We are doing a case study for our english class about personal websites that use Drupal. Our survey is a short ten minute survey. It will assist us in our case study, and hopefully benefit the Drupal community. The survey deadline is November 23rd. We would appreciate your feedback on our survey.
Thank you Drupal users.
Paula Schmidt
Reese Shidler
1. Why did you choose to use Drupal?
2. Is there good tech support for the software?
3. What are the positive and negative aspects of Drupal?
4. Do you find that the blogs are useful to you?
5. Why did you develop a personal website?
6. Did you use or create your own a theme template?
7. What kind of information do you put on your website?
8. Who is your website targeting? Who is the desired audience?
9. Do you take full advantage of modules on your website?
10. How much time to you spend creating and maintaining your website?
Comments
Acko.net
For own personal website (acko.net):
1) I am one of the Drupal developers, so I eat my own dog food. Drupal makes it easy to maintain my website: I can edit anything from the browser.
2) As a developer, I don't really need tech support, but I think we provide good support given our resources. Questions are answered on the Drupal forums and on the mailing list by volunteers.
3) First of all modularity: it's easy to plug features together, and I can turn off all the advanced community features which I don't need on my own small site. The code is very clean, so I can make small changes easily.
A negative aspect for personal sites is Drupal's size: Drupal has many things which you won't need, and although you can turn them, it can still be intimidating.
4) Yes, most of my content is in blogs. Comments to blog entries are enabled and are used often.
5) Because I wanted a place where people could find and download various things I've made: programs, graphics, PHP code, ... This to reduce the amount of e-mail I get, asking for similar things.
6) Yes, I designed and implemented my own template from scratch.
7) Mostly blog entries about things I'm working on (Drupal, AVS, ...) as well as files and assorted docs for others to download. Also some quick information about myself and what I do.
8) Anyone who wants to know more about me. Mostly fellow programmers and computer enthousiasts.
9) Very much. The filter system makes it easy to write blogs without having to write full HTML. The URL aliasing makes my site search engine friendly, and it's great for myself too: no long URLs to remember. Editing and adding items is a snap. The administration functions are integrated into the site when I log in as myself, so I can adjust my site directly from the pages.
10) I visit at least once a day, but I only post new things rarely (every 1-2 weeks or so). I do reply to comments that are posted.
Hope this helps.
Thank you for responding to o
Thank you for responding to our survey. The information will be very helpful in our case study.
Paula and Reese
1. Taxonomy. I wanted to or
1. Taxonomy. I wanted to organize a collection of useful 'knowledge base' articles. Drupal's taxonomy was the only solution I found that allowed me to organize my information.
2. Reasonably good.
3. Drupal is a base framework that you need to learn to accomplish what you want. Good that it is flexible, negative that there is a steep learning curve associated with it.
4. Drupal is my first real exposure to blogs, so not immediately, though I am beginning to see their potential.
5. I needed a place to put links and articles that was accessable to others.
6. For my first run while learning, I used some of the existing theme's. xTemplate, then phpTemplate for 4.4.
7. Misc ramblings of personal interest, Computer how to's. News aggragator to centralize tech sites with RSS feeds. Personal hobby info and some pictures.
8. Myself, my friends and family. Also, when one of the previous mentioned asks for a technical answer to a question, then often I will write up the answer and send a link to my site. This way I don't have to answer the questiion when someone else asks me.
9. No, I am still exploring the capabilities and having fun building it out.
10. Not sure. Sometimes I ignore it for a week or two, then I spend some time posting to it. As I recently wiped the site and started over I am spending more time with it riight now. Once it's up, I generally spent 1-2 hours a week posting articles to it.
-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide
Thank you for responding to o
Thank you for responding to our survey. The information you provided will be very helpful to us in our case study.
Paula and Reese
Survey response
1. Why choose Drupal: It has a group of active developers. The code is solid and updated regularly. The themeing is strong - it is easy to keep my site from looking like every other Drupal site (unlike, say, PHPNuke.) It has modules that do the things that I want to do on a site (text posts and photo galleries). It has permissions that let me mix public, anonymous content with private, family-only content.
2. Tech support: The documentation is okay, the developers actively respond to questions on the site and the mailing list, and the code has good documentation. For free tech support, I have no complaints.
