My Drupal Blog

Seeing as this is the first proper post on my Drupal blog I thought it only seemed right to start with a discussion about, arguably, the most important theme of them all - drupal.org.

Over the past six years Drupal has grown to become a sizeable player in the Open Source CMS world, and as the product has grown so has the site. The release of Drupal 5 saw the implementation of Garland as Drupal's new default theme, and very nice it is too. But the drupal.org theme remains, and, whilst it's not bad, there's no denying that it is starting to look a little jaded. So, is it now time for drupal.org to get a new theme?

Traditionally, any such mention on the drupal.org forums of Drupal getting a new theme has been met with the same response - that the drupal.org theme 'Bluebeach' is what identifies Drupal; it's what people recognise, and that changing it would somehow be a bad thing.

But I believe that such a response is missing the point. It is precisely because people, and designers in particular, associate Drupal with the Bluebeach theme that it needs to change.

In a very interesting article over at acko.net Steven Wittens ponders the topic of 'Drupal's designer future'. In short, Wittens argues that the Drupal community needs to educate itself on, and embrace, the issue of design and theming. The problem he is alluding to is not new. Everyone within the community agrees that Drupal has amazing potential, but that designers are being put off (lhmdesign.com excluded of course ;-). As Wittens says 'the shortage of design talent means Drupal is generally perceived to be ugly'. I couldn't agree more. But I also believe that Wittens' argument should be taken further. It is great that people can design beautiful themes which showcase the beauty that can be applied to Drupal, but surely the main drupal.org site should already be blowing people away.

Depending upon whose statistics you choose to believe, users make a sub-conscious decision about whether they like or dislike a website in anywhere between a relatively massive three seconds, and a much smaller one twentieth of a second. So, whatever way you look at it, that's not a lot of time to impress. And impress Drupal must if it wants to attract the designers it craves.

If the Drupal team are worried about the possibility that a new theme would compromise Drupal's branding position then they shouldn't be. Branding is far more than just the logo or design of a site. Branding is about the entire Drupal package. Users are not going to suddenly become unclear about what or who Drupal is just because you update the theme. In fact, I think it would more than likely have a positive, galvanising effect, and could also generate an increased amount of publicity.

Perhaps, any reluctance is partly due to the fact that programmers are not designers, and that, largely, Drupal is run by programmers. This is not to say that programmers can't appreciate great design, rather I believe it is the case that programmers and designers see the beauty of a site/product in different ways. For example, as a designer I have little idea about how to put together a module. I can appreciate the extreme skill which goes into the production, but ultimately they are, for me, just a means to an end - namely, producing a website.

Indeed, I believe in general that designers are turned on by great design, and that one of their primary considerations when looking for a CMS is how easily they will be able to manipulate it to create great looking websites. Furthermore, it is important to appreciate the effect that the appearance of your website has upon peoples' perception of how good or not your product is, and as such drupal.org should leave designers in no doubt that this is their CMS of choice.

To give a brief example, the recently re-designed Expression Engine website shows just how good a CMS website can look. It is no wonder that such designers as Veerle Pieters champion Expression Engine. It may have a lesser community, and you may even have to pay to get the full version, BUT I believe it will still attract more designers than Drupal because the main site looks better; and that counts for a lot.

With the advent of the Drupal Association it seems clear that Drupal is moving to position itself as a serious contender in the CMS market, and, rightly or wrongly, a lot of people will judge the professionalism or not of a company like Drupal based upon the look of their site. Furthermore, a stunning design can lure people into spending time on a site and getting to know the product. As soon as a designer, or anyone else for that matter, goes to drupal.org they should be instantly captivated and want without question to become a part of Drupal. And if Drupal wants to attract high quality designers who are prepared to invest their time and understanding, they might do well to consider updating the drupal.org theme.