How do you take advantage of AI and get the most of Drupal's content management system? Are there any Drupal 8 AI modules and tools that you could incorporate into your website and... get the most of both worlds?
The best of Drupal as a reliable content repository and of a:
chatbot
virtual assistant or another type of conversational interface
Or maybe you want to implement AI to boost the various content workflows happening on your website:
content that needs to be served to various markets (and thus translated into... various languages)
user-generated content that needs to follow a certain editorial guideline (e.g. "adding alternative text to images")
content experiences that need to be tailored to each user's activity on your site
Nothing easier.
There are at least 7 different modules in Drupal to help you inject AI capabilities into your website:
1. What Are the Biggest Advantages of Artificial Intelligence in Drupal?
How does building AI integrations on top of your Drupal website translate into benefits? Strong, clear benefits...
Well, it all bubbles up to the user experience and to your team's efficiency:
you create and deliver more personalized experiences for your website visitors
you streamline and automate your team's content and marketing workflows
you get to boost your targeted marketing efforts
you provide more engaging user experience, as well, incorporating smarter features into your Drupal site
2. Build a Drupal Chatbot Fast with 2 Drupal 8 AI Modules
Thinking about delivering a more user-centric experience on your website? Then you must be wondering how you can implement an AI-powered conversational interface in Drupal, right?
You'd then be using Drupal for front UI, content management, user admin...
Source: Drupal Camp Pune
It's simple:
There are 2 dedicated AI modules in Drupal that help you create a chatbot in no time:
2.1. Chatbot API
Let take this scenario:
You want your "Drupal headless" setup to share content across an entire ecosystem of services: Facebook bot, Dialogueflow, Amazon Echo... Yet, you dread the idea of writing custom code for every single chatbot/personal assistant in this ecosystem.
How do you streamline your content serving efforts? How can you write your code once and... have your content shared with all your target chatbots and?
You install Chatbot API.
It will intermediate the integration of all those services into your Drupal website. And it will ensure that data gets served across the whole network of chatbots.
2.2. Drupal Chatbot
Another useful module to use if you consider creating a chatbot on Drupal data.
Here's how it works:
It enables you to set up a voice and text-based bot to interact with your website visitors. One that acts as a layer between Drupal and the NLP agent.
You get to choose the block where you want it enabled and to add various functionalities, as well: Latest Article Search, Latest Pages, Top Rated Pages...
3. Implement a Virtual Assistant with Decoupled Drupal Commerce
What if you want to take the eCommerce experience on your online store to a new level? To turn it into a... conversational eCommerce experience?
How? By integrating a Drupal virtual assistant into your website.
Nothing easier:
You connect a bot to decoupled Drupal Commerce.
Bot Frameworks + Decoupled Drupal Commerce APIs + NLU = A Conversational Interface for your eCommerce website.
Since Drupal:
puts a whole collection of APIs at your free disposal (being API-first)
provides you with the Commerce Cart API module to leverage
... storing content (and product details) and interacting with shopping carts in Drupal Commerce becomes particularly easy.
And here's how your Drupal Commerce-powered bot would work:
it will trigger "review cart" and "add to cart functionality" via message-based interactions
it will unblock search and "explore the products" functionality by connecting itself to the Drupal Commerce APIs
4. Create Personalized Experiences with Drupal Machine Learning
Personalization is the norm these days.
To serve content tailored to your customers' past activity (what they shared, what content they searched for...) and their profiles.
And for doing it right, you need to incorporate machine learning techniques into your Drupal website.
"Is it possible to do that?"
Of course. And here are just 2 Drupal 8 AI modules that you can tap into for personalizing the web content experience that you provide your site visitors with:
4.1. Acquia Lift Connector
Take it as a convenient 2-in-1 tool at hand: customer data & content.
This way, you get to streamline your content personalization efforts. To scale and share user-tailored experiences across an entire infrastructure of channels and devices.
It'll "equip" your marketing campaign with all the powerful features you need: behavioral targeting, real-time audience segmentation, A/B testing...
In a nutshell, what this module does is connect your Drupal site with the Acquia Lift personalization tool...
4.2. Azure Cognitive Services API
The go-to module if you consider "injecting" intelligent features — speech, facial and vision recognition, speech and language understanding — into your Drupal website or app.
Your development team can just tap into the machine learning APIs exposed and... turn them into machine learning functionalities to be incorporated into your Drupal application.
Source: Drupal.org
It's a package of 4 different AI modules, in fact:
Face API Module
Emotion Recognition API Module
Computer Vision API Module
Azure Text Analytics API Module
The last one, for instance, triggers advanced natural language processing on raw text.
This translates into 3 key features: key phrase extraction, sentiment analysis, and language detection.
5. Streamline Your Workflows with 2 Drupal Intelligent Content Tools
One of the biggest advantages of artificial intelligence is that of streamlining (and automating) your in-house workflows.
Your content and marketing ones...
So, how do you inject "efficiency" into your Drupal content and marketing teams' various workflows? You integrate these 2 Drupal 8 AI modules into their work.
5.1. Automatic Alternative Text
What if you could implement AI capabilities into the process where users upload their own content?
Just ponder on this scenario for a while:
You can include "Add alternative text images" into your set of editorial guidelines, but you can't expect users to follow them, as well, when they upload content, right?
And that's what you have the Automatic Alternative Text module for.
Source: Drupal.org
It describes the image that the user uploads. In one sentence.
It generates more than one description for the same image, actually...
Furthermore, it ships with features like:
detecting mature content
identifying faces in a given image
determining the prevailing colors
5.2. Cloudwords for Multilingual Drupal
Another one of those Drupal intelligent content tools that you should turbocharge your team's workflow with.
Just put yourself into one of your marketers' shoes:
He/she has to deliver content (lots of it) to an entire ecosystem of markets, in various languages.
And delivering localized, consistent content experiences at a global scale does take plenty of resources...
What this module does is automate the entire content delivery and management process:
Just select the piece(s) of content that you'll need to localize and let Cloudwords serve it at high speed, to all your target markets.
The END!
And these are but 7 of the Drupal 8 AI modules at your disposal for injecting artificial intelligence capabilities into your website/app.
