offering several flexible and clear starting points for themers to build their work on

This is a proposal for a contest to promote Drupal theming and design.

Goals

• Get more beautiful themes into Drupal
• Get the designer and theming community involved
• Showcase Drupal theming done right
• Increase awareness of Drupal

What to call it:

The Drupal 2009...

• Theming and Design Contributions
• Theming and Design Initiative
• Design Contest
• Theming Contest
• Design Challenge
• Theming Challenge

Phases

At Drupalcon 2009 in Washington, the Drupal design community were asked to become active participants in contributing feedback to the Drupal project.

mfer was kind enough to give members of the Design for Drupal (D4D) Group a tour of how we could provide feedback through the Issue Queue. As a matter of fact, we were shown a version of the issue queue in which any project could be flagged as "needs design review".

We need a theme contest. It's been talked about many times over the past few years. I give you the previous attempts...

http://drupal.org/node/17876, http://drupal.org/node/25312, http://drupal.org/node/55460, http://drupal.org/node/6247#comment-9358

I think these attempts have failed due to lack of funding, support and clear organization. I want to get the ball rolling on this. Please reply with your ideas and comments. Here are my ideas I'm tossing around.

The Swiss Drupal User Group is organizing the Drupal Media Camp with a special focus on the media and Drupal in Aarau, Switzerland. It will be covering:
- how Drupal can be used to develop complex web based media solutions and
- what is happening in the Drupal community in the media area.
We are interpreting the term media to mean all web media including video, audio, pictures, publishing, communities etc.

The conference is targeted towards:

DrupalCamp copenhagen in may is gonna be a blast!

Planned Higlights for the weekend:
* Friday night install party - so come by and get you laptop tuned up, and party with the geeks nerds & designers
* Code Development
* Nerdy presentations
* geeky presentations
* Frontend presentations
* Documentation & Drupal Understanding
* Noobs & übergeeks united!
* ----------------------
* Theming & design in drupal - will carry on the d4d momentum from DC/DC
* Why do front end html lovin geeks hate drupal?
* carry on the d7 discussion - how should drupal work

I posted a preliminary patch over issue queue http://drupal.org/node/395116 to stir a discussion whenever we need CSS reset in core and how core CSS setup -- file structure, rulesets etc -- should look like in D7. reset.css proposal is could be the first step in having decent CSS framework in core -- or if that is not gonna happen, just enforce some sensible CSS practices.

We need your input here!

Do you think color.module should be apart of core? If so, should it be upgraded from its current state?

Do you find the color.module is tedious or complex? Do you find it beneficial to simple themes? To advanced ones?

Also, for D7, I'm proposing the idea of an open styling system in addition or replacement to color.module. This styling system would allow themers to create prerendered skins and also accept skins from the files layer (meaning it can use color.module schemes).

The Design Outreach Group is looking for a fun, safe venue near the DC Convention Center to host a Designer Happy Hour on Thursday, March 5. Does anyone have any good suggestions that are within walking distance?

Although the event is linked to DrupalCon it's officially open to anyone with an interest in Drupal and design. We look forward to seeing some of you there.

We're looking for a very skilled themer to aid us in developing a large scale social networking website for academics. There's also an opportunity to build up a long term relationship to work on several other websites we're developing.
Candidates must be very proficient in theming and have at least an intermediate understanding of custom module development. Being an independant player who doesn't need much guidance is a very important asset we're looking for.

In short, these are the requirements:
* Perfect understanding of Drupal 5's theming layer

Hi,

This week sees the release of iteration 11.

http://drupal.markboultondesign.com/iteration11

This week we have made lots of some smaller changes throughout the whole prototype, items that were delayed from iteration 10. For this release, we've paid particular attention to several pages:

1. Marketplace

2. Download and Extend

3. Modules landing page

4. Themes landing page

5. Search_by theme

6. Home page

7. Dashboard

There has been a lot of great feedback on the iteration 10 post, thank you all for your valuable input.

Hi,

This week sees the release of iteration 10 in the Drupal redesign prototype.

http://drupal.markboultondesign.com/iteration10

We're currently working with the Drupal Association to further define an advertising strategy for the redesigned d.o. Therefore, we've included a few more ads, but it probably isn't indicative of the final strategy.

The Cherry Hill Company is looking for a Drupal themer.

We pay well for great work.

Our preferences are:

• Staff hire
• Local (Sunny Southern California)

We will consider anyone, anywhere who can demonstrate the ability to get the job(s) done.
We are not looking for agencies or subcontractors, just actual people. That said, you can be contract to hire or straight contract.

I need help with the logic to:

1. Detect whether page.tpl.php is displaying a full node (one only, not listed)
2. Detect if the author has uploaded a userpic, and if yes, display the userpic. If no, display the default userpic

Hi,

Iteration 8 is now available for you to browse and comment on. Last week the redesign took a pretty drastic change in direction so this week's release isn't as massive as we have worked to consolidate changes to the IA, reacting to feedback from the testing and to trends we have established in the community feedback.