3. Positives & Negatives: Positive: Drupal is solid and flexible. Negative: Drupal uses terminology that is different from other major CMS systems, which led me to confusion during my survey of different systems. It wasn't until the third or fourth time I was looking around for a new CMS system, and a recommendation from a software professor, that I read deep enough into the website to find that Drupal was what I was looking for.
4. Are the blogs useful: Haven't used the blogs, yet.
5. Why have a personal website: The website is for my family (small, spread out, and well-traveled) to share interesting links, family news, and photos with each other. Some galleries are family only, and some are public.
6. Did you make your own theme: Yes.
7. Site content: links to interesting stories on the web, family photos, stories about trips we've taken.
8. Target audience: privately, my family and perhaps close family friends. Public content includes links to things we've found interesting and some of the travel stories.
9. Module use: I don't use all the modules, but I appreciate that there are a lot of them. As the use of the site changes over time, I expect I'll use more of them.
10. Time spent: I'd have to guess on the order of 40 hours to create the site, much of that spent getting the CSS for the theme working the way I wanted it to. I spend a few hours a week adding content.
Thank you for responding to o
Thank you for responding to our survey. You provided useful information about your unique way of using Drupal. The information will be helpful in our case study.
Paula and Reese
My reply to the survey
1. Why did you choose to use Drupal?
It was strongly recommended to me by a friend of mine. He knows a lot about software, so I trusted his judgment, and I'm glad I did!
2. Is there good tech support for the software?
Yes, usually when I have a question I can find a forum thread on it on the Drupal site.
3. What are the positive and negative aspects of Drupal?
Positive: The built-in news aggregator! The blocks (you don't have to mess with the code for the whole site if all you want to do is edit a link or two on your blogroll). The collaborative book module -- great for academic papers and conference presentations. The options of Published/Promoted to front page/unpublished. You can work on something and store it until you want to publish it (but I imagine other content management systems can do the same). The smileys filter! And I'll jump on the bandwagon and add that I think the taxonomy system is very nice. I also like that registered users can edit their comments.
Negative aspects of Drupal: They say it's hard to install, and I'm sure it is. I had the good fortune of having a helpful friend do it though.
4. Do you find that the blogs are useful to you?
Yes, very! That's the only thing I use Drupal for right now.
5. Why did you develop a personal website?
It's a good way to keep in touch with friends and colleagues and to publish my ideas in progress.
6. Did you use or create your own a theme template?
A friend of mine did a lot of it for me, but I think it was an existing template. I messed with the CSS a little after my friend set it up, changing the banner image, colors, etc. I hope to learn more about this.
7. What kind of information do you put on your website?
Reading responses, musings about teaching, personal information about my hobbies, random thoughts, etc.
8. Who is your website targeting? Who is the desired audience?
Mostly academics in the fields of rhetoric and the humanities in general.
9. Do you take full advantage of modules on your website?
I doubt it. I have almost all of them enabled, but Drupal probably has a lot I don't know about. Plus my blog isn't running on 4.5 yet.
10. How much time to you spend creating and maintaining your website?
Probably about 2-3 hours a day. I hit "refresh" for my newest external referrers obsessively. :-o
Drupal Formal Report (Personal Websites)
Drupal Personal Websites
Prepared by Paula Schmidt and Reese Shidler
Report Distributed December 9
Prepared for the Drupal Community
ABSTRACT
Drupal is a web site platform that is used by individuals or groups of
individuals for managing many types of information for various reasons. An in
depth analysis has been performed to observe how individuals apply Drupal to
their own personal web sites. Detailed case studies of four personal sites
brought real life use into the study along with issuing a survey to the entire
Drupal community for feedback and notification of our study. The scope of the
report covers the many applications of Drupal along with the unique ways in
which the Drupal features and modules can be used depending on the webmaster’s
preferences. It was found that there are indeed many types of Drupal personal
websites. Results of the survey and case studies found similarities about the
personal websites as well as very unique designs and thoughts on the use of
Drupal. Recommendations for improvement are also made that were felt would help
develop Drupal into a better personal website platform.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………….. ii
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY…………………………………………………... 1
INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………….