Have you implemented any AI integrations in Drupal 8 so far? Any chatbots or maybe AI-powered tools for personalizing the content experience on your website?
What other types of AI modules would you like to find in Drupal?
Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash
Adriana Cacoveanu / Jan 24'2020
You save time, you keep errors to a minimum, you free up mental real estate that you could then invest in other crucial tasks included in your app's development lifecycle, you... There's no point insisting on the benefits: automating your testing process is a life-changer. But how do you know what automation testing tools for web applications to evaluate first?
Where to start? Which are the most effective ones?
Those that are conveniently feature-rich and easy to use, as well? That ship as bundles of powerful features and are so straightforward, helping you create test cases in no time?
Well, we've done our research and identified 5 automated software testing tools that meet most of your criteria:
to be open source
to run in a variety of operating systems and browsers
to be feature-rich
to be easy to use
But First: Determine What Test Cases You Should Automate
To put together an effective test automation strategy for web applications you need to be really strategic.
Strategic about what parts of the process you should put on auto-pilot and where it would be best to test them, as well:
don't rush in to test everything in the GUI (like record and reply, for instance); GUI testing tools do come with some significant test maintenance costs, you know
whenever possible, opt for unit testing instead of GUI testing
load testing, repetitive tasks, tasks that run on multiple platforms and configurations, tests that need to be “fueled' with multiple data sets... these are just some of the cases that you should automate
1. Selenium, One of the Top Automation Testing Tools for Web Applications
Selenium is the... “Swiss knife” type of automated web testing tool. It comes as a heavy package of libraries and tools.
Moreover, you get to run it in pretty much any:
operating system
browser
automation testing framework
programming language
In short: it's one of the most versatile automated software testing tools that you can get your hands on. The “de facto” standard in terms of open-source test automation tools, with a large community that you can rely on.
Source: G2.com
And with versatility comes power, since Selenium empowers you to come up with particularly complex browser-centered test scripts.
You get to use them for:
regression testing
exploratory testing
quick reproduction of bugs
Cons of Using Selenium
For there are also some drawbacks to using this automation testing tool on your web apps to keep in mind:
a certain maintenance overhead (maintaining your tests in Selenium is more expensive compared to unit testing, for instance)
building libraries and frameworks to meet specific testing needs does call for above-the-average programming skills (time and effort, as well)
2. Watir
A powerful tool for automating tests. A Ruby library in fact, that mimics the behavior of a user interacting with your web app.
Why would you choose Watir over other free automation testing tools for web applications?
Because:
it enables you to create tests that are easy to read and to maintain
you can run it on your web app, irrespective of the languages that it is written on
it supports data-driven testing
from buttons to links, to forms and their responses, it's built to test all the elements of your web application
you can leverage its powerful API handling to extend its capabilities
you get to connect it to databases, turn your code into reusable libraries, read data files, export XML
you get to combine manual browsing with Ruby commands
it supports cross-browser testing
it integrates with business-driven development tools: Cucumber, RSpec, Test/Unit
To sum up: Watir taps into the advantages of Ruby — reputed for its clear syntax — which makes it such a flexible testing tool to add to your... toolkit.
Source: G2.com
Cons of Using Watir
a relatively small community supporting it (when you compare it to Selenium)
you need to pair it with other tools to use it to its full potential
3. TestComplete
If a powerful, feature-rich automated web testing system is what you need, then TestComplete checks off all the “must-haves” on your list:
From cross-browser to regression, to parallel testing, it provides you with all the capabilities that you expect from a robust automation system.
1500 +real test environments... That's the type of scalability that you get if you opt for this automated software testing.
It's one of those automation testing tools for web applications that you get to use on your mobile and desktop apps, as well. For pretty much any type of automation task that you can think of...
Source: G2.com
Cons of Using TestComplete
Some users have reported errors with object recognition during playback. So, you might want to keep that in mind.
4. Katalon Studio
Easy to use and robust.
Source: G2.com
What more could you ask from an automated UI testing tool than:
to be conveniently accessible to any type of tester, those with no programming background here included
to ship with a whole set of powerful features
And speaking of those, here are just some of the capabilities that you can turbocharge your testing process with:
customizable execution workflow
support for image-based testing
smooth integration with a variety of tools (e.g. TeamCity and Jenkins)
built-in support for generating test scripts, creating test cases, reporting results, recording actions
built-in object repository, object re-identification, Xpath
built-in support for Groovy/Java scripting languages
visual representation of each step in the test (it's one of the most beginner tester-friendly tools out there)
Moreover, Katalon Studio is one of those automation testing tools for web applications that you can use for API and mobile testing as well.
5. Cucumber
Here's another open-source automated software testing tool to consider putting on your shortlist.
A collaborative tool based on behavior-driven development that you can use to:
write acceptance tests for your web apps
perform those tests by running the most representative examples for your app
Now, one of the biggest strengths of this tool is the up-to-date document that it'll provide you with. One incorporating both the test documentation and the specification.
Source: G2.com
Anyone in your team (non-testers) can go through it since it's written in a highly accessible format (plain English).
Now, if we were to sum up its “power” features:
it enables you to reuse code in your tests
it supports lots of different languages Groovy, Python, Perl, PHP, .NET, Scala
it grants you great support, since it's a highly popular automated app testing tool, with a large community
it enables you to use code along with Watir, Selenium, Capybara
it's a cross-platform tool
quick set up
it enables you to generate detailed reports
it integrates with GIT and Jenkins
Cons of Using Cucumber
you might find the default organization a bit... overwhelming
you depend on external plugins for generating reports, so do expect some integration challenges
The END!
These are the top 5 automation testing tools for web applications that you should check first when getting your 2020 toolbox ready.
Have you used any of them? If so, what's been your experience with it/them?
And what other automated web testing tools would you have added to this selection? Let us know in the comments down below:
Image by testbytes from Pixabay
Silviu Serdaru / Jan 21'2020
So you're evaluating and comparing all the available solutions for centralizing and standardizing your APIs. And you can't help wondering: "When is it recommended that I use Apigee Edge Microgateway?"
