The Evolution of Content Management

Simple Ain't Easy

Technology is supposed to make life simpler. So why is it that so much technology seems to cause only headaches? The World Wide Web puts the world's information at your fingertips — and it should be simple for you to put yours out, too. But it's usually not. The headaches arise when we discover that, in the words of Thelonious Sphere Monk, "Simple ain't easy."

Most standard approaches to websites are "simple" in one regard only: there are very few layers between you and the code of your website. You write the site in code or script, upload it to a web server, and out pops a web page. Yet when all you want to do is change a phone number or add a new page, you shouldn't have to learn the entire internet alphabet soup and take a crash course in server set-ups to do it. That's why many people retain a web company to make those changes for them — at nominal fees, of course, a cash-cow situation many web companies are not eager to change.

To make life simpler our technology needs to be easier to use. Counter-intuitively, making it easier means making it more complex: you need more layers between you and the code of your website. This makes sense if you think about it, though. Would you still buy a car that started by hand-crank when more layers (wires, battery, and starter solenoid) between you and the engine let you start it easier with a key? Given the option of a scythe or a hand lawnmower, wouldn't you still dream of a power-mower?

Whether it's a car, a lawnmower, or a website, it is the hidden complexity of a well-made tool that makes it more efficient, more powerful, and easier to use.

The Well-Made CMS

An easy-to-use website is one that has a very critical layer between you and the code called a Content Management System. The CMS puts distance between you and the code. It takes the drudgery out of creating a site. Instead of putting static pages on your web server, your web server runs the CMS application which takes your content, saves it, formats it, and presents it as a site full of pages.

But not all Content Management Systems are created equal.

• Some are easier to use. It's nice to be able to edit page content. It's nicer to have a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get rich text editor that keeps the HTML code tucked away behind the scenes. But it's downright awesome to manage your content in a rich-text editor that lets you upload and plug in your images, attachments, and media right then and there. Your website should be as simple to use as a basic word processor.
• Some have more power. It's nice to be able to create and delete pages. It's nicer to have view, edit, and delete permissions for multiple user accounts. And it's cool as penguins to have a system that automates your document workflow based on user roles, tracks and lets you roll back pages to previous versions, and allows public or by-role access permissions to all of your content. Your website should have the power to grow with you.
• Some create better code. It's nice to have a site that looks good. It's nicer to have your site looks good in every browser on every operating system. And it's critical to have a website that is cross-browser compatible, Search Engine Optimized, and standards- and accesibility-compliant. Your website needs to look as good to a computer as it does to you.

A good Content Management System gives you ease-of-use, powerful tools, and rock-solid code. It lets you forget the code and focus on content. It lets you spend your time editing your site instead beating your brain against HTML, CSS, SQL, and the rest of the internet alphabet soup. It makes managing a website something that anyone in your office could do.

Give a Man a Monkey Wrench...

We Give You Tools

There is no such thing as a "one size fits all" website, especially when that site is run by a good Content Management System. We work with you to determine your needs, and provide you the right tools for getting the job done. There is no end of features that a modern website can have, everything from a basic site updater to community sites to document management systems to full web applications that meet your back-end business needs. It's all in what tools you put in the tool-box.

Website Update Interfaces

You've probably seen raw HTML before, and perhaps pulled some hair out trying to figure out how it works. Wouldn't it be nice if you could use something like a word processor that hid all that code from you? Something that let you see what your content will look like as you edit it? Something with familiar buttons to format, justify, and insert photos? Something that let you drag and drop pieces of your page, and resize photos with your mouse? The holy grail you're looking for is something called WYSIWYG — "What You See Is What You Get" — and it lets you edit a page in a window that looks just like a basic word processor. And if you like HTML, you have the option of toggling over to raw code in place to see and edit the HTML itself, then toggle back to see what it looks like.

Perhaps you're a power user that eats code for breakfast and counts iterations to cure insomnia. If you yawn at HTML and want to get your hands on real power, the PHP interface might be for you. Tokens give you easy handles on site, role, user, and page variables and the code gives you programming logic to make things dance. The editing interface colors your code to let you see what's what at a glance. A PHP filter can clean up your code, let you limit how much power a site editor has, and help stop dangerous code in its tracks.

Or maybe you've got your own idea. If you're a wikiphile we can give you a site that works like a wiki. Maybe you need multiple interfaces for different parts of your site, or for different types of users. Sometimes you want the power to toggle between multiple interfaces. Your CMS should make life easy for you, and we make it easy for you to use the site in whatever way makes the most sense to you.

