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Jun 24 2021
Jun 24

If you have a Drupal 7 site, the time to upgrade to Drupal 8 (believe it or not) has passed.

Now, that's not to say it's impossible to upgrade from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8, because technically you could, but, for all intents and purposes it would be a waste of time, effort and money.

Drupal is in a unique situation, or should I say the versions of Drupal, are in a unique situation as it is the only time when an earlier version of Drupal is supported longer than the later versions of the same program/platform.

Why you ask?

Well, it was decided, given the substantial differences between Drupal 7 and more recent Drupal versions (8 and 9), along with the complications of a worldwide pandemic, that organizations should be given more than ample time to prepare for such a significant move.

Which leaves many, perhaps you as well, asking why even upgrade from Drupal 7 right now to Drupal 8 or Drupal 9? Why not just stay at Drupal 7 if everything is working perfectly?

Thankfully, the answer to both is relatively simple… after the end date of official support for Drupal 7, in November 2022, there will be no more official releases (either in terms of upgrades to existing modules, core or security updates). Which means that if you need any new features added to Drupal 7, they will be features your own developers will have to implement for you, as well as maintain for you in terms of compliance - which is not ideal for any application (no matter what it's built with).

There are of course options for sticking with Drupal 7, and of course, drawbacks that come along with it. Pretty significant ones actually.

One option is that your organization could choose to develop a relationship with one of the few Drupal specialist agencies who have been certified to deliver long-term support (LTS) to clients wishing to remain on earlier versions of the Drupal platform. However, since there are such few organizations available, given the large amounts of resources necessary to monitor an entire platform along with all its modules, the market for available LTS providers is very small. Minuscule, in fact, compared to the developer base available to current versions of the platforms.

Another important aspect for organizations to consider with Drupal 7 (or heaven forbid Drupal 6) is if the platform contains custom modules. Any custom modules will need vulnerability testing on a regular basis and the aforementioned items, along with a laundry list of items not mentioned for the sake of brevity (and prevention of boredom). These will make the decision to utilize an LTS provider an option to remain on the Drupal 7 platform (and even the Drupal 8 platform, shortly) a less than ideal option. Not to mention an extremely expensive one, accompanied by an extremely limited base of Drupal companies capable of providing LTS services.

There are also the more obvious considerations to take under advisement.

For example, all of the new features being built for Drupal which make the platform not only easier to use, from both the administrative standpoint and also the user standpoint. An organization with a Drupal 7, or lower, instance which wishes to employ certain features will not be able to obtain those features simply by adding and wiring an existing module into the Drupal site. Instead, such features will have to be built from scratch (so-to-speak) into the existing Drupal 7 or lower project.

In fact, most organizations, even if they could afford to have an LTS Drupal agency provider build the features for them, would quickly find the worth of those features diminishing significantly over time – perhaps, even before the newly-requested features had been completed. All in all, it makes significant financial sense to put an organization's resources into later versions of Drupal.

Thinkbean's Drupal 9 Readiness Audit

Which, if you're still reading, should be relatively obvious at this point.

Assuming the above facts make sense, and have convinced any Drupal 7 application owners reading this to perform the Drupal 7 to 8 or 9 upgrade, the next matter to consider is whether the move should be made to Drupal 8 or Drupal 9.

Which, as we mentioned previously, is a pretty easy decision considering the fact that Drupal 8 is going to be End of Life (EOL) this year - before Drupal 7. Which brings us to the main point of this post, which is that if you are in any version of Drupal other than version 9 at this point, the best thing to do is to go straight to a Drupal 9 upgrade.

Anyone suggesting moving to Drupal 8 and then to Drupal 9 (unfortunately) does not know Drupal.

To explain this further, because it's a question we do receive often, there is no actual need to proceed sequentially. In other words, one does not need to move from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8… and then from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9. The same results (in fact, more efficient results) can be had with a Drupal 7 to 9 migration.

Reason being that if you upgraded from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 then you would be almost immediately upgrading from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 and while the move from Drupal 8 to Drupal 9 is a ripple in the pond compared to the ocean of difference from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 (or Drupal 9). So a word from the wise, any Drupal agency, or developer, suggesting the move must be completed sequentially should be removed from the list of potential candidates for the job.