Why would you use it in the first place, over other platforms for managing internal APIs? Over... the Apigee Edge gateway, for instance?
What "irresistible" capabilities does it provide?
And when precisely should you use it? What are its typical use cases?
Let's get you some answers:
1. What Is Apigee Edge Microgateway? How Does It Work?
If I was to compress its definition in a short line, it would go something like this:
Apigee Edge Microgateway is a hybrid cloud solution for managing your APIs.
Whereas if I was to opt for a detailed one:
It's an HTTP-based message processor for APIs, built on Nodejs, that enables you to centralize and manage all your APIs in a hybrid cloud deployment setup.
From traffic management to enterprise-grade security, to analytics, spike arrest, and quota (and the list goes on), it provides you with most of the standard Apigee Edge capabilities.
Moreover, you get to install it either on the same machine or in the same data center.
Source: docs.apigee.com
"And how exactly does it work?" you'll then ask yourself.
It processes the messages — requests, and responses — going to and from your backend services. Meaning that it'll asynchronously push API execution data to Apigee Edge once consumed by the Edge Analytics.
"What about the Edge Microgateway deployment scenarios? What are my options?"
Well, there are quite a few, since you get to deploy it:
in PaaS platforms (e.g. Cloud Foundry)
Azure App Services
as a service instead of sidecar
integrated with Kubernetes
as a Docker container
in cloud-native PaaS platforms (e.g Google App Engine)
in virtual machines as standalone processes
2. Why Precisely This API Management Solution? 5 Big Benefits
Why would you go with Apigee Edge Microgateway over another setup for centralizing and administering your APIs?
Here are some of the strongest API management capabilities that it provides you with:
enterprise-grade security: it authenticates requests based on an API key or signed access token that each client app gets via Apigee Edge
analytics: it publishes all the data analytics to Apigee Edge so that everyone gets traffic stats in real-time
configuration: no special coding is needed to set up Apigee Edge Microgtateway
rapid deployment: you get to deploy an instance in no time
reduced latency: it collects and sends API data to Apigee Edge asynchronously, therefore with minimal delay
3. When Would You Use It? What Are Its Typical Use Cases?
When is it best to go with a hybrid deployment model for managing your APIs?
Source: LinkedIn
Here are some of the most common use cases of Apigee Edge Microgateway:
for an application running on a microservices architecture
to keep API traffic within specific limits set for compliance and security reasons
to provide Apigee API management for services running in Kubernetes
for behavioral testing (of the scaling, of the infrastructure...)
for disaster recovery
to speed up API traffic for services running in close proximity
when legal and geographical boundaries are involved; for instance, when some of your global products need to run in regional data centers due to issues regarding personal data
to keep processing messages even when there's no internet connection
for cost management and market segregation
4. And What's the Difference Between Apigee Edge and Microgateway?
Apigee Edge vs Microgateway... why should you consider the later?
How are they different more exactly?
Especially since it gets even more confusing when considering that you even get Apigee Edge Microgateway plugins, which are so similar to Apigee Edge's policies...
What capabilities, that you can benefit from using Apigee Edge, does Microgateway lack, for instance?
Now, in terms of differences, here's a general "rule of thumb":
Apigee Edge Microgateway does not come to replace the Edge gateway.
It has its own specific "lighter" use cases, like various mediations, key verification, quota that you can do with your backend services in close proximity, all while tapping into its robust above-mentioned capabilities.
The END!
Are you using Apigee Edge Microgateway? If so, what's your specific use case?
And why have you decided to go with Microgateway instead of Edge Gateway?
Image by Lynn Neo from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Jan 17'2020
Powerful, full-featured media handling in Drupal. This has been your, our, and all the content authors and Drupal site builders' wish for a decade now. And it has just become reality: Drupal 8 Media Library is now a stable core module shipping with... WYSIWYG embedding support.
You just click that shiny and new button added to your CKEditor and add your media. As simple as that!
And there's more:
You can embed media assets in your content in a... finger snap. No mouse needed.
A bit overwhelmed?
Now, let's see how we got this far. How was the life of an editor before Media in Drupal 8 core and how it came to improve?
And, of course, how these 2 major media improvements in Drupal 8.8 impact your content creation experience.
1. Drupal 8 Media Library: Why Was It Necessary in the First Place?
Since we already had the Drupal 8 Media module in core, right?
Yes, but it lacked an UI...
So, any time an editor needed to add/reuse media file to a... blog post, let's say, he/she had to type in that file's name in the entity referenced field, triggering its auto-complete functionality. He could not visualize those media items before selecting them. There were just plain-boring forms, a table for all the media files and administrative views...
Therefore, the team behind the Media Module in Drupal 8 created Media Library, which was meant to provide precisely that visual experience that was missing.
In short: Drupal 8 Media Library was meant to add a nice UI to Media.
Editors could browse though all their media assets, then quickly select and upload, right from their media libraries, the ones they wanted to reuse across their websites.
It would open up a visual grid display of all their media items, with built-in filters to narrow down their options.
The result? A far better editorial experience.
2. Media Management in Drupal 8: From None to... a Full-Featured System
How did we get this far? From almost no media support to a modern ecosystem of powerful media handling features?
It all started in 2007, when Dries first outlined the need for “Drupal’s core features for file management and media handling... generic media management module with pluggable media types” in his “State of Drupal” talk.
Since then, decent media handling support in Drupal has been one of the most requested features:
Source: Drupal.org
Now, putting the whole “Media in Core Drupal 8” process on high-speed we get to:
the release of Drupal 8.4, when the Media module was first added to core
Drupal 8.5 with Media working right out of the box
Drupal 8.6, when the Drupal 8 Media Library module “stepped into the spotlight” as an experimental module
Drupal 8.7 with significant improvements to the Media Library visual interface (e.g. bulk uploads)
Drupal 8.8 with WYSIWYG embedding support
Now, can you imagine the life of a Drupal site builder/content author, back in those days? The “before Media” days?
Whenever he needed to reuse an image media, previously uploaded on the website, but on a different page, he had to... re-upload it.
There was no way of reusing and embedding it into the text, quick and easy. And no way of using remote media, either (Instagram, Youtube...)
