By ares1010 on

I am very new to Drupal and I am planning to use it to develop a University Student Government Website.
I am looking to first create a theme that is appropriate and then implement it and make it easy to publish pages with. I am a graphic designer, but I have never worked with Drupal.

Here are a few things that I need implemented:
Include forums/threads.
Want to have profiles and blogs for each student government officer.
Be able to have visitors have logins and post pictures.
Have a calendar for all events.

Thank You

Comments

shashinmishra’s picture

shashinmishra commented

Hi,

We have a strong Drupal portfolio and would be interested in talking to you further about your needs. Please contact me on shashinmishra@gmail.com to talk about it.

Thanks,
Shashin

pobster’s picture

pobster commented

Whoa! Before you go spending any money at all, most of the things you require are core and *everything* you require can be enabled with NO customization whatsoever... You're saying you'll pay $2000 for about 5 minutes work (30 seconds work if you've already got Drupal installed)...

Pobster

rkendall’s picture

rkendall commented

While for a personal site you may be happy with an out of the box Drupal install, using one of the available themes, any professional website will require a custom theme developed and usually some customisation of the Drupal system. Not to mention the value of having an experienced person set up and configure the system with recommended modules.

Have you have forgotten how much time you spent on your first Drupal website?

kulfi’s picture

kulfi commented

Would the $2000 be justified if it went towards theme development alone? If themers are provided with mockups, for e.g. http://welt.de (medium complexity?) or something that was requested here recently http://socialcomputingmagazine.com (low complexity?), would those be $2000 worth of work?

rkendall’s picture

rkendall commented

Firstly the welt.de website is not Drupal, it is the community forum http://debatte.welt.de/ that runs on Drupal.

Websites like debatte.welt.de (I don't know about socialcomputingmagazine.com) wouldn't get developed for under $20,000!. And what is this talk of medium/low complexity, do you have any idea of what work has actually gone into these sites?

You can't go comparing large websites with small business and hobby website, they are not the same kettle of fish.

For those who aren't professional web developers: $2000 is a very modest amount to spend for development on a small website - even if you use the Drupal platform.

Sorry for ranting, but some of the comments on this post are offensive to professional web developers.

Try reading this for an insightful laugh:
http://drupal.org/node/16189

kulfi’s picture

kulfi commented

I think you misunderstood my post:
- those are questions, not statements
- they refer to the price of theming not complete Drupal implementations

rkendall’s picture

rkendall commented

To answer your question...

A recent Drupal theming project of mine (which involved no other development) was billed at £1050 (about $2076USD). The bill was calculated for the time I spent - at the reduced rate of £35/hour (industry standard in the UK is about £45/hour).

It is certainly possible to spend more time on a theme, and some designers/developers would charge more. How long a project would take usually depends on how much attention to detail the client requires.

Of course, you can probably get a college kid to do it for peanuts, although not all businesses are prepared to take that kind of risk with an important project.

--
Ross Kendall
UK based Web and IT consultant specialising in Free and Open Source Software technologies.
http://rosskendall.com

webpoga’s picture

webpoga commented

when you can do it yourself. How about reading?

rkendall’s picture

rkendall commented

...and it takes time to read!

webpoga’s picture

webpoga commented

specially for slow readers.

rkendall’s picture

rkendall commented

While I don't know how many pages there are in the documentation, there are more than 140000 nodes on the Drupal website. Try reading that quickly!

webpoga’s picture

webpoga commented

then i'll just pay $2000

chrisranjana.com’s picture

chrisranjana.com commented

Would it involve creating graphics ? Or just programming alone ?

Chris, Director, Chrisranjana.com
Drupal Web Developers, Php mysql developers

.carey’s picture

.carey commented

ares1010, for $2000 you should get a complete setup with sections, taxonomy, desired modules with tweaking if necessary, and a custom main theme with variations for the sections (blogs, forums, etc.) - at the very least.

Yeah, $2000 is a lot of money, but $2000 should get you a lot - a nice professional site and setup minus just the content.

Carey

ares1010’s picture

ares1010 commented

Thank you for the feedback...I hope for some more. I will probably rethink my price options.

Thanks Again

ares1010’s picture

ares1010 commented

Thank you for the feedback...I hope for some more. I will probably rethink my price options.

Thanks Again

mgcarley’s picture

mgcarley commented

Hi,

My company would like to provide you with a detailed quote for developing your site and making any customizations to the theme and modules.

In addition, if your site requires translations in to any other languages, we are able to facilitate this without difficulty.

