Lullabot

Gain insight into how higher ed institutions can navigate the complexities of varied stakeholder priorities while maintaining a coherent digital presence. Optimize your content discovery with examples from Harvard and Brown University.

Register now:

https://zurl.co/A1Bj

Join Kat Shaw on August 29th at 1:30pm ET for a live A11yTalk on Aria.

https://zurl.co/8ZZ6

What the Heck is ARIA? A Beginner's Guide to ARIA for Accessibility (A11yTalks: Kat Shaw, Aug 2024) ARIA attributes bridge the gap to address accessibility issues that cannot be managed with native HTML. Join us as we explore what ARIA is, what it can do, w...

We're hiring!

We're looking for a Business Development Executive who can nurture relationships and help build a reliable bridge between our sales and marketing efforts. Cultivate positive experiences for leads and potential clients.

Learn more: https://zurl.co/Ry8T

The goal of Single Directory Components (SDC) is to simplify front-end development workflows and improve the maintainability of Drupal themes. And they are ready to use right now.

Organizing your Drupal front-end with SDC promises to reduce bugs, enable rapid prototyping, allow easier testing of new features, and lower the development burden for both back-end and front-end developers.

The result: increased ROI on your development efforts.

But how do you start, and how do you maximize the benefits?

Join us on Sept. 12th as we talk about simplifying your front-end with SDC. Register now:

https://zurl.co/ti17

Simplify Your Drupal Front-End with Single Directory Components | Lullabot Implementing design systems with Single Directory Components and using Storybook to increase the ROI on your development efforts.

As Drupal 7 begins to settle down into its final resting place, you need to be thinking about migrating away. Drupal 7 has earned its rest. Let it go.

Here's how to start planning your Drupal 7 migration. The sooner you start, the better.

https://zurl.co/N5by

How to Plan Your Drupal 7 Migration | Lullabot Despite the uniqueness of each migration, there are some commonalities. You can take steps to ensure your migration will be a success, no matter how complex or simple.

Tables are still a vital part of the web, but we need to make them responsive and accessible for smaller devices.

In this article, we evaluate one popular approach and then cover the solution we landed on.

https://zurl.co/5OZ9

Responsive HTML Tables: Presenting Data in an Accessible Way | Lullabot Tables are still a vital part of the web, but we need to make them responsive and accessible for smaller devices. We evaluate one popular approach and then cover the solution we landed on.

We're hiring!

If you're a Drupal developer in the United States, we want to hear from you.

Apply now: https://zurl.co/80iT

We are committed to delivering user-centric work and this extends to the Drupal project. Improvements should actually be improvements. To validate changes to Drupal's administration menus and user interface, we employed various types of usability testing.

https://zurl.co/ee9A

Understanding What Drupal Editors and Authors Need | Lullabot To validate changes to Drupal’s administration menus and user interface, we employed various types of usability testing, we ran card sorting exercises, a survey, and several rounds of user testing.

It's 2024.

Do you still need to use Sass or will native CSS meet your needs?

https://zurl.co/mT29

Do You Still Need Sass? | Lullabot Native CSS has come a long way since Sass was released in 2006. Has it come far enough to leave Sass behind?

Join us on Global Accessibility Awareness Day for an enlightening discussion that will explore the common web accessibility issues people face every day.

Along with DubBot, Providence College, and Iowa's Department for the Blind, we'll cover the transformative impact of small actions, the importance of proper accessibility testing with diverse users, and remediation concerns.

If you have questions about accessibility, bring them along! We're here to provide answers and empower you with knowledge that can make a world of difference.

https://zurl.co/KbqN

Web Accessibility Q&A: Simplicity, Testing, and Remediation | Lullabot Join us on Global Accessibility Awareness Day for an engaging discussion and Q&A on web accessibility with DubBot, the Iowa Department for the Blind, and Providence College.

Our Drupal integration with Storybook.js worked great for a while, but we started to feel its limitations.

During our research for an alternative, we realized that the Storybook team did not mean for us to write JSON stories. They only used JSON because all languages know how to read and write with it. We needed to generate the JSON from our stories, which should be written in our native templating language.

In Drupal's case, that’s Twig.

See our overview of the new Storybook module for Drupal and how to start using it.