Now, back to the present, when we (finally) have Media and Media Library in Drupal Core:
You get to add different types of media items — audio files, remote video, images, documents — store them in your library and reuse them in your content whenever you need.
Furthermore, you get to bulk upload media files, filter them by specific criteria, display them in a table or a grid view, you name it.
Managing and reusing your media resources in Drupal has never been easier.
3. Media Library in Drupal 8.8: The New “Add Media” Button
Drupal 8.8 came to “seal” a whole decade of efforts put into building and implementing a robust media handling system in Drupal.
And the last improvements that it brings to the entire core media in Drupal 8 ecosystem are just... mind-blowing:
Media Library is officially a stable module in core
it comes with an “Add Media” button added to the CKEditor panel
keyboard accessibility: entity embed is possible without using a mouse
Source: The Drop is Always Moving
And there you have it! The last “roadblock” on Drupal 8 Media Library's roadmap to the status of a stable core module has been overcome:
You have WYSIWYG integration in Drupal 8.
Meaning that now you can embed media in your content types by simply clicking on a button, right in your editor. And all that with a... finger snap. No mouse needed.
Source: Drupal.org
In other words, Drupal 8 Media Library means, since Drupal 8.8's got released:
A quicker, simpler way for everyone to add media from the media library directly to the text editor.
The END!
We're a bit curious:
With powerful media handling now in Drupal core, what's the next “nice to have” improvement on your wishlist?
What other critical feature, that Drupal currently lacks, would significantly improve your developer/site builder/admin/editor experience?
Image by Pettycon from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Jan 15'2020
Are There Any Strong Reasons Not to Use Nuxt.js? 7 Issues that Might Discourage You from Choosing It
It helps you boost your SPAs' SEO, it enables you to generate your apps both on the server-side and statically, it "spoils" you with an opinionated structure and setup... so you cannot help wondering: "Are there any reasons at all not to use Nuxt.js?"
Considering its heavy load of too tempting capabilities (and I've briefly outlined just some of them), you ask yourself:
"Why would I not (always) choose it over regular Vue.js for building my PWAs?"
"Why would I ever bother with a... "Next.js or Nuxt.js" dilemma, for instance?"
In short: what are Nuxt.js's limitations (if any), those that could make you at least doubt for a minute or two before choosing it for your future SSR projects?
Well, we've run our investigation and managed to identify its 7 key weaknesses (for there are, indeed, a few).
Weaknesses that we're about to share with you, so you can give yourself a well-founded answer to your question:
"Why should I use Nuxt.js over Vue CLI for building an SPA?"
1. But What Is Nuxt.js More Exactly? How Does It Work?
Before we go ahead and expose its weaknesses, it would be only fair to define this framework properly, right?
A concise, yet accurate definition would be:
It's a high-level framework that helps you build SPA and universal Vue.js apps more easily.
While a more detailed one would be:
It's a minimalistic Vue-based framework that simplifies the whole process of creating server-side rendered apps. It'll handle all the UI rendering of your app project, abstracting away the client code distribution and complex details of the server.
From routing to asynchronous data, to middleware, it'll handle all the complex pre-coding configuration, so you can focus solely and entirely on... developing a great Vue.js web app.
2. How Can Your Project Benefit from Using Nuxt.js? 5 Strong Benefits
Let's highlight some of the most "irresistible" capabilities of Nuxt.js, those that might have already made you stop and wonder:
"What possibly could determine me not to use Nuxt.js... in all of my future SSR projects?"
it's great for SEO: it solves all the SEO issues that single-page apps are reputed for (client-rendered content, mobile web performance, URL and routing, etc.)
it generates static websites via the "generate" command; moreover, it ships with powerful features, similar to other famous static site generators like... Jekyll, for instance
it provides an opinionated structure and setup
automatic code-splitting
it streamlines the building of server-side rendered Vue apps
it helps you get the most of your universal web app without a server
easy setup using the command-line with the starter template
3. Why Would You... Not Use Nuxt.js? 7 Drawbacks
The very question that sparked the idea of this blog post in the first place.
You'll hardly find any cons to using Nux. For this, you need to dig a bit deeper and look beyond the huge pile of online content on the common topics:
Nuxt vs Next
Nuxt vs Vue
Nuxt Universal vs SPA
N Reasons to Use Nuxt.js
and so on...
So, let's dig out some... disadvantages that you might want to consider before you just jump on the Nuxt bandwagon:
3.1. Common Plugins that Don't Exist or Which Aren't that Solid
There are Vue plugins designed to work on the client-side only (the server just wasn't added to the "big picture" when they were being developed).
So, do keep that in mind.
Also, you might discover that there are common plugins and components (e.g. Vector maps, Calendar, Google maps) that, well, don't exist.
When they do exist, they might not be as solid as you expected, since they're not properly maintained.
3.2. Getting Custom Libraries to Work with Nuxt with Can Be Challenging
Add this issue to your list of "the biggest disadvantages to using Nuxt.js", especially if the timeline for building your Vue.js app is a tight one.
Addressing it might take you more time than planned.
3.3. High Traffic Can Be Particularly Heavy on Your Server
This inevitable server strain in the case of a large, high-traffic application is another reason not to use Nuxt.js.
At least if this inconvenience weights heavier on your evaluation list than the pile of benefits does.
3.4. Debugging It Can Get Painful
"When things break, trying to dig down into what the hell broke can be a serious pain." (source: Reddit.com)
This is one of the most frequently reported issues with using Nuxt.js.
An issue that becomes exponentially frustrating as your Vue app project gets more and more complex:
When trouble strikes you only get a conventional error message. No clue, whatsoever, about where you should start your "investigations" in order to track down the "culprit".
3.5. There's a Relatively Small Comunity Behind It
And that can only translate as:
the product documentation is not that extensive
fewer resources for you to dig into at need
3.6. Fetching Data on the Server Takes Place At the Page-Level Only...
This means that you need to load data into a Vuex store or pass it all down via props.
A source of... frustration that you should be aware of before you decide whether to use or not to use Nuxt.js.