Another benefit of moving from Drupal 7 to 9 is that it extends the EOL of the then-upgraded project significantly, meaning that, once you are on Drupal 9 the move to future versions will be a piece of cake compared to this current jump.

Now that we have established the facts that the upgrade from Drupal 7 is in fact something you need to consider sooner than later, and the fact that the move does not need to be sequential, we can focus on the Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 migration itself.

First and foremost, it's important to understand that the move from Drupal 7 to the newer versions of Drupal is a significant undertaking – an undertaking which should not be attempted by anyone other than an agency whose sole focus is Drupal.

For reasons as simple as debunking rumors you may have heard, like the fact that it may be wiser to wait to move from Drupal 7 to later versions because later versions are making the move easier to accomplish. Which we will be the first to tell you is absolutely untrue.

The fact is, Drupal 7 (and earlier versions) are based on an entirely different set of technologies and require significant investments in time, effort and energy to accurately determine the resources required to be dedicated to the upgrade from Drupal 7 to later versions.

In fact, when the move to Drupal 8 was announced years ago, a significant amount of the Drupal development community were dismayed to find extensive resources would be required to both fully understand both how the newer platform operated and also that an entirely new platform and technologies had to be learned in order to be successful.

Drupal itself however realized the changes were necessary in order for Drupal to not only remain relevant among potential web platforms, but were necessary in order to outpace other potential platforms. And the more far-sighted Drupal development agencies, like Thinkbean, also quickly realized the move was not only intelligent and insightful… but necessary for future growth.

And while more resources would need to be invested in order to continue to develop on the Drupal platform in an efficient manner, the benefits of those the changes in the future versions ensured Drupal would not only remain a viable choice as a web platform but (potentially) become the most logical and economical choice for Drupal's target client – large, national, multi-national and government organizations.

As such, many agencies decided they were not going to pursue Drupal development to the same level as they had been, while others decided they would still offer Drupal, but as a platform among many others, thus losing their ability to truly be classified as Drupal experts.

Then there were the Drupal companies who decided they would continue to pursue Drupal design and development or who morphed into agencies which (if they had not previously done so) concentrated on Drupal, only.

And there are companies, like Thinkbean, who already were, and plan to remain Drupal only agencies.

So where does that leave YOU?

Well, this post could continue for a significant number of pages extolling the virtues of the Drupal web platform versus other web platforms…as well as the agencies capable of performing Drupal development to the same level they may have once been able to. Suffice it to say though if your organization is planning a move from Drupal 7 (or even Drupal 8) to Drupal 9 then you have made a wise decision in getting this far in your reading.

An even wiser decision to be made now would be in finding the right "Drupal only" development agency to assist with your move from Drupal 7 - and thankfully we can help make that your easiest decision yet. We welcome you to reach out to one of our expert Drupal strategists to learn a bit more about Thinkbean, and so that we can hear a bit about you and your needs as well.

We look forward to connecting.

Apr 13 2021
Apr 13

That is a question for the ages…quite literally.

Like just about everything in life, the cost of a Drupal site (should a Drupal developer be required… and one usually is) increases with time. Let's face it. Few things decrease in cost as the years pass. Now, I am being a bit facetious here… as there certainly are more concrete ways to arrive at an answer to (what is actually) a very general question. I suppose, one could argue the cost and/or price of a Drupal site is zero dollars. After all, Drupal is an open source platform – freely available to all. Therein, however, lies the rub.

As with so many things in life, "free" is a relative term. While it is certainly possible for one who is skilled in the ways of Drupal development to download the file, perform the installation and configuration and "voilà!" you have your Drupal site. Of course (at the risk of being repetitive), as with so many things in life, it's not quite as easy as that. There are a number of steps in the process with which one must be familiar in order to bring a Drupal installation into existence and make it available to the world.

That's where putting a price on a Drupal site can become…shall we say…less than simple.

First and foremost, the question to be answered – even before the question of how much a Drupal site costs – is whether Drupal is the appropriate platform for your organization's needs.

