How's the Web Design Going?
OK, so, I feel the need to talk a bit about how the web design is going.
So, when I started, I was genuinely and completely out of my depth. Looking back, I can see how completely not suited to working on it, considering how primitive and basic my skills were.
I still think I'm genuinely and completely out of my depth. But I've reached a stage of proficiency where I'm starting to feel that, one day, I might not be. That came when, one of my Drupal websites, the most recent, actually has started to look a bit like a website from the same user group (in this case: Army of Angels, which my brain really likes). It has not just some of the look and feel of that website, but extra things there too, including the ability to respond to different media.
I still have bugs. To get some of the layout, I've been using a module called Panels. I do not understand it (or rather, I understand how it works, but I don't understand how to write responsive mobile-ready webpages with it, it's still too static). But the Views module is now totally my bitch. I discovered a lovely thing called Views Responsive Grids. Using that, I could redesign a whole section of site to automatically respond to whether it was a desktop, tablet or desktop. I'm starting to get flexible layouts using div tags rather than tables and I'm not feeling constantly like an idiot who doesn't know any better. If I could just solve a particular bug with table-cell display options in div tags, I'd also be able to create those kind of home-page layouts that have news and the like on them.
I also created my first slideshow, with the awesome Views Slideshow module and the jQuery Cycle plugin. That has worked amazingly well, and it's amazing. It's so simple to use. Amazingly powerful too. A View is simply a complicated way of displaying more than one of anything on a webpage. So, if I want something in a slideshow, I have to create the View to tell it what more than one thing I want and it just makes everything happen automagically.
Just to add icing to the cake, I also discovered a module that lets me play with the way single views of stuff (or the Views of several bits of stuff) get displayed, in a way that means I don't have to go into coding unless I want to (and only if I really need to make the layout exactly as I visualise it). It's called Display Suite. It's pretty magic and does a lot of the regular stuff I need, like creating new display types.
Everything, however, takes so long. I started the website I'm currently working on in July and, while not all of the delay has been down to me, it's still taken me a long time and a lot of learning. But, the good news is that I possess a lot of that learning now. The next one will be easier, and the next after that. I'm also developing those kinds of instincts that are helping me figure out a way to tackle things and realise that this way might be better over that way.
I also may be stuck now, but I'll figure out a way around the problems I have now, like I'll figure out a way around the problems I already did. Whether this process is quick enough for me to make a living out of, I don't know. It's really stressful going through the learning process while trying to appear to be clever and in control enough to attract and retain clients. Still, give me a year and I'll actually be able to walk into jobs and not feel like an idiot.
So, when I started, I was genuinely and completely out of my depth. Looking back, I can see how completely not suited to working on it, considering how primitive and basic my skills were.
I still think I'm genuinely and completely out of my depth. But I've reached a stage of proficiency where I'm starting to feel that, one day, I might not be. That came when, one of my Drupal websites, the most recent, actually has started to look a bit like a website from the same user group (in this case: Army of Angels, which my brain really likes). It has not just some of the look and feel of that website, but extra things there too, including the ability to respond to different media.
I still have bugs. To get some of the layout, I've been using a module called Panels. I do not understand it (or rather, I understand how it works, but I don't understand how to write responsive mobile-ready webpages with it, it's still too static). But the Views module is now totally my bitch. I discovered a lovely thing called Views Responsive Grids. Using that, I could redesign a whole section of site to automatically respond to whether it was a desktop, tablet or desktop. I'm starting to get flexible layouts using div tags rather than tables and I'm not feeling constantly like an idiot who doesn't know any better. If I could just solve a particular bug with table-cell display options in div tags, I'd also be able to create those kind of home-page layouts that have news and the like on them.
I also created my first slideshow, with the awesome Views Slideshow module and the jQuery Cycle plugin. That has worked amazingly well, and it's amazing. It's so simple to use. Amazingly powerful too. A View is simply a complicated way of displaying more than one of anything on a webpage. So, if I want something in a slideshow, I have to create the View to tell it what more than one thing I want and it just makes everything happen automagically.
Just to add icing to the cake, I also discovered a module that lets me play with the way single views of stuff (or the Views of several bits of stuff) get displayed, in a way that means I don't have to go into coding unless I want to (and only if I really need to make the layout exactly as I visualise it). It's called Display Suite. It's pretty magic and does a lot of the regular stuff I need, like creating new display types.
Everything, however, takes so long. I started the website I'm currently working on in July and, while not all of the delay has been down to me, it's still taken me a long time and a lot of learning. But, the good news is that I possess a lot of that learning now. The next one will be easier, and the next after that. I'm also developing those kinds of instincts that are helping me figure out a way to tackle things and realise that this way might be better over that way.
I also may be stuck now, but I'll figure out a way around the problems I have now, like I'll figure out a way around the problems I already did. Whether this process is quick enough for me to make a living out of, I don't know. It's really stressful going through the learning process while trying to appear to be clever and in control enough to attract and retain clients. Still, give me a year and I'll actually be able to walk into jobs and not feel like an idiot.