Theming, Design & Usability

Drupal comes with a lot(!) of predefined markup & css.
Modules are adding styles and markup to the themes and so themers have limited control over whats going on inside the theme - that works well for some themers - others not so much.. or to put in other words:

"WTF does all this bib markup do in my bib site - aaargh for >>--bib--<< sake, Gimme lean mean mother >>--bib--<< 'ing markup"

This session is all about controlling and cleaning up the markup.

Drupal7 is coming sooner than we know it, and its pretty awesome (whos surpriced?) This session will be a gentle walkthrough of the new things that any themer needs to know

Ugly be gone

• • what happend to all the pretty themes
• New themes both front & back

logic welcome to drupal

• ...oooh gasp, so the css naming will make sence
• blocks, variables & names that make even more sence - wow!
• what changed?

tiplphiphs Rules and new awesome stuff

• what where and why did somebody changed that?

Theory part:
• What is the .mobi-TLD (Top Level Domain)? What is it good for? Why the extra TLD?
• How to get a 20-minute-overview with the ‚dotMobi Mobile Web Developer’s Guide‘.
• Brief excursion into the jungle of online-tools: http://ready.mobi, http://validator.w3.org/mobile/, http://deviceatlas.com, http://ta-da.mobi, http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/ ...
• The developer community http://mobiforge.com (realised with Drupal).

Practical part:

In this session we have a look how you can compose newsletters and theme them in Drupal using the simplenews modules (see my handbook page http://drupal.org/node/268404 which will be rewritten for Drupal 6).

• simplenews module and submodules
• composing template files
• newsletter backend and frontend
• testing in web and desktop based email clients
• getting css inline with template files or emogrifier

We also have a short look for some of the main alternatives: civimail and campaignmonitor.

As great as 960.gs is, it's not where designing grids should begin and end. Grid systems should be the basis of your layout thinking. If you're picking up an existing grid - like 960.gs, you're not designing, you're taking a shortcut, and it could be in the wrong direction.

Drupal 7 is just around the corner. Seven, the new admin theme for Drupal 7, is a departure from previous Drupal themes. Designed as a result of the D7UX work undertaken by Leisa Reichelt and Mark Boulton Design, the theme only goes part way to create a great admin experience.

Contributed modules, and how they build upon, change and interact Seven is what will make it a truly great admin experience. Seven is only as good as Contrib makes it.

This is NOT about making apps, but about adapting themes, templates, views and other odds and ends to make your site look nice – or at least be useful – on the small screen and potentially limited facilities.
This is not rocket science, but there are some pitfalls and some areas which require more work – and some where it's close to impossible to adapt look and function to the small screen – but in general it's easy to customize news, articles, discussions and much more to fit the limited screens on mobile devices.

This session shows how you can turn a html/css prototype into a Drupal theme.

• Drupal Theme anatomy
• Filestructure of a Drupal theme
• Creating a theme as a subtheme of a base theme or starter theme
• Creating a theme from scratch from your own html/css template
• .info file
• css and js in a theme
• page.tpl.php
• node.tpl.php
• regions
• multiple page, node, block template files
• variables and preprocessing examples
• Theme developer module

There is an enormous choice when it comes to theming your data. The theming layer makes it possible to create suggestions and create an insane amount of template files, you can override existing theming functions, CCK has the display fields screen and with views you can either choose fields, nodes and other display methods. In big projects, this can lead to an unmanageable amount of places where theming can happen.

Get the design specifics on taking your site to a higher level of sales effectiveness in 2010, with an inspirational, interactive talk with Ben Finklea. Ben is CEO of Volacci and author of Drupal 6 Search Engine Optimization. He describes how to get 40-50% improvements in conversion from conversion-rate-focused design adjustments to a exisitng, well-executed SEO initiatives. Ben offers results from Volacci clients, such as an online retailer in health and wellness. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) efforts yield big results with relatively minor changes.