PINGV Creative | Strategy • Design • Drupal

Did your website end up doing the wrong job?

Car with plants growing out of it Sometimes the plan goes awry ... or the result just doesn't fit the plan. Was it the right plan?

What job does your website do? Is it doing the job that you initially set out for it?

With all the excitement happening online, all the buzz, all the enticing opportunities, and all the fabulous tools standing ready at hand, it can be tempting to just dive in to building a site — design it and launch!

The barriers to entry seem so low – the how often seems to be in such easy reach – you just grab it and go, without ever considering the questions of what you want to launch. Or why.

And that can be a huge mistake.

The why speaks to intention. The why leads to purpose. This helps you focus your goals. Your goals point to your key performance indicators, which are how you will be able to measure your success.

It all starts with the why.

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Get your Drupal on at DrupalCon San Francisco

DrupalCon SF has 3 days of sessions, 2 days of code sprints, all for under $200.
PINGV Creative The largest previous DrupalCon was in Washington, DC in 2009.
PINGV Creative The last DrupalCon was in Paris last September.
PINGV Creative In Barcelona in 2007, Dries lays out plans for Drupal 7 in "The State of Drupal," his keynote which he updates every DrupalCon.

DrupalCon SF has 3 days of sessions, 2 days of code sprints, all for under $200.

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An Introduction to Stylin' Efficiency with the Skinr Module

Designer using skinr to aide in themeing a Drupal site The wonders of working with the Skinr Module
The .info file pictured is set up to conform to the NineSixty grid standards 1) The .info file for skinr blocks. The label will be the option presented; the class will be the class applied.
A class from the CSS Framework for the NineSixty theme 2) The css class that would be applied if you select "2-column plain" in the dropdown pictured below
A screenshot of the Skinr block class selector 3) By selecting NineSixty grid values, we can position blocks on the fly within a given region.
A screenshot of the Skinr content type class and template selectors Skinr allows us to choose a template and apply classes when we create a content type.

When it comes time to theme a site you are often working within a tight time-frame. Functionality is starting to come together, representative content is here and there; generally things are in a pretty fluid state. Or perhaps you are doing rapid prototyping, and need to have some flexibility to change your layout on the fly without mucking about in template files or stylesheets. Whether you are themeing a moving target, or riding the wave of a prototype, you need tools that allow you to do your job as efficiently as possible.

Enter: Skinr

Designer using skinr to aide in themeing a Drupal siteThe wonders of working with the Skinr Module

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So, what is User-Centric Design anyway?

Although we've come a long way from the just-build-something-and-they-will-come approach that characterized the early days of web development, it nonetheless remains important to remind (and sometimes convince) clients and decision-makers about the importance of user-centric design in creating truly compelling websites.

A well-worn path mean people found a short cut that works credit:Kaptain Kobold

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Why do you use Drupal?

We use Drupal because of its power and flexibility. Of all the content management systems, Drupal affords the most robust options for features and functionality to meet an almost infinite variety of use cases.

California Watch

California Watch Home Page The home page was designed to draw people in to the site's rich content, without cluttering up the page.
California Watch K-12 page The main topic areas have their own featured stories — a mix of investigative articles, blog posts and data sets.
Featured stories block Additional featured stories are touted in a block below articles.
Resources area The Resources area provides visitors with leads, tips and more for their own local investigations and reporting.
Full home page Overall the site as a clean look.

A new initiative to provide in-depth investigative reporting, combined with guides and resources for citizens to get involved, lights a path towards "new journalism."

The site needed to be usable, attractive, powerful ... and it needed to fit into a non-profit budget.

California Watch launches

California Watch home page. California Watch presents in-depth investigative journalism on California issues, pursuing new models for community engagement.
California Watch datacenter page. Featured data sets presenting information behind the stories are a big part of the California Watch approach.

California Watch launched today.

California Watch home page.California Watch presents in-depth investigative journalism on California issues, pursuing new models for community engagement.

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