Until you've answered that question, the rest of this article is moot. Once you have evaluated whether Drupal is the appropriate platform for your organization (and if it turns out it is), the rest of this article should provide some invaluable advice. 

If you're like most people, one question which runs through your mind on a regular basis (if you are the one tasked with finding potential candidates to develop your Drupal project) is why such significant pricing differences between agencies exist. There are concrete answers to that question. So, let's start with a list you can use to help evaluate the different agencies which you must evaluate for your organization's project.

In-house skill sets vary… significantly. It is expensive to keep highly skilled, full-time staff in multiple disciplines under one roof. Many (if not most) agencies tend to either utilize contractors they work with on a regular basis or (more common and much, much more concerning) they outsource the work they cannot complete in-house to overseas companies. The problem with both of those solutions are they are unreliable – on multiple levels. We could get into an entire article based simply on this subject. However, we are trying to keep this list simple. So, we'll leave the answer there for now.

The level of developers vary (nearly immeasurably) between agencies. What one agency considers a senior developer, another agency may very well consider a junior developer. The following may seem like bravado but it's merely a fact: 1 in 18 developers interviewed by Thinkbean for a position as a senior developer within the agency actually passes muster. What certain agencies consider "senior" Drupal developers versus what Thinkbean considers "senior" Drupal developers… versus what the developers, themselves, consider their skill level to be are all very different.

Following this point just a bit further…it can be a very difficult concept for non-technical personnel to comprehend/sort out. How does one, who is not a programmer, determine which agency has the best staff? Price, alone, is not a reliable indicator. Certainly, an agency would not last very long in its field if it marketed its developers as "senior" level when they were, in fact, much lower (in terms of their level of knowledge). It wouldn't take long for a client to determine the quality and quantity, among other aspects, of the level of work they were receiving was not worth the price they were paying the agency.

The only way to discover the true cost of a project is to conduct a Discovery Phase. Whether all hypothetical and on paper or contained in a given codebase, the only way to ascertain a significant level of accuracy in terms of budget and timeline given the goals of a given project is to get into the guts of a project (again, whether through documentation or codebase evaluation). Only then may an accurate estimate be issued on which the client may heavily rely to accomplish their goals.

Is it better to an agency which utilizes a time and materials pricing model versus an agency which utilizes a fixed price model?

The answer to that question is, actually, easier and (in a number of ways) less intuitive than one might expect.

Time and materials may seem like a ticket to an indeterminable budget, whereas fixed-price may seem to be a fair (not to mention easy) way to determine what the cost of the total project will be. Nearly the exact opposite is true.

Any agency worth its salt will insist on a Discovery Phase before a project is taken on (be that an existing project which must be taken over the finish line or a hypothetical project, existing only conceptually).

Again, only via a properly-conducted Discovery Phase can a project's true value (in terms of timeline and budget) be determined. All other things being equal (that is, as long as the project does not stray significantly from the project outlined in the Discovery Phase), a time and materials-based company will be able to provide an extremely accurate estimate of what the total cost and timeline of a given project will be.,

Conversely, agencies which tend to offer a fixed-price model will be wildly inaccurate with their pricing due to the fact there are so many unknowns. Often, fixed-price model agencies don't bother go through a Discovery Phase because the price they offer nearly invariably represents an MVP (minimum viable product). Fixed-price model agencies tend to focus on saying what is necessary to get a client to "sign on the dotted line". After that, such agencies feel as though the client is now "invested" in working with that particular agency… and for good reason. Often, a client does not want to go through the process of re-finding another potential development agency to complete the project. That's when the fixed-price model agencies have the clients over a barrel, so to speak. It becomes a trade-off between which is worse… going about locating a new, more reliable agency with which to bring the project to fruition or withstanding the barrage of "well, our price didn't include X, Y and/or Z. Those features will add an additional amount of X dollars to the originally-quoted price". It is generally about that time when the price from the time and materials model agency is not only met but exceeded… unfortunately, sometimes by a multiple of the initially-quoted price.

Take heart.

