Joomla, the popular professional content management system, has a lagged behind WordPress for a number of years now. This is due to its slower development and, due to its smaller community, but don’t let that put you off. Joomla is a very solid foundation for any web site, and has you can see by the sites below they can help you create beautiful and very functional web sites.
Back when I started my career as a web designer (circa 1996), the main idea of having a website was to, well, have one. In those days, most businesses weren’t doing much more than putting together a hierarchy (an often poorly designed one, at that) of text and images.
The idea of a content management system, or CMS, was completely foreign to most people – myself included. Back then, a CMS was meant for mega-corporations with lots of money to spend. It was a mere pipedream to those of us developing websites for smaller clients.
Looking at the industry today, I almost can’t imagine creating an old-school, static HTML site. I’m asked to do so every once in awhile, but it’s now become more of the exception than the rule.
WordPress was a tool that I used every once in awhile (strictly for blogging) starting around version 2. But it wasn’t until 2010 when I started taking it seriously as a content management option. Soon after, I became quite convinced that this tool would become something that would allow my business to grow.
Initially, I saw WordPress as a way to benefit me as a developer. Through its core functions and ability to run plugins, I could now offer my clients functionality that I never could before.
I’ve always felt that my design skills were a bit sharper than my development skills. So having a tool that brings so many powerful features within reach is a big deal. The fact that it’s open source, free to use and has a dedicated community behind it made me a believer.
While I make no claims about being the world’s top developer, I have used the many resources of the WordPress community to strengthen my skills. I’ve been able to learn a bit about how WordPress works and PHP in general. I feel like that has made me much more well-rounded in my skill set.
And, when I do run into trouble (which is quite often), I know there are resources out there with plenty of answers. It can take a little bit of time, but more often than not I find what I’m looking for.
It almost sounds silly to say that a content management system could help you become a better designer. But, for me, I really believe it’s true.
Because WordPress allowed me to create functionality that I previously couldn’t, I started looking at the sites I previously created in a much different way.
It used to be that a freelance designer would have to try and master the architecture of both their own design and the server technology that makes it all work. For me, that often meant compromising certain design ideas because I just couldn’t get the functionality to work the way I wanted. These days, the application takes care of the core functionality and allows us to use our creative imagination.
Now, it’s no longer just about creating static sites with ease-of-maintenance in mind or spending countless hours trying to make a server app work properly. It’s become more about laying out content in a visually appealing way that will help users find what they’re looking for. My focus on detail has improved greatly, and I feel like I’m doing the best work of my career so far. Perhaps that’s because WordPress helps us to create websites more efficiently.
Sometimes in the past, I would feel a bit handcuffed by small budgets that led to a lack of real design resources. But, with a community-based application like WordPress, even small budget websites can do more than just look nice. Form and function is no longer just for high-paying clients.
Thanks WordPress.
Of course, WordPress isn’t the only powerful CMS out there. You may enjoy working with different platforms. No matter what you’re using to build websites, the modern tools we have available are making us better designers and developers.
In a perfect world, it wouldn’t matter to a designer what content management system a site uses. But for most of us, projects are actually a combination of design and site building. It’s with this last bit that things get tricky.
Each content management system that we work with requires a significant investment of time to gain the expertise required to make our projects successful. The preferred CMS among designers has long been WordPress. There are some good reasons for this, but I’d like to discuss why designing for Drupal is something you might also consider.
Now before we get too far, I want to say this isn’t a Drupal vs. WordPress thing. I have personally used WordPress on projects and I think it’s a great content management system. Another large Drupal firm, Phase2 Technology used WordPress on the latest redesign of their main site. So although the two systems often compete, they can peacefully coexist.
So why would you consider designing for Drupal? Let’s start with one of the best reasons.
A while back Mashable had a piece on average CMS project costs based on data from DoNanza, the freelance site. On average, Drupal projects earned twice that of those using WordPress. Think about that…double your income on a per project basis.