2
Purpose………………………………………………………………… 2
Case
Study…………………………………………………………….. 2
Recommendations……………………………………………………...
2
Survey Results………………………………………………………… 2
CASE STUDIES………………………………………………………………. 3-8
SURVEY RESULTS………………………………………………………… 9-10
RESEARCH FINDINGS…………………………………………………….. 11
RECOMMENDATIONS………………………………………………………. 12
CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………. 13
WORKS CITED…………………………………………………………………. 14
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
There are an endless amount of personal websites on the
World Wide Web. They range from specific interests of the creator to websites
designed to keep families in touch with each other. Whatever ones interests are,
they can find a personal website to accommodate to them. In our research we
investigated personal websites created and maintained using Drupal. We performed
a case study of six websites, made recommendations to Drupal to help users
improve their own sites, and compiled the results of our survey given to Drupal
users.
In performing our case study of six personal websites we found that
websites created using Drupal are relatively easy to design, and they all follow
a similar pattern of design. There are three main items that are included on all
of the websites:
can create a new account. It is typically the first thing that users must do
in order to have access to the rest of the website, or to post blogs
main page. It allows for quick and easy navigation of all the parts of the
website
sites do not allow users to post blogs, but only to read the blogs posted by
the webmaster. They allow users to share information with each other, and are
a great way for users to communicate.
The websites also included an array of modules. The modules are what make up
the website, and it is important that the site’s designer uses modules that will
benefit the site’s users. The most common modules used on the personal websites
we reviewed are:
All of these modules are crucial to each site. They contain important
information for communicating, as well as make for a very organized
structure.
After careful review of the websites we proceeded to make
recommendations to improve the use of Drupal for its users. Many of the
recommendations had to do with improving the blogs. On www.billcookmusic.com
users can not even post blogs. They can only read the postings by the creator.
Enabling users to post their own blogs would be a huge improvement to the site.
It would allow communication between users, and make for a more informative
site. Blogs are an important aspect of all the websites, and it is crucial that
they be accessible in all ways by users.
Publishing a survey to the whole Drupal community was our way of retrieving
the opinions of Drupal users. This was done to see how actual users felt about
the website platform, how well it applied to their purpose, and what they were
and were not happy with. There were some answers to our questions that were
common across the board as well as some that were unique.
INTRODUCTION
Purpose
We researched Drupal and examined, specifically, personal websites
that were used for many applications. There are an abundance of personal
websites, however, we only closely examined six websites all created using
Drupal. We first familiarized ourselves with Drupal to help us better understand
the logic of applying certain modules to certain sites. This was a key element
in our research because neither one of us had worked with Drupal previously. We
familiarized ourselves with terms, themes, and modules. Then we researched the
elements of a Drupal personal website, performed a case study of each of our six
websites, posted survey questions for Drupal users to answer, and finally made
recommendations.
Case study
In our case study we analyzed six personal websites, all created using
Drupal. We recognized in each site the main components of Drupal.org. These
include a user login, blogs, and easy navigation. Even though all of the
websites were personal websites, and they were all created using Drupal, they
all had their own purpose. Personal websites can be about anything the creator
chooses. This makes for a wide variety of themes ranging from interest in
guitars to a family website. Designers can use any modules available to them on
Drupal to create their sites. This makes for a wide variety of features on
sites. It also makes it clear which site designers make more sufficient use of
modules, allowing for easier use of the site by users.
Recommendations
After reviewing and analyzing our six sites, we made recommendations to
Drupal that would allow nearly all users to improve their sites. One important
specific recommendation for www.billcookmusic.com and www.thomasbarker.com was
to allow users to post blogs. At this time on the sites, the webmasters are the
only ones who can post blogs. Allowing all users to post blogs will be extremely
advantageous. Blogs are a great way to communicate, ask questions, and to get
questions answered.
Survey Results
Publishing a survey to the whole Drupal community was our way of retrieving
the opinions of Drupal users. This was done to see how actual users felt about
the website platform, how well it applied to their purpose, and what they were
and were not happy with about it. There were some answers to our questions that
were common across the board as well as some that were unique.
CASE STUDY
Acko.net
Description
Acko.net is a site that Steven Wittens created. The site seems to fit his
personality perfectly by including all of the things that he is interested in.