Finding a professional Drupal development agency to bring your project to fruition does not have to incorporate the onerous aspects described above. The more honest and capable Drupal development agencies will offer to conduct a Discovery Phase which will, ultimately, produce a report (as well as, potentially, other items) which will provide a highly accurate assessment of the project at-hand… resulting in a timeline and budget on which a client may heavily rely. Such agencies may even offer an option to conduct a Discovery Phase separate from the remainder of the project – even if that means they are disqualified from performing the remainder of the project. That is a big "tell", as it tends to show the given agency is more concerned with arriving at an accurate price than simply gaining a job at any cost.

The results of that Discovery Phase may then be "shopped around" and (as long as the Discovery was performed properly) clients will be able to present the results of such a Discovery to alternate agencies for a true apples-to-apples comparison. Thereby, obtaining the most accurate budget and timeline for the job at-hand.

Ready to take the guesswork out of budgeting and planning for your Drupal project?


Connect with one of our expert strategists to learn more about Thinkbean's Discovery Phase.

Apr 20 2018
Apr 20

We hope you find this an interesting and useful article. However, if you just want the quick and dirty facts...

(TL; DR - Jump to takeaways)

 

UPDATE:

A week after this article was published, another critical Drupal core security update was released - SA-CORE-2018-004 - on Wednesday, April 25, 2018. It's a great time to be a Thinkbean client, as every client was (yet again) already protected against this exploit - even before it became public knowledge. If you are not a client, go talk with your developer right now and make certain your Drupal instance has had this latest vulnerability patched. Then, come back and read this article. If you don't have a reliable, professional Drupal development company monitoring your site, contact us now.

 

What is it?

As you may have gathered by the “2.0” portion of the title… for the second time in less than four years, a major vulnerability in Drupal core has been announced. As was the case in 2014 with SA-CORE-2014-005 (aka “Drupalgeddon”), the latest security announcement (SA-CORE-2018-002 (aka Drupalgeddon 2.0)) is highly critical (25/25 on the Drupal Security Team (DST) “Security risk” score). Both vulnerabilities allow for remote code execution by an attacker. If you are technically-inclined (and are really interested in some of the technical details behind this vulnerability), check out this article from Check Point Research.

 

How was it discovered?

Drupal is (still) one of the most secure platforms available on the web today. Ironically, this is because of, not in spite of, these recent security releases. Part of the reason for this is the thousands of contributors who regularly work with it. This, particular, vulnerability was discovered by Jasper Mattsson as part of general research and security of Drupal. Jasper works for a Drupal development company in the Netherlands.

 

What does it mean?

Basically, this means your Drupal 6, 7 and/or 8 site has a flaw in the core programming of Drupal, itself, which allows anyone who knows about it to take over your site. There are several reasons why these vulnerabilities have been treated with such gravity:

  • It’s very easy for an attacker to leverage the vulnerability.

  • There is no privilege level required for an exploit to succeed.

  • All data (including non-public data) could be exposed/accessed.

  • All data could be modified or deleted.

  • Known exploits already exist “in the wild”.

  • For all intents and purposes, all Drupal sites are affected.

What do I need to do?

Put into the simplest terms, you need to be certain your developer has already updated your site (at the very least, on the day the update was made available). If you do not have a developer and your site was not updated, you need to consider your site compromised. Do you have thoughts of asking your developer to “check and see” if your site has been hacked? On the surface, that’s a reasonable initial thought. However, be advised it could take tens of hours or hundreds of hours to make such a concrete determination. Even then, it may very easily not be discovered. Our strong recommendation would be: don’t waste the resources (time, money, effort).

This is a situation where the quality of your web hosting provider really paid off if you were using a good one. There were a few providers who were already protected from this vulnerability. That is a very short list (Platform.sh, Acquia and Pantheon (there may be others)). Shameless plug: Thinkbean hosts its Drupal web projects only with the aforementioned hosting solution providers. Check out this post from one of our main hosting partners.

Even if your site was hosted on one of the protected hosting platforms, it is absolutely imperative your site be updated… for a number of reasons. It is not important to go into the reasons why you must update even if you are hosting with one of the protected providers. Just know - you need to. Ask your developer to explain the reasons to you if you are truly interested.

 

What if my site is compromised?

