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How to Hire a Web Agency

I recently helped a friend hire an agency to build her website. It made me think about the process of hiring a web agency from the Client perspective. Here’s what I learned from the questions she asked and the advice I gave:

Before you approach a web agency, ask yourself the big question “Why”.

What You Can Learn from Marie Kondo About Running a Content Audit

It’s a new year, and one of your resolutions might be keeping a more minimalist lifestyle. A few years ago, I read Marie Kondo’s book about the benefits and practice of keeping things tidy. And it planted a seed in my mind about how this applies to content. And in particular, your content strategy. How can we apply the same techniques that result in a well-organized drawers and closets to well-organized content hierarchy and navigation? How can they guide your next content audit?

5 Things New Drupal Site Builders Struggle With

I’ve recently been researching, writing, and talking about content editor experience in Drupal 8. However, in the back of my mind I’ve been reflecting on the site builder experience. Every developer, site builder, themer who learns Drupal is going to try out the admin UI to get their site up-and-running. What are some things site builders often struggle with in the admin UI when learning Drupal?

Font-Forward: How to Choose & Mix Typefaces

In my previous blog post I gave some tips about layout and design theory. Now I want to speak about typefaces, which is a really fun part of my job as a designer.

Typography can make all the difference in a design. You can even create an entire website with just type. Today, even brands with smaller budgets can access excellent, industry-standard fonts, completely free. The trick is knowing which ones to choose. That's why it's critical to understand design basics, and always be searching for more inspiration.

5 Ways to Improve the Usability of the Drupal Content Editor Experience

Over the last few months, I've been involved in a UX study to shed some light on what would make a good content editor experience in Drupal. I helped run a survey asking content editors for their feedback about the Drupal admin UI and got some interesting results.

Drupal Admin UX Study: What We Can Learn from Contentful, Craft CMS, Squarespace, and WordPress

There is exciting work being done in the Drupal community to improve the Admin UI, including the JavaScript Modernization Initiative and an overhaul of the look and feel of the Seven theme. Meanwhile, I've been working with a group in the Drupal community to research what user experience improvements we should be making for content editors.

Improve Your Layout Design with Gestalt Principles

Sometimes people refer to visual design as “doing magic”, because they realize that things look harmonious and pleasing, but they don’t know why. But if you can learn the principles behind the magic, then you’ll be able to create convincing designs on your own.

What's New in Drupal 8.6

Drupal 8.6 was released a couple weeks ago and it’s probably the most exciting release since Drupal 8.0. As you might know, new features are added with each minor release of Drupal 8 (e.g. between 8.5 and 8.6).