The challenges of designing a HCD component-based design system and Drupal 9 theme
Time: Wednesday 19th October 11:00-11:35
Room: Ballroom 1
Track: User Experience & Content
The retirement of the Australian Government Design System (AGDS) left a void for a high quality Drupal design system that government agencies and other organisations could quickly adopt for Drupal website projects.
The lack of a high quality design system to provide a robust backbone and functional framework for building and managing Drupal websites left projects facing the problem of high development costs and long project timelines, especially when building sites based on bespoke visual designs.
A great design system would be able to solve many of these problems as well as deliver a consistent user experience for site visitors, as well as the web publishers and administrators responsible for content creation and management.
Salsa ventured forth to build the next generation design system for the Australian Government and a companion Drupal 9 theme. Naturally, it was easier said than done.
There were many challenges, most of which were not technical - that was the easy part! - but non-technical decisions that would shape the ultimate product.
In this presentation, we’ll take the audience through the development process, including:
-User testing
-The role of the Australian Design System
-Creating an accessible design system
-The component-based nature of CivicTheme
-Product-led development
-Lessons learnt so far
CivicTheme is a new, open source component-based design system and Drupal 9 theme. It provides a quick, easy and cost-efficient solution to build new websites. Web publishers and administrators can create and manage pages and layout designs without any coding.
It was developed with a strong user experience focus coupled with project-led development (government clients helped shape and test CivicTheme as it was built).
The lack of a high quality design system to provide a robust backbone and functional framework for building and managing Drupal websites left projects facing the problem of high development costs and long project timelines, especially when building sites based on bespoke visual designs.
A great design system would be able to solve many of these problems as well as deliver a consistent user experience for site visitors, as well as the web publishers and administrators responsible for content creation and management.
Salsa ventured forth to build the next generation design system for the Australian Government and a companion Drupal 9 theme. Naturally, it was easier said than done.
There were many challenges, most of which were not technical - that was the easy part! - but non-technical decisions that would shape the ultimate product.
In this presentation, we’ll take the audience through the development process, including:
-User testing
-The role of the Australian Design System
-Creating an accessible design system
-The component-based nature of CivicTheme
-Product-led development
-Lessons learnt so far
CivicTheme is a new, open source component-based design system and Drupal 9 theme. It provides a quick, easy and cost-efficient solution to build new websites. Web publishers and administrators can create and manage pages and layout designs without any coding.
It was developed with a strong user experience focus coupled with project-led development (government clients helped shape and test CivicTheme as it was built).
Akhil Bhandari
Akhil has over 20 years’ experience in the technology industry, covering both the government and private sectors. He was a product manager for a software company, ran his own digital agency for 10 years, then worked at the Department of Communications and the Arts in Canberra for 8 years. With qualifications in marketing, his experience has covered sales and marketing positions (such as product management, digital project delivery and digital strategy) and technical digital roles (including frontend development, UX, and graphic and web design).
He’s currently working at Salsa Digital in marketing and product development, and was instrumental in the design and development of CivicTheme.
He’s currently working at Salsa Digital in marketing and product development, and was instrumental in the design and development of CivicTheme.
Additional speakersPhillipa Martin
Phillipa currently works at Salsa Digital as a content strategist, project manager and rules as code (RaC) business analyst.
Phillipa has over 25 years’ experience as a corporate writer and editor, with a specialisation in online writing. She’s written blogs, website content, brochures, articles for corporate magazines, video scripts, training scripts, and multimedia displays. Phillipa also has extensive experience as a speaker and trainer, running courses in online writing, corporate writing, general ‘good’ writing, and creative writing. She’s a published author and holds a Doctor of Philosophy in creative writing.
Phillipa’s most recent presentations include:
-DrupalSouth Shorts - Content accessibility in Drupal https://drupalsouth.org/events/drupalsouth-shorts-2021-drupal20/sessions/content-accessibility-drupal
-Website best practice writing - client presentation for 400+ staff members
Phillipa currently works at Salsa Digital as a content strategist, project manager and rules as code (RaC) business analyst.
Phillipa has over 25 years’ experience as a corporate writer and editor, with a specialisation in online writing. She’s written blogs, website content, brochures, articles for corporate magazines, video scripts, training scripts, and multimedia displays. Phillipa also has extensive experience as a speaker and trainer, running courses in online writing, corporate writing, general ‘good’ writing, and creative writing. She’s a published author and holds a Doctor of Philosophy in creative writing.
Phillipa’s most recent presentations include:
-DrupalSouth Shorts - Content accessibility in Drupal https://drupalsouth.org/events/drupalsouth-shorts-2021-drupal20/sessions/content-accessibility-drupal
-Website best practice writing - client presentation for 400+ staff members