There is an art page, a blog page, a coding page and a dump page. The dump page
is referred to as this because it is where everything that does not have a
specific place on the site goes. Coding is shared as well as art work and blogs
about various topics such as games and code.
Modules
Acko.net makes use of only a few modules but any more may be too many. The
modules that are put to use in the site are:
BillCookMusic.com
Description
BillCookMusic is a site that is mainly dedicated music. The webmaster shares
his knowledge on different topics such as bands and guitars and news. A visitor
can read his thoughts as well register to make comments. Along with his content,
there is also Ads by Google and links to shop for items that are sold through
Amazon.com.
Modules
Again few modules are used but this might be to simplify the site or to fit
it to the webmasters needs. More modules may help to organize sites with this
much information. Those that are quickly recognized are:
CultureCat.net
Feminism and rhetoric is what Clancy Ratliff is studying and she shares it
here. Other than these research interests there are others such as weblogs,
composition pedagogy, and intellectual property. This is set up to be a weblog
site that shares information on these same interests. A person can create an
account and also post comments to the blogs. Blogging is obviously the key to
this site.
Modules
Modules play an important part in all websites. Here they are useful because
they lead a visitor in the direction they want to go. Information is easily read
and readily at hand. Some of the modules that aid in the success of this site
are:
Langemarks Café
Information architecture and reading the digital domain are the focused
topics of this personal site. It is not currently being maintained but is a good
example of another unique way to used Drupal. Informing visitors of the same
interests is one of the biggest reasons to have a personal website and this is
yet more proof of this.
The modules that are used are here to help make the site more appealing and
user friendly. It keeps visitors coming back for more when they do not have to
work to see the material that is wanted. As much information that is shared here
there is a need for a few more modules that are wisely put to use
including:
The Rowes
The Rowes’ family website was very interesting. It was found to be
entertaining as well as useful if in the family. Using the site for a family
communication center was a great idea. It allowed the family to share events as
well as pictures and experiences. A visitor can browse the image archive or the
blog posts. It was very user friendly and used Drupal to develop a successful
site.
This site was one of the top of the list when it came to module use. There
were many used and they were used well. It was a very unique site and the
modules still seemed to fit the site perfectly. The most unique module used was
the image module. It was a much needed addition to a site of this type. Along
with the image module there were:
ThomasBarker.com
Thomas Barker is the web master of his portfolio site that is supported by
Drupal. Again it is yet another use for Drupal as a website platform. It is not
quite as involved as some of the other sites, but it is to the point and may
represent him in the way that he wants to be. Recent works are given as well as
blogs that he has posted about various information. It would be a very good
place to refer potential employers to.
Few modules are used here but again this may be the choice of the webmaster.
Adding more module could make the site better but it may also become more
confusing. Modules that apply to a sight have to be well thought out. Too many
could cause problems as well as not enough. This site chose to include
these:
SURVEY RESULTS
At the beginning of our research about Drupal applications
to personal websites there was a survey that was published to the entire Drupal
community. This was done early to gain as many opinions about Drupal’s
contribution to personal websites as possible. With the Drupal community being
quite large it was expected that there would be a large amount of results. There
were not as many replies to the survey as expected, but those who did reply
offered very useful information.
Many similarities and differences came about while evaluating the results. It
was very interesting to see how there were trends of opinions on certain topics.
Then there were also questions that gave very unique answers depending on the
purpose of the site. It was noticed that the main positive aspect that the users
liked was Drupal’s flexibility. This would be especially true for personal
websites. Users want to be able to apply the platform to their needs whether it
is for family, friends, employers, etc.
Nearly unanimous was the negative aspect of Drupal. 75% of the respondents
mentioned that Drupal was difficult to use, install, learn, or was intimidating.
Most personal website creators may not know as much in the field of computers as
someone who is using it for a corporation. With this in mind it is well
understood that this group of Drupal users may find it difficult to use and
learn. Having this information should strike Drupal as a concern. If Drupal was
more user friendly for personal website users it is very possible that it would
grow into something more than what it is already.
