A Refreshed, Relevant Design
Bud Werner Memorial Library's upgrade from Drupal 7 to Backdrop CMS was the perfect opportunity to refresh and modernize the site's design, which was directly inspired by the library’s points of pride, including its scenic Rocky Mountain location and Prairie School style architecture. Natural shapes directly reference river rocks, pines, and the Yampa River. Aten extended and brightened the earthy color palette, building upon the colors throughout the library and its large sunlit windows and mountain views. Lastly, designers carefully curated a selection of humanist typography to give the library a friendly, yet sophisticated look and feel.
Enhanced Functionality and Accessibility
Aten's developers created new improvements to Backdrop to allow easier theming on a component-based level. This will be shared with the community as a contributed and reusable theme for future Backdrop websites.
They swapped some Drupal 7 contributed modules for core Backdrop functionality. Some of the Panels module translated to Layouts in Backdrop. The mega menu was cleaned up and converted to Backdrop’s core menu system with new styling. Backdrop's core file system and image manager replaced a custom one.
Accessibility was a primary concern with a new Colorado law requiring municipal websites to meet WCAG standards. Aten's in-house accessibility expert reviewed the site content prior to development so the library team could make content improvements immediately, and she ensured all new components and page types we created were accessible.
Improved Content Administration
Aten's Backdrop developer used the Gin admin theme to provide a fresh interface for content administrators, and centralized the content entry interface around Paragraphs, simplifying functionality from a variety of modules and administrative screens into one place. This improved the admin experience and also sets the stage for further iterative additions and improvements for years to come.
The Bud Werner Memorial Library website needed both a design update and a move from Drupal 7 with its end of support approaching, but the team at Bud Werner wasn’t prepared for the timeline or budget required to design and build a new site on a new platform. Aten Design Group recommended a design refresh and upgrade to Backdrop CMS to capitalize on their Drupal 7 infrastructure and set the stage for ongoing improvements on fresh ground.