3.7. You Need to Get "Tangled Up" in More Complex Plugins or Components
If you need to build a particularly flexible Vue app — say you need to render the contents of a slot in another component — you'll have to render various JSX/functions.
The END!
These are the 7 main reasons to (at least) doubt whether Nuxt.js is an invariably good option for your SSR Vue project.
Have you identified other drawbacks, limitations or simply small, but annoying inconveniences to using Nuxt.js?
If so, feel free to share them in the comments down below, so we add them to the list!
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Adrian Ababei / Dec 18'2019
The line between useful and... useless (or pushy or simply annoying) is thinner than you think. That's why creating a mind map that aligns your site's content structure with the user intent is... critical.
"Whether you’re a product owner or designer, you don’t want your website to be a maze with nothing but frustrating blind alleys.” (source: altexsoft.com)
And there's no guessing work or discouragingly complex process in identifying the current user flow on each web page on your website:
Just take a look at the behavior flow report in your Google Analytics. No rocket science here...
Take it from there and:
identify the roadblocks
restructure content on each page so that it matches user intent and is fluid and easy to read
But let us give you a hand with that. With mind mapping your current customer journey and planning its improved version:
In this respect, in today's post we'll:
give you the “anatomy” of a user-friendly website: what elements make a website, well, user-friendly?
define mind mapping with respect to designing the user experience on a website
teach you how to create a mind map: an easy step-by-step guide
show you how to use a mind map to make UX improvements on your website
1. The Anatomy of a User-Friendly Website: 4 Essential Features
“A vague objective leads to poor results.”
There's no point in creating a mind map that would hopefully make your website more user-friendly if... you're not quite sure what key elements make a website user-friendly.
So, here's the list of must-haves for any website aspiring to deliver a great user experience:
1.1. High Speed
It's no news to anyone: the page loading time has a huge impact on the user experience.
Unnecessary interactive elements, that don't match users' needs and don't play any role in the conversion process either, will only get you a clunky and... well... slow website.
1.2. Useful Features
And “intuitive” I must add.
Again, we go back to the “elements justified by the user's needs” principle:
Is that slider useful and relevant for the user behavior on your website? It it too bulky, loaded with endless options that just ... discourage the visitor?
You might want to re-evaluate all the features on your website: are they relevant and intuitive enough?
1.3. A Well-Structured Information Architecture
Information that's:
easy to access
easy to interpret
… is key for a wannabe user-friendly website.
1.4. Content that Matches User Intent
If users are looking for online cooking classes, let's say — and that's precisely what you promise to deliver them — and you're only trying to sell them kitchen gadgets on your website, the only result that you'll get is them bouncing off in seconds.
2. What Is Mind Mapping with Respect to Designing the User Experience?
An overly simplified definition would be:
A way to brainstorm and present the generated information in a visual way.
Now, since I've promised you a definition “with respect to” creating the user experience, here's a more... context-specific definition:
Mind mapping is a vesatile technique where you put together a visual hierarchy of your site's present or future content. It lists out the key pages on your website (homepage, service pages, blog page, etc.), the various relations between different web pages, the links and CTAs on each page...
Source: altexosft.com
In short: mind mapping reveals how data is structured on your website.
Of course, you'll then consider creating a mind map of the target version of your current website. The more user-friendly one...
3. Main Benefits of Using Mind Mapping: From Great Ideas to... Actionable Steps
Finding new ideas is exciting.
But jumping on every new great idea that someone in your team has, without first checking whether it aligns with the user intent, is just like... making shapes out of soap foam.
Not only that they're not future-proofed, but that clutter of ideas might not work together either.
By using one of the best mapping tools available online for structuring those ideas as they... pop out, you turn them into actionable steps in your strategy for improving the UX on your website.
And the clear benefits to mind mapping are:
you define your ideas' roles: what role do they play in your UX strategy (if you can't assign them a role, they're just “Wow” ideas with no solid justification)
you assess their value: how does implementing this new idea bubble up to the user experience?
you identify the various relations between them: you might want to avoid “island-ideas”, with no connections to other ideas listed out in your mind map
4. Creating a Mind Map: 5 Simple Steps
Now that you know what a mind map is and why on earth you'd bother making one, let's see how you can actually put one together:
4.1. Create a Mind-Map Template
Just so you can have a basic idea of the current information architecture on your website.
List out how data's being structured on your website now and how you plan to structure it for its more user-friendly future version...
4.2. Map Out Your Ideal User Flow
How would you like your website visitors to engage with your content? What actions would you like them to perform?
Source: mindmeister.com
Once you've outlined the key pages on your website (homepage, services, features), start planning out the user flow.
4.3. Compare it to the Current Behavior Flow Available on Your Google Analytics
Before you can properly map out the user flow, you need to know what's the standard customer journey on your website now.
For that, just delve into your Google Analytics data and look for the user behavior report. It'll show you all you need to know about:
how users are engaging with your website's content
what paths they usually take when navigating through your current information architecture
4.4. Identify the Roadblocks
The user behavior data might reveal to you some unwanted realities regarding the user experience on your website:
poorly structured content
a bulky and tiresome collection of interactive elements
irrelevant features (embedded videos, interactive elements, social sharing functionalities)
too many tools that don't respond to users' needs
4.5. Make the Appropriate UX Decisions to Influence the User Behavior
Now that you've identified the main roadblocks in delivering the best user experience, it's time to... remove them, one by one:
turn chaos into a logical content hierarchy
trim irrelevant page elements, with zero value in the conversion process
adapt web pages' content structure to the needs of specific audience segments (make sure to include relevant information for those customer personas, redesign your CTAs if needed...)
5. How to Use a Mind Map to Make Powerful UX Improvements
Creating a mind map is but the first step:
Turning it into powerful UX decisions should be your main objective.
So, the answer to the question “Are mind maps effective/useful?” is:
They are if and only if you make them useful and... usable.
You can turn your mind map into:
an effective sitemap
a customer journey map
But let us take a real-life scenario and point out specific UX decisions that you could make with your mind map at hand.
It's an example that I've run into reading Mindmaster team's great blog post: A Simple Way to Design UX, UI and CX Using Mind Maps:
Say you're targeting 3 different customer personas on your website. You then need to plan 3 different user flows.