The New Storybook Module for Drupal | Lullabot How the new Storybook.js module works, improvements over previous attempts and why they were needed, and the basics of setting it up.

We've been working on improving the administration UI for Drupal and a big part of this has been a redesign of the toolbar.

But Drupal sites are used for different verticals, scenarios, team sizes, team makeup, features, and more. To make the new toolbar useful, it needs to be flexible and customizable. Our latest work has focused on implementing the backend for administrators to manage the new toolbar.

You can try out these changes right now by installing the Navigation module. The goal is to make this a part of Drupal core by version 11.

View more details about what's coming soon:

Navigation Blocks and Local Tasks for Drupal's Admin UI | Lullabot We cover the latest changes and future possibilities for customizing Drupal's administration experience.

Greg Dunlap joined a panel to discuss headless versus traditional CMSs.

The webinar covered how to make sense of rapid changes in the industry and shared some tips for businesses looking to adopt new CMS tech.

Watch the recording here:

www.linkedin.com

Our next webinar happens on Thursday, March 28th!

How to Reduce PDF Overload on Your Website

Government websites are littered with PDFs.

They force users to download large files, print out forms, and pinch, zoom, and squint on mobile devices. The information in PDFs can be hard to find using search engines, and it's sometimes out of date. PDFs keep important information from your constituents, cause barriers, and create friction in the user experience.

But you’re still creating them. You have hundreds, maybe thousands, and the number goes up every day. Addressing this dilemma might seem overwhelming, but it’s not impossible. Find out the why and the how of paring back PDFs.

In this webinar, you will learn:

- Why government websites should avoid PDFs
- How to improve your existing PDFs or transform them into accessible web content
- How to change your processes to reduce the PDF cycle

These lessons apply to state governments and any large organization publishing lots of content.

Register here: https://www.lullabot.com/webinars/how-reduce-pdf-overload-your-website?quick_source=facebook

How to Reduce PDF Overload on Your Website | Lullabot You have hundreds, maybe thousands, of PDFs on your website, and the number goes up every day. Why is this a problem, and what can you do about it?

A design system can be challenging enough to create and maintain when a single team uses it for one specific purpose, but what happens if your organization is large?

What happens when the design system has to serve not only a single website but several different websites and applications and must also extend to print materials and social media posts?

And what do you run into when multiple teams of designers, content authors, and developers need to use the system for different purposes?

We've helped create and implement design systems at organizations of all sizes and have experience with design systems as adopters, contributors, and consultants. Our team is actively engaged in every stage of a design system's life cycle, and each time, we learn and grow from our experience.

While implementing any design system comes with challenges, there are unique challenges we've run into when scaling a design system.

This article covers some of those challenges so you can prepare for them.

The Unique Challenges of Design Systems at Scale | Lullabot Implementing any design system comes with challenges. However, there are unique challenges you'll run into when scaling a design system to multiple teams and multiple websites.

Manually maintaining a Drupal website is time-consuming, especially for a small team already busy with new features and bug fixes. When the Drupal Security team announces a new security update, this requires one or more members of the development team to:

1. Stop what they are currently doing
2. Apply the update and create a new pull request
3.Test the security update

Add in other non-critical updates, and a development team can spend a significant amount of time on something that, while necessary, doesn't seem to add much value. If you have multiple websites and codebases, this problem becomes even worse. It could easily become someone's full-time job to do nothing but package updates.

Which is why you should automate them.

Here's how we do it for 100s of websites.

https://zurl.co/kTkp

Managing Software Updates for Hundreds of Websites | Lullabot Automate Drupal updates with Renovate for efficient security patching and bug fixes. It's like having an extra developer on your team.

"Drupal continues to be driven forward by a community of like-minded individuals and organizations. This is a sharp contrast to most other large open-source projects that are driven by VC funding and an "open core" model," opines Andrew Berry.

Get ready to embark on a tech journey with Andrew Berry the Director of Technology at Lullabot. In an exclusive interview with The Drop Times, Andrew shares anecdotes from his session at Evolve Drupal, spills the beans on his fascinating Drupal journey, and explores the distinctive community spirit that propels Drupal forward. Interviewed by Kazima Abbas. URL: https://bit.ly/3RxCSdp

We'll be at DrupalGovCon this week! If you're attending, don't miss these great talks:

- Nov. 1st, 10:15 am: Supercharging Drupal Migrations with ChatGPT: Unleashing Efficiency and Enhancing Development

- Nov. 1st, 11:15 am: Case Study: Creating Accessible Content for Lullabot's Iowa.gov Digital Transformation Project

- Nov. 1st, 1:15 pm: Designing Content Authoring Experiences

- Nov. 1st, 2:15 pm: Do you still need Sass in 2023?