Blogging seems to be a feature of Drupal that slowly becomes something that a
personal website developer comes to use. Responses about blogs ranged from not
using them at all, then to seeing their potential, to seeing them as very useful
and being the most used feature that Drupal has to offer. Again this is very
well understood. Once a developer creates a site, there is not necessarily a use
for blogs. As time progresses and more users visit the site, the desire to hear
others’ comments becomes greater and is seen as a useful tool.
The time that is spent on Drupal by the webmasters is the widest ranging
information that was gathered. There are those that visit their site every day
and those who only see it once every two weeks. Some spend 2-3 hours working on
it per day and some 2-3 a week.
The purpose of developing a personal website was another issue that gave many
answers. Though each was unique in its own way, most were very similar in the
fact that they were to be used to communicate or share information with a chosen
group or the public. One very interesting reason given for using or creating a
personal website was to cut down on email. There were repetitive questions that
were being asked to a person and instead of replying to all of them he created a
website so that all of his information on a topic was shared in one location.
The survey was a very useful aid in collecting information. It helped to see
how actual Drupal users felt about the platform and the unique thoughts they
shared about it. With the results it was good to see trends of opinions about
Drupal. This is good because Drupal developers can now look on this and try to
improve on the areas of major concern.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
This chart shows some of the most common modules used based on the six sites
we used for our case study.
great way to communicate with others, and a way to pass on information. We
found in our survey results that when a webmaster is just beginning to create
their site they do not use blogs very often. The more familiar they become
with Drupal, and the effectiveness of blogs they add them to their site.
simply put a key word into the search bar and easily find what they are
looking for.
blogs. This way they are still available, but also out of the way of more
recent information.
of news that is relevant to the site.
if any special events are coming up pertaining to their site.
a nice module to have on a site because it makes the site more informative and
visually pleasing.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In conducting our research we found that these personal websites have some
modules in common. These include the blog module, news module, and the home
module. It is important when the designers are creating their websites that they
use all the Drupal features necessary to meet their user’s demands. The most
widely used module seems to be the blog module. This is almost a key module to
utilize for the web designers. It serves as an excellent form of communication
between users, and a great way to share information. Blogs allow a webmaster to
post general information to all of the sites users. For example, if they are
receiving the same question via e-mail over and over again, instead of
responding to each one, they can simply post one blog, and answer everyone’s
question. Some sights do not use blogs effectively, however, by not letting
their users post blogs. The web designer is the only person who can post blogs.
As mentioned, blogs are a great way to share information so when the blog module
is used in this way, it is not being used to its greatest advantage. When blogs
are used in the correct way, they are most advantageous to the users.
The calendar, if used correctly, could also a very useful module. While on
some sites its only purpose is to provide the date, it could be used much more
effectively. Perhaps making links on the dates of the calendar to the blogs
posted that day would provide better organization. It would allow users to go
back and add to or change their recent posts with more ease, for users to find
certain posts according to date, or to see how long a post has been posted. For
example a site created to keep family events and happenings in order, as well as
a way for them to communicate could use a calendar very effectively. Having a
calendar available would allow them to organize events and provide a simpler way
of viewing happenings. A calendar module on Drupal would defiantly be helpful
improvement. It would aid in organization, and make navigation of each site
easier,
encouraging new users.
CONCLUSION
Drupal has the potential to be a very pleasing, easy to use
website platform. Taken into account everything that has been gained and shared
here, improvement would not be a difficult task. There are so many areas for
improvement. Being flexible is the key to Drupal’s success. With this, anyone
can apply Drupal to any possible need. Drupal’s continued success as a website
platform depends on its ability to meet the users’ needs and to keep them
satisfied with what Drupal has to offer.
Works Cited
Acko. [Electronic] Retrieved November 16, 2004 from acko.net
Billcookmusic. [Electronic] Retrieved November 1, 2004 from
billcookmusic.com
Culturecat. [Electronic] Retrieved November 16, 2004 from culturecat.com
Drupal [Electronic] Retrieved October 28, 2004 from Drupal.org
Langmark. [Electronic] Retrieved November 1, 2004 from langmark.com
Therowes. [Electronic] Retrieved November 1, 2004 from therowes.id.au/
Thomasbarker. [Electronic] Retrieved November 1, 2004 from
thomasbarker.com