Drupal 7 to Backdrop CMS Migration and Design Refresh Bud Werner Memorial Library

Bud Werner Memorial Library is located along the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, about 150 miles northwest of Denver, named after local Olympic alpine ski racer, Wallace Jerald “Buddy” Werner.

The library’s 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 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.

A Refreshed, Relevant Design

The upgrade 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. We extended and brightened the earthy color palette, building upon the colors throughout the library and its large sunlit windows and mountain views. Lastly, we carefully curated a selection of humanist typography to give the library a friendly, yet sophisticated look and feel.

We 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.

We 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. Our 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

We 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.

My experience with this incredible team spans several years, and it has been nothing short of a pleasure. In the past, they came to our rescue when we lost our digital services librarian, leaving us unable to maintain our Drupal website. When the time came to upgrade due to the impending end-of-life for Drupal 7, Aten stepped back into the spotlight as our trusted partner, guiding us through a seamless transition to Backdrop CMS, a fork of Drupal 7. Their expertise was also crucial in ensuring our site's compliance with Colorado's ADA standards.
 

Is your website still living on Drupal 7 after support has ended? Is your site a good candidate for an upgrade to Backdrop CMS at a fraction of the cost of a rebuild on another platform?

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