I'm a Drupal Developer and a User Interface Systems Architect operating through my consulting company, The User Advocate Group.

As a developer, I provide custom module development, maintenance and site building services to agencies and web site owners.

As a UX expert, I’ve been working with the principle of ‘Outside-In’ UX strategy since 2001 and started bringing these concepts into Drupal projects and community discussions/presentations in 2008.

I prefer back-end (PHP, OOP) work but I do front-end/theme implementation also (SASS, jQuery, etc). The real fun for me is integrating all these things to make new, innovative solutions that are a pleasure to use.

For example, besides doing client work I am currently combining my UX and Developer skills to create an Outside-In Site Building System (SBS) based on Drupal 8. My initial focus is on tools that allow non-technical users to build ’tactical’ content components and landing pages. This is a complementary augmentation to Drupal’s built-in layout and display systems which are more ‘strategic’. The tactical tools are very useful for marketing-oriented content managers who, have little or no Drupal training and want to frequently build new structured content for campaigns, blogs, promotions, etc.

The ’SBS’ project is architected around an Outside-In UX design principle that I call the ‘Inductive Pull Model’. It uses the notion that web sites are expressions of ‘business intent’. This design principle allows a client to begin with ‘I want a web site to do X’ and helps them progressively articulate more and more details about what that actually means. The site construction begins by capturing these intents and turning them into logical site building tasks. The key value to this approach is that the process remains oriented around the client’s own evolving understanding of their site and helps prevent misunderstandings and disconnects between client and site builder.

Having built a couple of sites with SBS already I can say that the UX process is actually enjoyable and free of many of the pains and stresses that site building usually entails. I plan to demo this system beginning in early 2019.

My approach to solving site building UX problems is heavily influenced by my early experience with building commercial software. This background includes designing and building cutting edge special effects for CorelDraw, team lead for Corel UX team, and designing a breakthrough UX system for Corel PrintHouse which became a top industry seller in its initial year.

I am occasionally available for freelance development and/or UX strategy work. If you’d like me to help you make your project a great UX and technical success, please don’t hesitate to reach out here or on Twitter (@useradvocate).