If your site needs to be considered compromised because you did not update immediately, you can find some information here. Basically, your only real options are:

  • Replace your current installation with a backup from the time immediately preceding the announcement (preferably, no more than 12 hours prior).

  • Re-build the site.

  • Close the site down and leave it closed.

These may seem like extreme options. However, the reality is if you did not update in time and you continue to allow your site to run, you are not only jeopardizing the safety of all the information on your own website (public and private) but you are also very likely to be an unwitting accomplice to the compromising of your users and other websites. Although, since you are now reading this article, you really couldn’t consider yourself an “unwitting accomplice” any longer.

Daily, automated backups are yet another example of why high quality, Drupal-specific hosting is well worth the average costs. If you didn’t upgrade immediately then you should have a recent, complete backup available to restore the site from the day before the announcement.

 

Why would anyone want to hack my little site?

It is important to understand... big or small, you are no exception to this exploit. There is no site on the web today (Drupal or otherwise) which is not on some hacker’s radar, somewhere... more specifically, some hacker’s bot’s radar, somewhere. Ask your developer to tell you how many hacking attempts, per day (yes, that’s per day), your site gets.

We use our own, internally-developed monitoring application on all our client sites which gives us access to a great deal of client site information (such as illicit access attempts). It may take some digging but your developer should be able to give you that information. Trust us, you will be amazed at that number.

If for no other reason, your site will be hacked to have a backdoor installed. That way, an attacker will have undetectable access to your site at-the-ready. Should your site become of interest at any point in the future, they have an easy way in. Even if your site holds no interest, in and of itself, it will be hacked and used as a vector - an access point from which to launch other attacks against more desirable targets.

One of the most common reasons for hacking into a site is to gain access to computing resources (e.g. processing power). Hackers love to take over other machines and launch surreptitious, unrelated attacks on others (e.g. DDOS attacks). Another, recent use-case for this exploit is cryptocurrency mining. There is an interesting article on exactly that topic here.

There are approximately one million active Drupal sites on the web today. One of the Drupal-centric hosting companies mentioned earlier (Acquia) has stated publicly they have been stopping in excess of 100,000 exploit attempts per day – and that’s just one Drupal hosting company. You are not an ostrich. Don’t act like one. You can’t stick your head in the sand and hope you won’t be affected by this. If you do, you’ll be hurting yourself and others.

The takeaways of this article are:

  • If your site was not updated by 04.11.18 (at the latest), consider your site compromised. Restore it from a backup from 03.27.18 (the day preceding the Drupal Security Team public service announcement (PSA)).

  • If you do not have a backup, talk to a developer about your options.

  • In most cases, the best course of action will be to restore the site from a backup or re-build it.

  • Attempting to sanitize your site by asking a developer to determine if you have been hacked is resource-prohibitive (time, effort, money) and will not guarantee your site is secure.

  • With vanishingly few exceptions, this update should be performed by a professional Drupal development company.

  • This is an urgent update. If your site was not updated then contact a developer to determine your next steps.

  • Bots attack any vulnerable site, regardless of “importance” or “size”. Just as a search engine, bots crawl the web 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year looking for vulnerabilities (this one in particular).

  • Vulnerable sites will have been hacked if for no other reason than to become vectors.

  • DST risk score 25/25 - the highest possible urgency.

  • The vulnerability is being actively exploited, at present (likely, millions of daily attempts).

  • This vulnerability (as well as Drupalgeddon 1.0) can remain hidden and used when desired.

  • If your site was hosted by one of the three providers mentioned in this article then you were protected from this exploit but you still need to update ASAP.

  • Drupal remains one of (if not the) most secure platforms available today.

  • Professional, Drupal-specific hosting is usually somewhat more expensive but well worth the expense (case in point).

An objective and thorough Thinkbean site audit is like no other.

We'll determine the status of your Drupal site - beyond question.
Set your site (and yourself) at ease.

Protect My Site!
Dec 22 2017
Dec 22

Why is Website Development so Important for SEO?

Everyday, millions of people use search engines (such as Google and Bing) to find information. Most company websites exist because they have answers, solutions and services people need. How can a company increase the odds their information will be shown in search engine results pages (SERP)? If many websites offer the same information, the better-optimized site is more likely to get more visitors.