You start by grouping the web pages on your site into 3 categories, each of them corresponding to one audience segment.
Then, you start doing some user behavior mapping: how do you want each customer persona to navigate to the corresponding web page so that he/she clicks the CTA placed there?
Now, it's time to make some critical UX decisions:
what relations to set up between various pages on your website? You might have a user on a service page and you need him/her to visit your “get a quote” page, as well
what's the best CTA design for each one of your 3 types of pages?
what key information should you include on a page, depending on the customer persona accessing it?
See? Not only that creating a mind map helps you put together an effective information architecture, but it's also a great technique for generating content ideas that match the user intent.
6. Final Word
In the end, it all comes down to goal setting.
Creating a mind map is a great way to:
understand your website goals: what type of conversion actions do you want users to perform?
achieve those website goals by delivering a user-friendly experience: content that's useful, accessible, easy to read and to interpret
The END!
Do you usually create mind maps when building new websites, to ensure they'll deliver the best user experience?
Or for existing ones, to improve their UX?
Do you consider them critical or optional in designing the user experience?
Image by Biljana Jovanovic from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Dec 14'2019
Why or rather "when" should you consider building your own cloud-native Drupal platform?
Is a cloud platform the right answer to your Drupal app development challenges?
Is a container-based infrastructure a viable solution for you? For your business needs and for building digital experiences that meet the needs of your audience?
How do you know if your specific use case calls for a cloud-native Drupal app development environment?
And, assuming that you've run your own evaluation and that your use case does demand a switch from your current VM to a... multi-cloud Drupal hosting architecture:
How do you make Drupal... cloud-native friendly?
So that you can build, deploy, scale and manage fast and resilient Drupal apps in the cloud?
In this post, we commit to answering all your key cloud-native and Drupal-related questions:
"What does cloud-native mean exactly?"
"What is cloud-native with respect to Drupal?"
"Why do I need a cloud-native Drupal platform anyway?"
"What are the biggest advantages and their... flip sides?"
1. What Does Cloud-Native Mean Exactly?
What is a cloud-native application?
It's a holistic approach to designing, building, and running applications that make the most of cloud-native concepts.
Or, if you wish:
Cloud-native application development is a methodology — covering all stages of an app's lifecycle: design, deployment... operations — for developing apps that run in the cloud.
Applications that use the cloud computing model to its full potential.
DevOps, agile, microservices, and other modern software architectures all fall under the umbrella of a cloud-native methodology.
Therefore, it's fast, resilient, highly scalable and easily maintainable applications that you get to run in a cloud-native infrastructure.
2. And What Is Cloud Native with Respect to Drupal?
In other words: where does Drupal fit in this revolution in how we develop and deploy our applications on a cloud platform?
Overall, taking full advantage of a cloud-native Drupal app development environment means:
Finding the best solution for handling decentralized storage, auto-scaling, auto-provisioning and multi-region fault tolerance.
Getting the most of cloud-native and Drupal comes down to:
minimizing the use of long-running servers
relying more on purpose-built services and elastic computing
setting up a development environment where you can easily test your new themes and modules, fix bugs, build, and deploy resilient enterprise Drupal apps
3. Why Build Your Own Cloud Native Drupal Platform? And When?
For there are cases (is this your case, too?) when such a powerful, yet... challenging architecture is not justified by the company's business needs.
So, let's answer your "when" question first.
You're better off with a cloud-native infrastructure, where you deploy Kubernetes and containers, if:
you're dealing with high traffic, high volume applications and polyglot architecture
you already have an Ops team
you've already made at least some sort of investments in the private or public cloud
your current requirements in terms of costs and control justify setting up a multi-cloud architecture
you're running and maintaining an entire ecosystem of Drupal sites
"OK, so it looks like I "qualify" for it. But still: what would be the biggest advantages of building my own cloud-native platform compared to opting for a cloud vendor's services?"
Here are the 2 most obvious advantages:
you'd avoid getting locked in to a cloud provider
you'd avoid growing dependant on your PaaS provider for hosting, scaling, and managing your own Drupal apps
4. Why Would You Want to Containerize Your Drupal Apps in the First Place?
What would be your major wins if you ran Drupal in containers?
Here are the 3 most significant ones:
repeatability and consistency: you get the same predictable and specific result with each container that you run
less maintenance work
an easier way to run PHP upgrades compared to a conventional VM stack where you depend on your host for that and where there's a whole cluster of sites that needs to get PHP upgraded simultaneously
5. 3 Pillars of a Container-Based Infrastructure: Drupal, Kubernetes, Docker
What goes into a cloud-native Drupal platform? There are 3 key players involved:
5.1. Drupal
The robust, open-source software and content management system which, beginning with its 8th major version, grew into a Symfony-based content management framework.
Backed by a huge (100K+) and active community of contributors and a rich plugin ecosystem, Drupal powers a wide variety of web applications: media and entertainment apps, non-profit, gov, education...
The Acquia Cloud Platform is the only web hosting solution designed to meet the wide range of demands of enterprise-level businesses in Drupal.
5.2. Kubernetes
It's the standard container orchestration technology.
In the context of your future cloud-native infrastructure, you'll be using it to manage:
your containers' lifecycle
command and control
distribution
scheduling
5.3. Docker
It's the standard... tool that you will be using for creating your containers.
6. 4 Cloud-Native Platform Features to Put on Your Wishlist
What feature requirements should you have with respect to your Drupal app development environment?
Here's how a... decent wishlist should look like:
it should provide a layer of abstraction over IaaS
it should handle cross-cutting concerns
it should be easily scalable and secure
it should provide an efficient developer experience (and agile operator experience, as well)
7. Deploying Your Drupal Apps on the Cloud: Requests & Constraints
What's the proper setup for a container-based Drupal architecture?