If you are still looking for a complete setup (including theme), enable your contact form and/or contact me through mine.

Regards

**UUSI** Nopeita ohjausta ja tietokonepalveluita @ www.fingeekit.com
Mathew Carley
p: +358 9 2316 3712
gsm: +358 40 816 2816

w: http://www.cnmltd.com
e: mathewc+cnmltd.net
skype: mgcarley
msn: mgcarley@hostenz.co.nz

papile’s picture

papile commented

To all those saying $2000 is way too much for a full website, you would only be right if it were :
- A standard drupal implementation
- A standard theme
- and all standard modules.

The features can all be accomplished by modules, but most of them in a very generic manner. If you want a professional site that is not out of the box drupal, it takes a lot of time. Most of the time, the best way to get exactly what you want is to write your own module. And making themes and stuff may seem really easy, but to get all the dynamic content in there where you want it and validate XHTML strict takes time too. Most drupal sites I see are very "drupal" looking. Maybe this guy does not want a wordpress/drupal/joomla cookie-cutter site. A relatively low paid first world programmer makes $1000 a week.
As far as reading the documentation and doing it himself... Well I am sure he can. I am also sure I can go to trade school and learn how to rebuild my engine in my car. However, I have a trade, and it is not worth my time to learn a lot to do something that I can pay someone else to do. Drupal does indeed have a steep learning curve, especially as a non programmer. Learning how to do what he wants to do will take more than $2000 of his time most likely!

I am a professional full time drupal programmer pretty much because my company is doing a lot with Drupal. It took me some time to learn how to do stuff right. To learn how to seriously program for drupal it takes a little while. In addition, the documentation sans the api is not very organized, and often does not keep up with the torrid pace of development. My grandmother can prob set up a drupal site with comments, but that is it.

I am not interested in any freelancing, but if you want to message me with your specs, I can tell you what it will take for a programmer to do what you want for free so you can get an unbiased opinion from an experienced drupal developer. Maybe you really would be suited by a standard install with little or no custom work. You made the right choice choosing drupal though because it really is very powerful.

ares1010’s picture

ares1010 commented

papile acknowledged that I may not be looking for "wordpress/drupal/joomla cookie-cutter site," which is exactly right.

I want a theme that is not out of the box, implementing CSS, and that looks great...here is a site that caught my eye:
http://asuo.uoregon.edu/index.php
I includes a lot of the static pages and links I would want, but does not include blogging, forums, or pictures.

Can anyone do something like this?

Thanks
ares1010

ares1010’s picture

ares1010 commented

Thank you for your input. Here is our current site: http://aslmu.lmu.edu/ - which is terrible.

I will be looking for someone to design the site and then help me develop it.
Here is more information about what I am looking for in the new site.
Features that I want to implement that may not be here:
• forums/threads were students can display their opinions.
• Want to have profiles and blogs for each student government officer.
• Be able to have visitors have logins and post pictures.
• Have a calendar for all events
• News bulletins and main news story box, like on wired.com.

I am not looking for a "wordpress/drupal/joomla cookie-cutter site.” I want something fresh and professional as exemplified through the ASUO site below.

EXAMPLES:
I have found a good example of all the information that I want listed and also the amount of links I am looking for:
http://asuo.uoregon.edu/index.php - this site is not based in Drupal.
This site features tabs, which are not necessary, but I do like the CSS used and the layout of information on static pages.

This site presents a good usage of typography and news stories:
http://www.wired.com/

If you have any questions or want more information please email me back. I hope to speak to you soon.

Ujval Shah’s picture

Ujval Shah commented

hi

we are ready to work.
please look at few

www.youngbodymind.com
www.im4re.com/arcade
www.bpocanada.com

all these sites are devloped in drupal.
it is good to see your feedback.

thank you
drupal service provider
- leading to the drupal

papile’s picture

papile commented

Your example site is a very good design. Your current site looks like it is photoshop and chopped. This is the problem these days. Most designers sites that look good, but are poor in engineering. Then if you do have a good designer they want to take control of the whole process and do it their way. This runs into the 10's of thousands for a good design. I do not think you will have any problem with your functionality being done by a programmer. The site you use as an example can definitely be done in drupal.
I think that your budget is fair enough to get a decent coder, and good luck! You may also want to contact the theming mailing list/forums. I think a designer with some php skills can do all of your work. A full programmer will not be able to make you a nice looking design, and your needs seem simple enough to get done by a person who is familiar with dynamic web sites.