We are hiring!

We're seeking a full-time mid to senior-level UI Designer to join our design team.

Read the full description and apply here: https://zurl.co/2Zav

How do you consolidate 80+ websites when every agency wants its own identity and content editors don't want to give up any control?

A flexible design system is key. Find out how we built one for the State of Iowa.

Register here: https://zurl.co/AVMU

New upcoming webinar!

The state of Iowa had a scattered web presence consisting of over 70 agency websites running on various versions of Drupal and other CMS platforms.

It was time to consolidate all of these websites into a single platform, but how do you design a platform flexible enough to meet varied needs while maintaining consistent design and quality standards?

In this webinar, you will learn:

- How to give editors control and flexibility while maintaining brand consistency.

- How to get buy-in from agencies for moving to a unified platform.

- How to expand your platform without overwhelming users with options.

These lessons not only apply to state governments but also to any organization with subsidiaries with different needs and stakeholders.

https://zurl.co/I9jI

Drupal as a SaaS: Flexible Websites for Hundreds of Bookstores

The American Booksellers Association (ABA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the success of independent bookstores. To support this mission, they created IndieCommerce, a suite of tools that allow bookstores to create unique, content-rich, and easy-to-operate e-commerce-enabled websites.

Lullabot helped ABA build and launch the 2.0 version of IndieCommerce, a full-featured alternative to platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce, powered by Drupal 9. In this webinar, you’ll learn about:

- Providing websites with structure and flexibility so bookstore owners, both experienced and inexperienced, can get to the first sale faster
- Reducing support requests and maintenance headaches with better UX and DevOps
- Lessons to apply to your own large-scale, long-term Drupal projects

https://zurl.co/7Xyx

You're invited to kick off 2023 with your friends at Lullabot! Join us Monday, June 5th for food, drinks, and fun at Coop De Ville, 7:00 - 10:00 PM.

We look forward to seeing you there!

We're honored to be named one of Inc's Best Workplaces 2023! Out of thousands of submissions, we made the cut which ended up being 591 companies. Our culture is just as important as the work we do, and we're very proud to be recognized in this way.

It's a wrap! Our team had a great time at . Greg, Megh, Marissa, Frances, Erin, and Matt caught up with friends, networked, and learned a lot from their peers, including Erin, who spoke to a packed room. Way to go, Erin!

Cheers to 10 years at Lullabot, Greg! 🙌 Our strategy department wouldn't be the success it is today without you. We're so lucky to have you on the team!

Fun fact: Greg is 780th in the World Pinball Player Rankings.

In 2021, we became an employee-owned company. Check out the latest episode of Talking Drupal to hear Seth Brown talk about why Lullabot decided to make all employees company shareholders and what that actually means.

https://bit.ly/3LjLW2I

Talking Drupal #390 - Employee Owned Companies Today we are talking about Employee Owned Companies with Seth Brown.

What are Single Directory Components, and why do we want them in Drupal core?

Looking at other stacks in our industry, we observed that many try to bring all the related code as close as possible. Many of them also work with the concept of components. The essence of components is to make UI elements self-contained and reusable, and while to some extent we can do that in Drupal, we think we can create a better solution.

And we want to bring that solution to Drupal core. Recently, we submitted a merge request proposing such a solution as an experimental module. This article goes over why we think Drupal core needs Single Directory Components.

The goals:

- Reduce the steps required to output HTML, CSS, and JS in a Drupal page.
- Define explicit component APIs, and provide a way to replace a component that a module or a theme provides.

Read the full article and see what you can do to help.

https://bit.ly/3YCusSj

Happy 14th Workversary, Karen! To say that Lullabot is lucky to have you as part of our leadership team is an understatement. Thank you for all that you do and for the many hats you wear!

When Bots come together, it's sure to be a good time! Some of our team recently took a trip to Florida for Florida Drupal Camp, spending time together and learning from others in the Drupal community.