Come join us in the Pauley Atrium for a morning of sharing, discussion and otherwise general Front End Solidarity. All skill levels are welcome!
(Note: we'll hang out for as long as people want to stick around and talk. Definitely at least an hour or more.)
In digital marketing, conversion rate optimization (CRO) is a process for increasing site conversions using behavioural data to understand which experiences help drive your desired outcomes. Learn to evaluate how well your business goals align with your user’s, and how to identify opportunities for improvements with tools your probably already have access to!
Drupal's decentralized nature tends to conflict with what we want as front end developers- a single code base for controlling the UI style and script assets (managed in code rather than db and doesn't require a dozen modules to accomplish adding simple features).
A look at lessons learned building the Cellular base theme, which provides a central repo for all the UI in Drupal 7, with a focus on using theme functions to manage assets and build a performance optimized theme with the help of grunt & sass.
Prototype clean, beautiful sites that users enjoy and clients can easily collaborate on and understand. We’ll introduce kalastatic, the open-source Kalamuna prototyping tool that co-exists with Drupal themes, Wordpress, and stand-alone sites, and consumes JSON from Drupal 7, 8 or other services.
Designs carefully crafted to impress the client can leave developers struggling to understand the underlying structure. How can we avoid making throwaway deliverables?
After (hopefully) having doing site audits, content strategy and a functional spec the foundations are laid for a solid website plan. These plans don't make great or convincing client deliverables, so designers need to make high fidelity previews to get their ideas across. This can range from glossy photoshop comps to mock sites using Reflow, Macaw or UXPin.
Making Content Strategic before “Content Strategy” Happens
Clients tap Drupal shops for our design expertise and technical virtuosity, but rarely for what a website often needs: messages that drive action. Clients may never provide these, and so even when we attempt to strategically convey their content, we end up with ineffective (but beautiful) websites that prize form over content.
By now we’re all well aware that mobile-first approach is ideal for a successful responsive web website. But, out there in the real world, despite all the blog posts and best intentions, there are times when a project requires converting an existing desktop site or design into a responsive website.
Drupal 8 has many new exciting features, but none are as radical or as needed as the changes made to the theme system*!
For 10 years Drupal's front end was design and built by developers that tried their very best to figure out what the front end needed; the lack of dedicated front-enders in core; resulted in front end architecture that was "less than ideal" for the challenges that the front end has faced for the last 5 years.
Drupal 8 and twig changed it all!
Today’s front-end workflow benefits greatly from familiarity with a few key languages and libraries - this is especially true as we move closer to a D8 release date. The front-enders at Chapter Three came together to discuss standardizing projects; a goal that had raised much contention in the past. After several rounds of hand-to-hand combat, we were able to come together and produce a front-end build process that has increased productivity, decreased friction, and helped with posterity and team interoperability. Topics include preprocessor languages, frameworks, asset architecture, task-runners, Drupal best practices, swear words, and complaining. Come learn what the hell we’re talking about and bask in the glow of our curated cat-gifs.
As our sites grow in complexity, how do we manage our code, designs and site architecture? With so many touch points it can be hard to manage a single guide to maintain consistency throughout a project. One solution, pattern libraries. Pattern libraries allow front-end developers to create and style components—the foundation of a solid design system.