That article is a couple years old, but I can tell you from conversations I’ve had with my Drupal friends who work with both systems that this still holds up. Drupal projects are just better earners, usually because the projects have more advanced requirements that Drupal is better suited to meet. Now this last point may have you thinking, advanced requirements = project from hell.
Not necessarily.
Let’s just come out and say it, Drupal used to be a big pain in the ass with regard to usability. I say used to be because with Drupal 7, things dramatically improved thanks to the work of Mark Boulton who was hired to design a new admin interface for Drupal. The result is a learning curve that is now very much the same as WordPress.
I say this quite confidently because I have personally trained clients on both systems and I haven’t been able to tell that either is more difficult to learn for someone coming at it with a fresh pair of eyes.
With Drupal 6, this wasn’t the case. Clients would inevitably become frustrated with the maze-like administrative backend. In truth, it made a lot of people hate Drupal.
So although it was admittedly bad, it’s actually quite good now and slated to get even better with the release later this year of Drupal 8. The usability problems of early versions of Drupal have provided lessons to the community that have been taken to heart. It’s become a major and ongoing focus for improvement.
A comparison of WordPress and Drupal isn’t really apples to apples. When you download Drupal, it’s not actually a completed CMS and this is by design. Drupal is amazingly flexible and the intentional blanks that have been left are so site builders can customize things to their liking.
Sure, both WordPress and Drupal almost always require additional plugins or modules, but there is more left undone with Drupal. The parts that are missing – a rich text editor for example – are not included so that a designer or developer building a new site doesn’t have to undo something they don’t want included in their work. This is why when you download Drupal it’s said you’re downloading “core”.
Sounds like a big headache if you’re trying to get up to speed with Drupal on a deadline, huh? You bet it is, and the solution is using an installation profile.
Installation profiles are something that I’m not sure has an equivalent in WordPress. It’s a version of Drupal that you install – same process as generic Drupal – but the end result is a completely configured site, often including sample content. The best way to describe them is “websites in a box”.
Oftentimes installation profiles have a specific purpose. For example, the first profile on the previous link is for Commerce Kickstart. It’s an e-commerce profile (aka distribution) that comes with almost all of the site building completed. No wonder it’s the top download, right?
So another great reason to design for Drupal is the huge time savings that installation profiles can provide. Remember when we were talking before about more money per project because of more complex requirements? Installation profiles are a great shortcut that can reduce time spent on site building and make those projects even more profitable.
While overall use of content management systems continues to grow, Drupal is outpacing the pack. The table below shows the market share of the “Big Three” systems over the past year. Take note of the column on the far right.
You’ll see that Drupal grew its market share by 21% – not too shabby! The data is from W3Techs, but the numbers from Builtwith show a similar trend.
My own feeling is that the improvement is due to the changes with Drupal 7. It’s been a game changer. It’s also quite likely that in the future, if you want projects in some industries, you’ll have to be open to working with Drupal. One example is higher education, which has been seeing a major shift toward Drupal over the past several years.
You now have four good reasons to design for Drupal, but like I said at the top, both systems can coexist. It’s really about picking the right system for a given project.
Let me tell you a story about a redesign project at the university where I used to work. The project was put out to bid because the particular unit was small and didn’t have their own IT or design staff. One firm submitted a very competitive bid and they had great design skills. But when the time came for a review of their bid, they pushed back hard on Drupal. “Wouldn’t WordPress be better?” they insisted.
Sometimes WordPress is a better choice, but in this case it was clear they were simply uncomfortable with Drupal and were selling a solution that wasn’t best for the client. In the process they lost a chance at a five figure contract on a project that wasn’t particularly complicated.
By expanding your tool kit, you can avoid situations where you lose potentially lucrative projects – I guess that makes five great reasons to design for Drupal!
Now you may be asking why I care if more people design for Drupal. What does it matter?
Drupal actually needs more designers. We need the enormously valuable perspectives designers bring, perspectives that are different from those of the developers that make up the majority of the Drupal community. More people designing for Drupal means a richer, more diverse group of contributors and ultimately, a better product. I hope you’ll consider giving it a try.