Search engine optimization (SEO), is a framework of rules and techniques that web developers and digital marketers use to improve search engine rankings for websites. In general, sites developed with proper SEO techniques tend to realize increases in the quality of organic search result placement (page 1 vs page 10 of a Google search), because speed, user experience (UX) and good structure are some of the criteria search engines use to determine rankings.

Drupal is an exemplary platform for SEO, especially for organizations that want to maintain a website in-house after initial development. Here are three ways Drupal can help your website perform well in search engine results:

The 3 S’s of Drupal SEO

1. Security

Quality score criteria for search engines is more comprehensive than an evaluation of keyword use and content value. Search engines aim to protect their users by ranking secure sites. Drupal is a stable CMS, designed with strong security features. A secure website will have a better reputation. So, it will rank higher in search engine results.

2. Structure

Without structure, nothing works efficiently. This is especially true of websites. There are many coding requirements for excellent SEO (for example, the proper incorporation of metadata). One of the reasons hiring an experienced web development company (such as Thinkbean) is so important is many elements cannot be set up properly without extensive knowledge of search engine code preferences and the content management system (CMS) in use.

Drupal provides a strong structural foundation for SEO, in part because of its evolving core code. Other Drupal elements that contribute to SEO are its empowering design for content managers and marketers (who update SEO elements continuously) and its simplified approach to content publishing.

3. Support

In addition to the Drupal core code, multiple modules have been developed to help Drupal web development companies build search-engine-friendly websites. These nine top-ranked Drupal SEO modules perform the following functions:

  1. Pathauto - Automatically generates URL aliases for content.
  2. Page Title - Enhances control of the default title node. Unique and relevant titles can be created for content, and different automation patterns can be set.
  3. Metatag - Enhances control over meta tags: page title, description and keywords. Gives web development team the option to set default meta tags for an entire site, or different groups of pages.
  4. Search 404 - Gives a user a redirect to the internal site search if they encounter a 404 page error. This prevents users from leaving the site when they don’t see page results.
  5. Redirect - Directs a user from an existing URL to another one without generating a 404 error, and helps prevent instances of duplicate content.
  6. Global Redirect - Verifies that URLs are being implemented correctly and prevent URL duplication.
  7. Content Optimizer - Shows statistical SEO analysis of the website and provides recommendations for improvement.
  8. SEO Checklist - Lists the most important SEO tasks and modules needed to improve on-site SEO. Creates a to-do list of modules and tasks that need to be completed. The module is updated regularly, and breaks down tasks according to function.
  9. Drupal SEO Tools - This SEO suite covers keywords, titles, tags, paths, redirects, sitemaps, Google analytics, webmaster tools, and more. Designed for integration with other SEO modules.

Once installed and properly configured, these modules help improve the performance of the website and give SEO professionals the tools they need to run a successful, ongoing SEO campaign.

Choose a Drupal Web Development Company to Master SEO

Drupal’s robust core programming, contributed modules, and potential for customization make it a perfect choice for companies looking to out-rank their competitors. However, it takes education, experience and skill to build a site that performs well. That’s why choosing a qualified Drupal web development company is vital.

Thinkbean has developed superior websites for healthcare companies, educational companies and more, with an endless variety of functionality. With years of Drupal experience behind them, Thinkbean provides custom Drupal web development and support, leveraging Drupal’s capabilities to achieve search engine optimization as only an expert Drupal development company can.

Thinkbean’s advanced Drupal development skills allow businesses to establish a user-friendly web presence, achieve business goals, and exceed the needs and expectations of their customers. Read case studies of our most interesting Drupal 8 projects or talk to a Drupal expert. Get the security, structure and support you need with Thinkbean, today.

Nov 28 2017
Nov 28

Websites that do something are interactive products which require careful planning to execute, both for a client and a web development company. Websites fail because businesses and Drupal web development (webdev) companies don’t plan, or don’t plan together. While Drupal is a superior platform in many ways (that’s why Thinkbean uses Drupal), there is no substitute for a well-crafted Drupal website strategy. The crux of the strategy is the evolving discussion between the client and their Drupal web development partner.