Last week Leisa posted her thoughts on why we have moved in this direction and you can read her thoughts here:

http://www.disambiguity.com/drupalorg-redesign-iteration-7-for-your-revi...

Leisa will also be posting again shortly to further discuss our thoughts and reasons for recent changes as well as talking specifically about the modules section.

The link to the latest iteration is below:

http://drupal.markboultondesign.com/iteration8

This post is related to the project plan to get in a few new themes into Drupal 7 core. It will list some of the pros and cons of using the 960 Grid System. If you didn't know, it's what most might define as a "CSS framework". This specific framework was created by Nathan Smith. He states that it was started before Blueprint. I have mistaken it myself as a Blueprint derivative since it is a very similar system. But they both were inspired I believe by the same sources.

Is there a how-to/guide/mod to apply a custom theme to the maintenance page? Any help would be appreciated.

Hello,

Our web firm is having some trouble with some ical integration.

Most events show up in ical as one hour off, while others show up with the correct time.

Any ideas or direct support would be much appreciated.

Please email me directly at james.welsh@ursaminor.com

Thank You!!

At Drupalcon Szeged, I had some discussions with the documentation team and the usability team regarding workflow for getting their feedback injected early into the core development process. I'd like to start a similar discussion here with you folks.

Drupal 7 with its code freeze date of "When it's ready" represents a great opportunity for us all to collectively "kick it up a notch." Key to this is involving many more people in the core development process than we normally have. There are always several relatively minor core patches that affect themers in the queue at any given time, such as add $node_classes to node templates, as well as huge, over-arching efforts such as administration theme in core.
But unfortunately, a lot of these patches stagnate and die, because designers have not traditionally been a group of people that we've served particularly well. I'd like to see that changed.

hi all

Just wanted to get these in front of you for your review - we're currently discussing:

a) the experience strategy for drupal.org, (http://www.disambiguity.com/draft-drupalorg-experience-strategy/) and
b) proposed audience segmentation for drupal.org (http://www.disambiguity.com/insiders-and-outsiders/)

take a look, give us some feedback!
and don't forget you can also participate on Flickr, Twitter and Slideshare!
(more info here: http://www.disambiguity.com/opening-the-floodgates/)

thanks
Leisa

This is easy and quick, nothing fancy, no voting - just post your session idea (title) and your name/contact info and show up to present that day! We have sessions open from 10am-2pm each day (Saturday and Sunday) and each session should plan for 45 minutes each.

http://groups.drupal.org/node/12528 (edit wiki page)

If you can't see or edit the wiki page, be sure to join our group which may be required for editing the wiki page.

This is the tweaked summary of this IRC chat.

We will focus on improving usability for new users.

There will be a usability BoF every day of the conference.

Schedule:

UX Sprint Day 1: Introduction and clearing of main issues
(see List below), probably together with Dries and Jeff Noyes
Wednesday, Aug 27, 4pm Cisco BoF room
(maybe everyone pick a task on end of Day 1)

UX Sprint Day 2: Forming of workgroups, working on tasks and discussion in small groups...

So we want to work on Drupal usability during Drupalcon. I proposed to have 3 BoF sessions during the first 3 days of the conference:
http://groups.drupal.org/node/12972

Let's have a chat in IRC and come up with an agenda and try to focus on the important issues that we could really work on in Szeged.

We will meet in the #drupalcon channel

DrupalCamp Los Angeles 2008, this September 13-14 (2 days) at the Los Angeles Convention Center

We think Drupal is the best open source content management system period and we're not the only ones. Faced with a bigger demand for Drupal developers than even last year... the Los Angeles Drupal Users Group has decided to throw our second annual free community training session to improve the level of Drupal development in Los Angeles. Plus it's a geeky good time!

Drupal Camp LA 2008 will be held from September 13-14th at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Attendance is FREE! RSVP required. Register for the event and sign-up for updates at http://drupalcampla.com

Registration

Registration is now open. If you plan to attend and/or sponsor the Los Angeles Drupal annual DrupalCampLA, then please visit the following URLs.

Attendees register at http://drupalcampla.com

Sponsors - http://drupalcampla.com/sponsorship

Proposed Scheduled Sessions - http://groups.drupal.org/node/12528 (add yourself to present)

World Class Social media team seeks reliable team to extend our current work force. Applicants should have excellent communication and strong documentation skills. Must be able to meet once or twice per week in Oakland or San Rafael.

We are looking for several individuals to handle various portions of development.

We are looking for design consultants, documentation specialists, technical consultants, module developers, theme developers, installation techs and Quality Control personnel.

