Drupal, WordPress & Joomla - Puzzles with Misfitting Pieces

A few days ago I had a discussion with a friend that is on the market for a new website for his company. His main experience with websites are surfing the net and using web applications such as Gmail. When the discussion went into how much work would be involved and long it would take to build it, he couldn't really get around that it would take as long as I told him. I had to come up with an analogy to make him understand what is going on behind the pages he is looking at when browsing.

After a bit of thinking I said:

Think of building a website like having a puzzle where the pieces are the correct ones, but they only fit perfectly on one to three sides. When building your website it will be my task to mould the sides that doesn't fit so the puzzle can be completed and you look at a pretty picture.

Aha he said and we could continue the discussion with him better understanding the amount of work required for his website.

After the meeting I started to think a bit more about this and how good of an analogy it actually is. Below I will expand it a bit more for you.

Your Website = The Finished Puzzle

When you buy a new puzzle you are selecting it based on two factors; the number of pieces and the picture it will paint as you put all the pieces together. This combination makes the puzzle easy or more difficult to put together.

When you want to build a website it is actually a bit different. You have a good idea about what your website will have, but know less about how difficult it will be to actually build it. The pages your website will serve might look simple, but the backend serving them can be very complex.

Another difference is that your website most likely will change over time, you will extend it and add more content. But lets not go into that much detail now. That's the missing pieces you will find in the future.

The Framework = The Puzzle Frame

Most people that starts putting a new puzzle together begins with the frame, I do that. The frame is the easiest part since you at least one side of the pieces you are looking for is straight. When you have found all these pieces you can then quickly put them together and you have a nice frame to continue working from.

Same with building websites. First you look for a good framework by researching what is available by reading articles, reviews, asking friends and so on. In todays world it is likely you end up with an open source CMS framework such as Drupal, WordPress or Joomla.

Once you have decided what framework will fit your project the best you have your puzzle frame.

Modules, Plug-ins, Features, Theme etc = The Inner Pieces

During your search for the puzzle frame you also collected a lot of information about the inner pieces. For a CMS framework this is the features the framework itself offers, what add-on modules or plug-ins are available for it, how you can theme it to paint your website and so on. The more of the boxes you can tick in the requirement list for you website, the more pieces you will have to be able to complete your puzzle with.

Some pieces will not be found and you will have to find alternatives for them. Either you find a piece that is almost right and use it, or you will have to create your own piece (module, plug-in or theme).

Mould the Pieces to Fit Your Puzzle

Now when you have the puzzle frame and most of the inner pieces it is time to put it together. The problem though is that the inner pieces does not fit perfectly together. You can easily install the modules and themes to the frame (fit one or two sides of each piece), but that doesn't do much to make your website ready, the other sides simply don't fit with the other pieces left.

This is where you, as a developer, designer or themer, comes in. You have to mould the sides that doesn't fit so they do. This is done by changing configurations, developing new modules, creating graphics, CSS and so on. Slowly all the pieces will start to fit with each other and the the website will start to come alive, just like a puzzle.

Always Missing Pieces

As with puzzles, websites will also have missing pieces. The difference though is that for websites there will always be pieces missing. This is because the picture you puzzle together is dynamic and will change over time. These changes are either content added or features removed, changed or added.

Sometimes these changes are welcome since you will be able to continue piecing together you website puzzle, enjoying the new picture it paints and the feedback you get from the visitors enjoying using it.

What picture will your next website puzzle paint?