You have a client that sends a “pixel-perfect” design comp, but the design hasn’t taken Drupal or site building iteration into account. The topic of this session is how to steer those expectations bundled with the PSD into a design process that stays flexible through the entire Drupal development cycle.

The session will be broken into two parts.

1) Approaching the design comp as a concept

We’re going to look at a sample layout and identify some of its abstractions.

• Thinking of a layout as populated by flexible UI components, rather than immutable pixels that work like a visual contract between the client and developer
• Anticipating areas where the design will likely change, and preparing for them (the heart of sustainability!)
• How to form dummy content in a design to reveal a genre

2) Strategies for a flexible theming process

An iterative design process does not have to abandon the design comp. I’m going to cover some Drupal tools and suggest a process to build a layout around your content, instead of fitting content as an after-thought.

• Using a grid layout to accommodate multiple devices
• How a grid system helps with layout experimentation
• Using Fusion Accelerator to give fool-proof UI control to your administrators

Suggested pre-requisite knowledge:

CSS and basic theming experience is recommended, but anyone who works with a design comp (project managers, sales, developers) will have plenty of background to engage in this session.