Drupal to WordPress or Vice Versa: What to Do When It’s Time to Migrate
Does your website currently reside on a Drupal core that is nearing its end of life deadline or a WordPress platform that doesn’t feel quite like the right fit? If you’re under the impression that the grass would be greener on another CMS, here are a few issues to consider before making a move toward migration. Our team is well versed in working in both WordPress and Drupal, and we find both to...
Choosing a Content Management System: Is Proprietary or Open Source the Best Fit?
Choosing the right content management system (CMS) is arguably one of the most important decisions you’ll make in approaching a new website project or upgrade. You need to understand the long-term costs and the amount of effort it will take to manage — and you want to ensure that it ultimately provides the user experience you’re looking for. In recommending the right fit to our clients, we are...
Making Uncertainty Your Secret Weapon: How to Get Ahead of the Curve
Flux . It’s a strange place for any business to operate, and Eastern Standard is no exception. Our teams have all transitioned to working remotely, and while we’re moving along pretty seamlessly in that area, the thing we miss most is the regular interactions with one another and with our clients. This is a deeply personal business, and removing all face-to-face interaction just feels so foreign...
A Guide to Web Accessibility for Designers, Content Managers, and Developers
There's a lot of web accessibility information online, but it's not always easy to get a concise overview of best practices for WCAG/ADA compliance for your team. As a result, I've created this brief handbook on web accessibility. Table of Contents Introduction Why Accessibility Matters What It Means to Have an Accessible Website How and When Designers Should Think About Accessibility How and...
Which Aria Attributes Should I Use? Accessibility and Aria Tags for Common UI Patterns
In this post, I've attempted to track down and document best practices recommendations for creating accessible versions of various UI components: Choose a UI component to see accessibility and aria attribute recommendations: Hamburger Menus / Push Menus Accordions Dropdown Menus Hamburger Menus / Push Menus The "hamburger" menu, where an icon or button triggers a flyout or "push menu" from the...
Rules for Implementing Top-Level Section Landing Pages
I have strong feelings about how top-level pages in your navigation should be a) designed and b) incorporated into the flow of a website. I think they’re often implemented in a sub-optimal way, so I’ve written my thoughts here. I’ll summarize these rules concisely for those of you just browsing, but I’ll unpack my thoughts a bit more below: Top-level pages should serve the exclusive purpose of...
Solving UX Challenges for Hospitals and Health Systems
The public website ecosystem for large healthcare organizations often comes with uniquely complex challenges. Multiple physical locations in an organization’s network often leads to a scattered array of websites with separate databases, siloed content organization, different visual experiences for patients, and distinct brand identities. All of this confusion fights against the goals of a...
How Prospective Undergraduates Navigate Websites — and What They Expect From College Content
At Eastern Standard, we do a lot of work in the higher education space. And, as a firm that is passionate about user-centric design and content strategy, we've done a lot of research into the browsing behavior of prospective undergraduates: the digital natives who have very different expectations and habits from the previous generation. Here are a few high-level takeaways from some of our...
Connecting to Instagram and Other Social Media in WordPress Using Advanced Custom Fields
As a web developer, it’s not a stretch to say that social media feed integration has become a de rigueur project spec for any new website I take on. Clients realize that when done right, these feeds can increase traffic, boost revenue, and improve engagement with their brand. When working on the WordPress platform, there are many different approaches to take — some of which are more desirable...
To Create a Web Component Library, Think Like a Lego Master Builder
To develop for the web is, by nature and necessity, to be a problem-solver. While my personal path to web development has taken many turns (including photography, 3D animation, and game design), none has been more foundational to my knowledge of good programming principles and problem-solving skills than Lego. My hobby of designing Lego cars — one that lives at the intersection of design,...
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