What Your Drupal WebDev Team Needs to Know Now

A creative and encouraging way to open discussion is to establish a good rapport before communicating project requirements. Ask the Drupal web development team what their biggest challenges are when communicating with clients. The answers show what information the web development company needs most, which will go a long way toward minimizing risks.

Some common information webdev companies need

  1. Identify your business goals and how the new website is expected to fulfill them: Are you trying to grow sales? Expand product mix? Be a thought leader? Capture emails? Your business objectives will drive site features to deliver the best outcome.
     
  2. Identify your target audience AND their expectations: The audience must drive the user experience (UX). Drupal webdev teams use an established target audience persona to optimize UX for the primary users of the website. Target audience identification allows research about the target demographic to inform website design and function choices that can make or break UX. What do users expect a website to be able to do to meet (or exceed) the standard for its sector or industry?
    A few years ago many city governments didn’t have official websites. Now, from Boston.gov’s homepage, local residents can search for property information, pay their real estate taxes, apply for a city job, pay a parking ticket, view the schedule for Boston food trucks, get a resident parking permit, learn how to vote by absentee ballot and report non-emergency issues... and that’s just on the home page.
     
  3. Know your scope and budget for it: This really falls under website strategy. Talking through the website’s functionality and desired features internally, as a team and then again with the Drupal web development company, is an essential step to getting it right without rushing to fulfill unmet needs just before launch. The scope needs to be defined as specifically as possible in terms of goals, deliverables, features, tasks and costs. Without a solid scope included in a website strategy, timeframes and costs can increase dramatically.
     
  4. Know what people should do on your website: The website is the virtual representation of a physical organization for billions of users who visit daily. What’s the best possible outcome when a user visits the website? The primary purpose of a website is to convert a visitor into a lead. How can the website achieve this? Will users download something? Are there forms they will fill out? Should users have the ability to call a company directly? To convert visitors into leads, a website has to offer valuable content to visitors.

Communicating With a Web Development Company

Website strategy isn’t just for the benefit of the webdev team. It’s just as important for the business’s outcomes as it is for the web development company. The process of creating a website strategy with a Drupal web development company can head off many potential problems before they become actual problems.

Some common communication issues clients have with webdev companies are:

  1. It’s difficult to get in touch with my webdev partner: There are many factors impacting this growing industry that make it difficult for web development companies to manage capacity. During the process of building a website strategy with the web development partner your organization chooses; what kind of (and how much) communication both parties will require must be discussed. Ask how often you’ll be speaking, via what platforms, and establish what information you want updated at every meeting. Manage the project for efficiency by appointing one person who can make decisions on behalf of your business.
  2. There were unacceptable delays for deliverables: A client can do a lot to ensure their webdev partner meets deadlines. There is a degree of following-up that anyone involved in a project should do to ensure forward progress. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. The most important thing a client can do to make sure their deliverables are delivered on-time is to make sure the web development company gets all of the information they need to complete the project. While a seemingly minor question might seem trivial to a client, web development companies can be completely road-blocked by unanswered questions. Take a look at the webdev company’s processes too. Good processes mean more successful outcomes.
  3. They over-promised and couldn’t deliver what we wanted: This is a common complaint from clients. In this industry, there are a great many possibilities for features, functionality and aesthetics. With such extensive combinations of potential requirements, it can be difficult for a client and a web development company to communicate exact specifications in ways each can clearly understand. As a result, expectations can be shortchanged.. Understand there may be a language barrier, and set good communication standards and expectations early to prevent major miscommunications.
    • Start with a discovery period so the web development company can establish a clear understanding of the business and user goals
    • Develop a strong scope of work around a minimum viable product (MVP)
    • Don’t let either party scope creep
    • When changes occur, document them with a change order
    • Get demos weekly, or bi-weekly to ensure steady progression
    • Get a budget update regularly
    • Adequately staff your team

** If a project is 1000 hours in development, your team should expect to put in 600-800 hours for approvals, reviews, demos, research, content, and communication.