"What are the key requirements that my future cloud-native Drupal platform should meet?" you might legitimately ask yourself.
your Drupal application should be turned into a containerized stack
minimal Ops (or not Ops at all)
it should run properly on any cloud
your public/private file should be externalized
it should scale up, out, and down
it should make the most of PaaS services: for gateways, databases, load balances, cache stores, queues
it should tap into an operational model: new app provisioning-routing-monitoring...
your development team should be able to get high fidelity local environments up and running in no time
"And what challenges should I expect?" you'll further wonder:
your developers are faced with a steep learning curve: they should have some sort of understanding of what's happening under the hood when deploying Kubernetes
CI & Delivery Pipeline
logical architecture
monitoring and management
Dev & Build Tools
local development
The END!
What do you think about Drupal Cloud?
Is a cloud native Drupal development environment a viable solution for you?
Are the advantages highlighted here relevant enough for your use case and business needs? Or are the outlined challenges too discouraging for you?
Feel free to share with us any thoughts and concerns that you might have regarding the idea of building your own cloud native Drupal platform and see how Drupal Cloud can help you deliver outstanding digital experiences.
Photo by C Dustin on Unsplash
Silviu Serdaru / Dec 12'2019
Say you need to build a company website that's bilingual from the ground up, accessible, responsive, user-friendly for the team administrating it, easily maintainable and innovative. Oh, yes: and you need it built fast. What do you do then? You "unpack" the web experience toolkit Drupal 8 distribution, trigger its out of the box features and... adjust them to your organization's specific requirements.
But what exactly is the Wetkit Drupal distribution? Who's it for?
What powerful features/modules/reusable components/content management tools does it provide you with out of the box?
And how can you customize it so that everything, from content types to... the publishing workflow, should fit your needs perfectly?
Let's get you some answers, now:
1. What Is the Web Experience Toolkit Drupal 8 Distribution?
It's a version of Drupal, designed specifically for the Canadian Government, that streamlines the building and maintenance of bilingual, responsive and highly accessible websites.
Since it's open-source, it is free to use by all public organizations.
Take it as a powerful... bundle of carefully curated Drupal modules, a built-in responsive theme, and out-of-the-box tools for content authoring and publishing, that helps you set up a website that:
has built-in bilingual support
leverages Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) and complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) by default
taps into a robust content management system
ships with the same theme used on the Government of Canada's official website
... in no time.
It comes as a 2-part tool, made of:
Wetkit (or WxT or WET): a set of files that define the front-end components of your future website (JS, CSS) and markup; a bundle of tools and best practices for reaching certain standards of bilingualism, accessibility, and responsiveness on your website
Drupal core: a robust and flexible content (and users) management system
Note: it's also a highly flexible "toolkit", that you can adjust to your specific requirements of accessibility, usability, and interoperability.
You might need specific content types, a specific custom-tailored publishing workflow, a particular page layout, etc. Luckily for you, Drupal-WxT is conveniently adjustable:
it grants you easy set up (and maintenance) of your bilingual and accessible Drupal website
it also grants the freedom you need for customizing it to your organization's particular needs
2. What Is a Drupal Distribution? Why Would You Want to Use One?
Now you know what the Web Experience Toolkit Drupal 8 distribution is:
"But what exactly is... a Drupal distribution?" you might ask yourself.
Let me try a short, yet comprehensive definition:
It's a package of components, modules and tools that you can trigger to build your Drupal website.
Or:
It's a version of Drupal that provides you with the extra configuration and carefully curated modules to set up a website that meets your specific requirements.
In this context here you need your website to be:
accessible
bilingual
responsive
interoperable
3. 10 Powerful Features that You Get Right Out of the Box with Drupal-WxT
Till here, I've kept telling you about all the built-in functionality and robust content management tools that you get, out of the box, once you install the Web Experience Toolkit Drupal 8 distribution:
"But which are they?" you'll legitimately ask yourself.
Here are the 10 most powerful features that WxT-Drupal provides you with right from its... unboxing:
3.1. A Responsive Theme
It allows you to implement the same look and feel as the one on the Government of Canada's website.
3.2. Search API
3.3. Workbench for Drafting Your Content
3.4. A Menu System
3.5. A WYSIWYG Editor
A CKEditor, to be more specific.
One that you can customize to fit your editorial team's specific needs and preferences, which they can use to add a markup to the content about to be published.
3.6. Bilingual Support
One of the most powerful components of the web experience toolkit Drupal 8 distribution.
Basically, you get bilingual support at every level of configuration:
multilingual UI and content (French version already installed): from menu items to taxonomy terms, to form elements, translating each element of your content is fairly easy with Drupal Wetkit
bilingual back-end (for those admins in your team who use either English or French)
3.7. Version Management
Your editorial team can "juggle with" several different versions of the same content to be reviewed before being published.
3.8. A Complex System for Managing Content Types
By default, it's 2 content types that you get: pages and documentation.
3.9. Panels & Panoply for Creating Landing Pages
Your content team can easily edit both the content and the layout of this page and turn it into your Drupal site's homepage or... a list-of-events page.
3.10. A Built-In Moderation Workflow
The entire process of creating a web page for your Drupal site might call for a specific ecosystem of:
authors, translators, editors
different content statuses
different content transitions
Luckily, the web experience toolkit Drupal 8 distribution provides you with a robust and flexible workflow that you can customize to your needs.
Feel free to add specific types of users, particular content transitions to suit your own content lifecycle, overall: to adjust the built-in workflow to your unique requirements.
4. Is the Drupal Web Experience Toolkit the Right Fit for Your Organization?
It is, if:
it's a bilingual and fully accessible website that you need to build
you need it built fast: the curated selection of modules and the built-in content management tools will help you save valuable time (and money)
it's low maintenance set up that you're looking for
Now, it goes without saying that customizing this Drupal distribution to fit your organization's specific workflow, team hierarchy and in-house operations does call for some configuration work from your side.
The END!
These are the what and the why of the Drupal WxT or Wetkit, if you wish.
Have you already had the chance to trigger the potential of a Drupal distribution? What do you think of the "load" of pre-built features that this particular package ships with? Are they tempting enough for you?
Is there any other type of functionality that you wish it would have provided you with out of the box?
Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Dec 10'2019
PDFs, infographics, icons, logos, fonts, videos... How complex is your "ecosystem" of creative digital assets? And how easy is it for your team(s) to manage it efficiently? If it goes from challenging to... cumbersome, then you might consider switching to Acquia DAM.
