rare pattern thoughts in a blog

One of the more exciting projects I'm working on right now is a semi-major website for the as-yet-to-be-announced "Client B." ("Client A" is the as-yet-announced DVD project client.)

(A note about as-yet-to-be-announced clients: Sometimes you want to announce the new gig right off, and sometimes you want to line up your ducks first -- and we like to have our ducks all lined up in pretty formations before the fanfare starts.)

Anyway....this will be an interesting site because we're building it in Drupal but, in the end, will be approaching something similar to what a CivicSpace installation might have yielded. (I won't go into the why's of not just using CivicSpace except to say that this was the client's preference.)

A big part of this project will be the incorporation of CiviCRM into the site. The site's membership is expected to jump up into the several hundreds in the early going, and having robust membership directory management features will be key.

The real challenge has been getting all the essential information into the site's front page. Most websites, frankly, don't need to manage so much information.

Needless to say, the front-page module will play a key role, and include much in the way of php code calling up lists and excerpts from recent and most-active posts. The challenge lies in keeping that front page scannable. Most front pages like this end up being an utter mess to my eye; I think concepts of visual chunking of the interactive interface elude most people. Hell, sometimes they elude me -- it's not easy, getting a lot of information on a single page without making it look like a monkey got ahold of a keyboard.

I'll also be using directed themes guided by the particular sections of the site. The exact approach -- using the sections module or the taxonomy theme module or something else -- I'm undecided on.

Anyway, this design and coding challenge is what will serve as my early holiday entertainment. We'll be going with a public beta sometime in December, so in the end it will be Client A, and the as-yet-unknown Clients C-Z, who will offer respite from Christmas carols and holiday cookies and divinity fudge and extended family.

About the author

Laura Scott is a web designer and developer.