mike's blog

Here at Phase2 Technology we have a futuristic coffee machine. It is supposed to work like this: You pick your little plastic cup out of the cardboard box and drop it into the damp, crusty slot at the top of the machine. Then you place your logo mug from the internet company you worked for in 2001 (that went bankrupt) under the spout. Finally, you hit the blue glowing button and watch your steaming brew trickle out like a magical stream of deliciousness.

That’s the way it is supposed to work, anyway… Instead, you get this…

Recently I tried a new, more collaborative approach to one of the critical processes involved with building a new CMS/website – wireframing. A colleague of mine pointed out a technique that was being used to help generate ideas for the redesign of drupal.org (Thanks to Leisa Reichelt’s great blog, Disambiguity !). The technique is simple and looked fun, so I gave it a try on one of my new projects.

As the open source Drupal CMS platform continues to gain popularity, I’ve noticed an unfortunate trend. Many organizations with the potential to use Drupal are underestimating the amount of effort that goes into building and shaping a Drupal website into the solution they desire.

Did you know AJAX can be used as an adjective? I do, because I hear it a lot. Here are some typical comments from my clients and associates.

So your content management driven website is a shiny new yacht sitting in port. Your vendor just built it. The outside is spit polished, the engine hums, and the navigation tools are state of the art. You imagine yourself as Donald Trump when you step aboard. But wait! There’s no fuel in it. The inside hasn’t been decorated yet. The galley doesn’t have a drop of champagne. And as you peer out into the rough seas of a CMS website launch, there are some mighty big waves. Sound familiar? Sound scary?

Getting money from people is harder than you might think. At least it can be for civic nonprofits and associations, where collecting donations is critical to their mission. If nonprofits are not fundraising over the Internet, they are missing out on a wealth of easy money from fast-clicking, civic-minded constituents who wish to support their cause in the quickest and easiest way possible.

So your organization needs a website? Maybe a content management system (CMS)? With a little smattering of customer relationship management (CRM)? Oh wait, you need some Web 2.0…you know, some cool stuff! Better not forget analytics. And do you want some fries with that?