Things have changed since I was a new starter in this field. In the late 90′s content management systems were emerging and everyone just had to have one. Static brochure sites were just so 1996. The snag was that to achieve the holy grail of a CMS that did what one needed in a manner that one wanted proved to be elusive for clients and design teams alike. Many are the millions that have been poured into this conundrum.
Sitting here in the early 10′s things are decidedly different. Designers have been largely liberated from the clutches of the programmers for the majority of website developments. That is of they choose to be. Working mainly in the public and third sectors has meant that the commissioning of propriatorial CMS is frequently not an option for financial sustainability reasons. This has left the open source route to delivery.
Recently I was in conversation with ScreenLit, Nottingham’s premier film festival. The need was to create a site that delivered on a number of fronts in not enough time. The discussion ranged around phrases like ‘legacy’ and ‘flexibility’ and ‘must be online by…’ and ‘tight budget’ as such conversations do. My recommendation was to pay for intelligence and not for technology. With neither the timescale nor budget to develop or customise a robust CMS to drive the site the commissioner should look at commissioning a system that was ready to go, that would deliver most of what they wanted immediately and spend their budget on the interface design and writing.
The Nottingham based team 13 Souls stepped up and delivered a WordPress system that is maintained by the ScreenLit team. The site functionality is driven entirely by widgets and plugins. A popular phrase for the project is, “Its all about widgets and plugins!” The whole budget was spent on ensuring the design and message were as crisp and attractive as could be. All of the driving technology is free to use and open source. The festival has events that have sold out entirely from online ticket sales. The Nottingham Evening Post reported that the opening night gala of ScreenLit Festival of Film, TV and Writing has become the fastest sell-out in Broadway Cinema’s history. The site is a festival tool that can work all year and not just a month before the festival opens. Next year it is simplicity itself to redesign the site to be in keeping with whatever the current trend in film festival websites will be.
Link: www.screenlit.co.uk
Link: www.13souls.com
Pay for intelligence, not technology
Things have changed since I was a new starter in this field. In the late 90′s content management systems were emerging and everyone just had to have one. Static brochure sites were just so 1996. The snag was that to achieve the holy grail of a CMS that did what one needed in a manner that one wanted proved to be elusive for clients and design teams alike. Many are the millions that have been poured into this conundrum.
Sitting here in the early 10′s things are decidedly different. Designers have been largely liberated from the clutches of the programmers for the majority of website developments. That is of they choose to be. Working mainly in the public and third sectors has meant that the commissioning of propriatorial CMS is frequently not an option for financial sustainability reasons. This has left the open source route to delivery.
Recently I was in conversation with ScreenLit, Nottingham’s premier film festival. The need was to create a site that delivered on a number of fronts in not enough time. The discussion ranged around phrases like ‘legacy’ and ‘flexibility’ and ‘must be online by…’ and ‘tight budget’ as such conversations do. My recommendation was to pay for intelligence and not for technology. With neither the timescale nor budget to develop or customise a robust CMS to drive the site the commissioner should look at commissioning a system that was ready to go, that would deliver most of what they wanted immediately and spend their budget on the interface design and writing.
Link: www.screenlit.co.uk
Link: www.13souls.com
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Tagged as Carter-Davies, cms, design, open source, Propriatorial software