Improving usability is a top priority for Drupal 7: http://buytaert.net/usability-usability-and-usability

So, it is also a big topic for Drupalcon in Szeged. Besides presentations and sessions we should work out a format for actually getting some stuff done, too. Let's call it a Usability Sprint. We should focus on fixing the actual issues found by the two usability tests.

The best way to propose new UI improvements for Drupal is writing proof-of-concept modules. It would be great to get some of those done during a focussed Usability Sprint.

So, how's this for an ideal usability sprint scenario:

BoF Usability Sprint Day 1

• zoom in on 1 or 2 issues we already decided upon before the conference
  (redo admin categories, modules page, permissions page…)
• bring your ideas and proposals
• discuss the options, decide on 1 or 2 things we can work on.

example:
- do a card sort on the admin categories
- discuss the different 'dashboard' approaches people already use
- choose 2 options we want to compare / test

another example:
- let's pick a nice chunk of core interface text: labels, descriptions, help
- rework them for clarity, consistency and brevity.

Web conference: http://acquia.acrobat.com/keyperformanceindicator/
For Participants: Access Code - 450345#
Dial - (712) 432-1600
International Dial-in Numbers:
Austria - 0820 4000 1552
Belgium - 070 35 9974
France - 0826 100 256
Germany - 01805 00 76 09
Ireland - 0818 270 021
Italy - 848 390 156
Netherlands - 0870 001 920
Spain - 902 886025
Switzerland - 0848 560 179
UK - 0870 35 204 74

This call will be recorded, I apologize for the late or night call for European members, but this was the time when Mike was available.

In preparation for the anticipated release of the redesign RFP, I am soliciting the names and contacts for firms or individuals who are interested in receiving a copy of the RFP and all official communications about the project.

The scope of the project includes:
- research
- information architecture
- design and branding

(The full draft RFP can be found here: http://groups.drupal.org/node/11336)

Firms or individuals who can show successful experience in one or more of these areas on projects of similar size are encouraged to participate in the bid process.

I just posted my outline and UI design for a new image gallery module to Drupal on the Raincity Studios blog. It uses CCK, imagefield, and imagecache, and has both galleries and images as nodes.

I'm looking for feedback on the idea, and to see if people are interested in having this built, either through a reverse bounty or some other method.

UPDATE:

some projects following this slides are now existing, see here :

Stumbled on this yesterday...
http://www.drupalmuseum.com/

Nice to see a design-oriented showcase of Drupal sites!

~~~
{ TopNotchThemes } Gorgeous, unique Drupal designs with Panels 2 support, plus Ubercart themes!

call in: +1 605-475-6000 access 333892

URL: http://connect.studiomodule.com (15 users)

For our bi-weekly call, we'll be reviewing hosting options and hopefully making some progress with project management and training materials.

This week we will be using a conference bridge set up on InstantConference.com. Hopefully that'll eliminate issues with those of you on VoIP or Skype (or the embarrassing limitations of our in-house phone system!)

We'll be doing a conference call on Monday to discuss progress on the Design for Drupal site, and hopefully be able to display some theming work.

Please call in to +1 305-238-8875 to join the call.

I look forward to speaking with you then!

There's lots of Drupal development shop success stories. However, there is not enough information for designers who have considered using Drupal to understand how it works for Designers and how they can use it to grow their own business.

http://drupal.org/node/247985

If you are a designer, with a design portfolio prior to using Drupal, please consider writing a case study for Designers who are considering using Drupal in their practice.

There's lots of Drupal development shop success stories. However, there is not enough information for designers who have considered using Drupal to understand how it works for Designers and how they can use it to grow their own business.

http://drupal.org/node/247985

If you are a designer, with a design portfolio prior to using Drupal, please consider writing a case study for Designers who are considering using Drupal in their practice.

On July 15th & 16th, the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine will host the Higher Education Web Symposium.

This two-day conference will provide tools, tips and techniques for web designers, developers, programmers, and project managers to help us all create better and more usable applications and websites. Jared Spool leads off the all star cast of presenters. Additional scheduled presenters include: Eric Meyer, Dana Chisnell, Stephanie Sullivan, and others!

On July 15th & 16th, the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine will host the Higher Education Web Symposium.

This two-day conference will provide tools, tips and techniques for web designers, developers, programmers, and project managers to help us all create better and more usable applications and websites. Jared Spool leads off the all star cast of presenters. Additional scheduled presenters include: Eric Meyer, Dana Chisnell, Stephanie Sullivan, and others!

Got top notch CSS skills and looking for steady Drupal theming work?

We are TopNotchThemes, the premier Drupal theme store. We're looking for 1-2 new members of our team to help create killer Drupal themes. This is an ongoing position that will require a commitment of 20-40 hours per week. We are geographically flexible, but you must have excellent English communication skills.