Let's Speak Geek

What's that in English?

• Search Engine Optimization
• Web Standards Compliance
• Accesibility Compliance
• Customer Privacy
• Security, Scalability

Website Samples

GorillArts Group builds compliant, optimized, easy-to-use websites that will have you hooting like a chimp. Our websites are built on proven Content Management Systems to give you a website that does more than just look good. Our beauty runs more than fur-deep: standards-compliant XHTML/CSS, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), security-focused role and content permissions, cross-browser/OS design, built-in secure file management, and so much more. And if that doesn't make you hoot, you'll holler when you try out the editing interface: if you can run a basic word processor, you can edit gorgeous and content-rich pages without knowing one whit of HTML with our standard WYSIWYG rich-text editor interface. But don't let's talk, you should play with it yourself in our Sandbox. Take a gander at some of the sites you'll see on a historic walk through GorillArts Group's region of the internet jungle.

James Gritz Photography

James Gritz Photography is a photographic prints business run by our very own James Gritz of GorillArts Group. Definitely a content-driven website, it's heart is gallery upon gallery of photography from around the world.

Photography websites are notorious for their required plug-ins, bandwidth-choking images, and creative but non-intuitive interfaces. JamesGritz.com shows off a clean layout to center-stage the galleries, not one bit of Flash (we do it in standards-compliant JavaScript), a bandwidth-aware design, and a user interface that doesn't make you think about it -- it just works.

StudioLucida.com

Studio Lucida is another image-rich James Gritz website. Again highlighting a photo-heavy design, this site takes a different functional angle: visitors aren't oohing and aahing over single large travel images, but browsing through collections of cards and prints to find the one that suits them best.

TowerRecords.com

When our Web Monkey, Fenwick, was a wee Intermediate Web Developer for Tower Online in 1999, he was part of the 12-person programming team behind TowerRecords.com competing against companies such as Amazon.com and CDNow.com with teams ten times the size. It was a do-everything-or-learn how environment in the days when having an awesome Content Management System meant brewing it yourself and knowing how to wear a dozen hats.

The GorillArts Group web-monkey, Fenwick, was part of the 5-person Tower Online Front-End Development team in 1999 and 2000, competing successfully against sites such as Amazon.com and CDNow.com.  At the core of this success were a robust Content Management System (site management,) Promotions Management System (CMS for Marketing Promotions,) and Customer Relationship Management System (call center) all built and maintained in-house. Fenwick touched on all parts of it as part of the small team but took ownership of the then-new Currency Conversion project, optimizing site programming that had grown to more than a billionlines of code, and documented the Promotions Management Tool with a document that set a new company standard for all further IT documentation.

Jeriko Estate Winery

Jeriko Estate is a family-owned winery producing all-Organic wine in Hopland at the heart of the California Wine Country. Wine is a luxury good and winery customers expect the websites they visit to be sharp, clean, and easy. The customer that gets lost in pretty widgets doesn't make it to the wine ordering or events pages. And your web software must tie in with enterprise software to manage credit cards, wine clubs, interstate shipping compliance, lengthy federal paperwork, and more. A good website is easy for the visitor to use, manages your data, and puts the tools in your hands to keep it fresh.

This version of JerikoEstate.com comes from our Web-Monkey Fenwick's 2004 portfolio, an age of difficult browser compliance. Rather than going for flashy content, the site fell back on hand-coded PHP, good JavaScript, and strong photography. "An <IMG> is Worth a Thousand Lines of Code." This made the Jeriko Estate accessible to as many customers as possible at a time when most winery websites were Flash- and bandwidsth-heavy behemoths that made it difficult for 75% of the internet population to use.

The Annwfn Community

Annwfn is a 55-acre forest preserve in the backwoods of Northern California owned by the Church of All Worlds and serving as their event grounds for eight annual celebrations. With thousands of community members spread across the globe they required a site that kept their information current, their content changing, and their community connected. Blogging-community-type user accounts, flexible community forums, and the ability for administrators to make regular updates from any web browser empowered the Annwfn Community to mingle and thrive not only in the digital jungle as easily as on their forested land.

Annwfn.org is built in Drupal to make the most of its built-in security and strong community-building features, and also highlights some gorgeous design elements such as faded backgrounds, sem-transparent blocks, and graceful screen-size degradation that make a visitor's experience a pleasant one, no matter how ancient their computer. These are easy elements that GorillArts can incorporate into your own site design to make it stand out of the jungle.