How Thinkbean Starts When Working a Website Strategy

Thinkbean begins every web project with a Discovery; A web development strategy conversation that identifies a defined website strategy, business & user goals and what users need to be able to do when they reach the website. All projects begin with this because Thinkbean has encountered communication challenges before and has overcome them with this simple, straightforward conversation.

Find the right Drupal Developer - the first time. Thinkbean’s advanced Drupal development skills allow businesses to establish a user-friendly web presence, achieve business goals and exceed the needs and expectations of users.

Read case studies of Thinkbean’s most interesting Drupal 8 projects to discover how we meet and exceed the expectation of our clients - or talk to a Boston Drupal expert today.

Nov 14 2017
Nov 14

A website that makes complicated features easy to use is critical for healthcare companies. Patients expect to be able to access information easily and securely. Drupal development firms have the ability to maximize Drupal modules and features to create websites that provide a superior user experience. This is where a great Drupal development firm comes in.

Sites that run on Drupal platforms get consistently higher ratings and reviews from users. The Northwestern International Health website is one of the top 12 best healthcare websites worldwide, and they aren’t the only healthcare organization getting higher user experience ratings.

There are thousands of healthcare sites operating on Drupal platforms. These sites serve a variety of functions:

  • They enhance patient services
  • They are available to users on multiple devices with excellent responsiveness
  • They accommodate multiple languages and workflows

Drupal is the choice for a range of organizations from Florida Hospital to Mayo Clinic’s Health Sciences Research Intranet.

Three Amazing Drupal Healthcare Sites

1. Chesapeake Regional Healthcare

Chesapeake Regional Healthcare is a family of providers that serves residents in southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina. The website houses one of the most impressive ‘Find a Physician’ features anywhere. The search and filter options are styled similarly to Amazon’s, and are broken up into different categories that include: Speciality, Location, Keyword and Language. Most conveniently, there is an option to find doctors that are accepting new patients, a feature not found on nearly enough healthcare sites.

2. DentaQuest Institute Online Learning Center

The DentaQuest Institute Online Learning Center is an online education and resources hub for dental care professionals. When they hired Thinkbean, DentaQuest wanted to reduce page load times for all users and create a notifications system for group members based on user preferences. Page load times for existing Drupal features, like the online courseware, instructional webinars and resource library, are 2-4 times faster. The site now boasts a notification system that allows users to opt in/out of a group discussion, and choose what notifications they’d like to receive (if any).

3. Humana

Humana is a health insurance company that uses its website to promote well-being and lifestyle services. Humana users can go to the ‘My Well Being’ site to get information that is uniquely relevant to them, based on their past experience with network physicians and user interests. The site provides games, videos and photos, to inform and increase patient engagement.

Thinkbean is a Boston Drupal industry leader and contributor to Drupal 8. Talk to a web development expert today about what Thinkbean can do for you.

Drupal Development’s Contribution to Healthcare

Medical professionals have been pleased and impressed by Drupal’s ability to support moving healthcare platforms online. Drupal supports healthcare projects that (among other things) include:

  • Open source clinical trial management systems
  • Platforms for interdisciplinary collaborations of healthcare professionals
  • Patient and healthcare information aid websites
  • Healthcare conference platforms and paper submission systems

There are over 5,000 Drupal 8 modules that have been designed and tested by programmers and developers all over the world. Expert Drupal developers, like those sponsored by Thinkbean, have the ability to integrate these modules with Drupal core to create seamless ecosystems that have limitless applications. This superior functionality ensures a better experience for site visitors and frequent users.

It’s essential to find the right Drupal Developer the first time. Thinkbean’s advanced Drupal development skills allow businesses to establish a user-friendly web presence, achieve business goals, and exceed the needs and expectations of their clients.

Read case studies of our most interesting Drupal 8 projects to discover how we can help you reach your goals or talk to a Drupal expert today.

About Drupal Sun

Drupal Sun is an Evolving Web project. It allows you to:

  • Do full-text search on all the articles in Drupal Planet (thanks to Apache Solr)
  • Facet based on tags, author, or feed
  • Flip through articles quickly (with j/k or arrow keys) to find what you're interested in
  • View the entire article text inline, or in the context of the site where it was created

See the blog post at Evolving Web

Evolving Web