"But would it pay off to make the move to a cloud-based digital asset management software?"
To answer your own question, ask yourself further:
"What if all designers, content creators and marketers in my company were always on the same page? On a shared platform?"
"What if no one in my team(s) saved brand assets locally, but on the cloud instead? On a centralized cloud-based location?"
"What if managing my heavy load of digital assets could get as efficient as... having one single repository for all my assets? One that all my teams can access anytime and (from) anywhere?"
Now, what if Acquia DAM was the answer to all these... daring "fantasies" of yours?
Here's:
what this tool is
how it can streamline your content pipeline
what are its most powerful features
how you can get the most of it (since any software can only be as good as its users, right?)
1. What Is Acquia DAM?
It's a digital asset management system that acts as a central storage location for all your assets, allowing everyone in your company to:
access them, irrespective of their locations
keep track of them
organize them
update them
share them
... with great ease.
Here's a short demo of Acquia DAM "in action", streamlining the most common asset management tasks that your creative teams usually perform.
In short: imagine your current infrastructure of various platforms, personal computers, various channels, multiple stakeholders involved in the content process, devices, and repositories reduced to one single place on the cloud.
A cloud-based repository where all your different teams — marketing, design, content — can store and update all your creative assets.
The 2 most obvious benefits that you'll "reap":
you'll deliver a consistent brand experience
you'll speed up the content production process
2. What Are Its Most Powerful Features?
For, OK, it boosts your content pipeline:
But what about those robust features and functions that it ships with? The key ones to look look for and to trigger, to be sure that your teams use this DAM solution to its full potential?
2.1. Centralized Digital Asset Library
Instead of an intricate network of repositories — Dropbox, Google Drive, email, local or network hard drives — you'll have one single storage place on the cloud.
One repository for all your creative assets, that everyone in your organization can:
access and use to create unified digital experiences: no need to waste precious time looking for a specific branded image created... years ago
update, making sure that there are no out of date licensed assets left lingering in there
All your assets in one place, syncronized, current, approved and... easily accessible.
2.2. Workflow Management
The more the... merrier?
Not in the context of a high volume of assets and lots of people, from multiple teams, engaged in the content production process.
Luckily, using Acquia DAM's workflow management your design and marketing teams can keep a close track of everyone's step in the process.
From asset creation, to update, to review and final approval, an ideally formalized workflow will speed up your entire asset management process.
2.3. Portal for Publishing Approved Assets
That's right: Drupal Acquia DAM enables you to set up your own portal site for sharing brand guidelines and approved assets.
With approved rules and presets for image processing at hand, your non-designers gain a higher level of independence.
Which can only translate into a streamlined content pipeline.
2.4. Dynamic Templates
A feature aimed at the same goal:
Empowering your non-designers to update graphical design elements on their own.
Swapping images, editing text field, all while preserving the approved branded design elements — logo, font, colors — gets so much easier for them when using these dynamic templates.
Now, some other equally powerful features to incorporate into your asset management process are:
Scheduled Publishing
Enhanced search
Custom Metadata Fields
Audit Report Logs
Custom Form Fields
Metadata Group Permissions
Version controls
3. Why Use It? What Content Production Challenges Does It Solve?
In other words:
Would switching to Aquia DAM pay off?
Now, here's a scenario that might be (too) familiar to you:
You're dealing with... loads of assets in your organization. They get shared in Google Drive or Dropbox, updates get approved on various chat channels, specifications added to Google Docs... It's a chaos of technologies and tools that you're storing, organizing, tracking and repurposing your assets in.
Have I "guessed" right?
Then this is why you should consider implementing a digital asset management software like Acquia DAM.
To cut off all the inefficiencies that derive from such a cumbersome patchwork of disconnected tools and processes:
the time your teams would waste looking for a specific asset that seems to be lost in this "black hole"
the money you'd lose whenever someone in your team decides to... recreate an asset that's... "gone missing"
the risks you expose your brand to by using images with expired licenses
the bad reputation that you gain by... accidentally sending older versions of your assets to your clients
Source: Acquia.com
Now, let's sum up the main benefits that you'd reap from taking the leap to Acquia DAM:
highly accessible assets: for everyone in your team, anytime, from anywhere on the globe
increased system performance
significant marketing and IT resource savings
increased governance and control of your entire ecosystem of digital assets
synchronous brand message: your design and marketing people will better coordinate their efforts
4. How Can You Sync Your Assets with Your Drupal Site? Acquia DAM Drupal Integration
It's simple:
You use the Acquia DAM Connector for Drupal.
This way, you can use the assets stored and updated on your Acquia DAM instance across all your Drupal websites.
Just visit Acquia'as dedicated page for info on the right version to download, depending on the version of Drupal running on your website(s).
5. How Can You Import Your Assets to Drupal? The Media: Acquia DAM Module
Say you're storing your creative assets to Acquia DAM:
How do you move them to your Drupal website?
For, it's there that you'll be... putting them to use, after all.
You install and enable the Media: Acquia DAM Drupal module.
What it does is:
provide you with tools for scanning your DAM system for specific assets and pair them with their corresponding Media entities; with their corresponding entities on your Drupal website...
ensure that your selected assets, along with their metadata, get instantly synch whenever you're making changes in the DAM
6. How Can You Build Apps Using the Drupal Acquia DAM? Acquia DAM API
Say you need your developers to safely read and write from your DAM so that your users can easily push and pull their files and metadata.
You need unrestricted access to some of Acquia DAM's most robust features: upload, file sharing, search.
In this case, Acquia DAM API provides you with the underlying interface for building the apps that'll tap into your DAM tool's power.
7. How Do You Integrate It with Your Other Services? Acquia DAM Integrations
For there must be all kinds of services and platforms that your teams are currently using, for storing your assets and authentication.
You just browse through the list of popular services that Acquia DAM provides integrations for and pick the right ones.
The END!
How does your digital asset management system look like? Have you considered switching to a DAM solution?
Do you find Drupal Acquia DAM's features and benefits powerful and relevant enough for your specific content pipeline?
Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
Adriana Cacoveanu / Dec 06'2019