This post is part of an ongoing series detailing the new personas that have been drawn up as part of our Drupal.org user research.

Bronwen Buswell is a newcomer to Drupal. Based out of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Bronwen works as a Conference and Communications Coordinator at a nonprofit called PEAK Parent Center, which is dedicated to supporting the families of children with disabilities. While Bronwen’s role isn’t technical, she needs to use her company’s website as part of getting her work done.

“We’re federally designated by the US Department of Education, so we try to be a total one-stop shop information and referral center,” Bronwen said. “Families can call us about any situation related to their child, and we will either refer them to the right agency or provide what they need. We’re focused on helping families navigate the education and special education systems, and we serve families with children ages birth through 26, with all sorts of disabilities, including autism, down syndrome, learning disabilities, and so on."

Keeping Up With Technology

In the past few years, PEAK Parent Center’s website became very outdated, and this was a problem. Bronwen’s clients were very dependent on being able to receive assistance over the phone, as many of the resources that the center provides are not readily available online. When updates needed to be made, Bronwen and her company were forced to rely on their tech vendors to make changes to the website, as they were working with a custom solution rather than a CMS.

“Our website was pre-cutting edge, made by local vendors, all in HTML code and SQL database. We had excellent tech vendors who helped us create what we needed, and this was before the CMS options came along so it was really good at first. However, in the past 5 to 6 years, it has gotten really archaic, and we’re super reliant upon our vendors for updating our website. What’s simple in a CMS is complex for us,” Bronwen said.

After doing lots of research and working with the federal government to find the best solution for PEAK Parent Center and other centers like it, Bronwen and her colleagues decided to explore using Drupal to create a site template that could be deployed for PEAK Parent Center  and for other similar centers that it supports across the country.

“We're the technical assistance center for parent centers like ours in a 12 state region,” said Bronwen. “When [Drupal Association Executive Director] Holly Ross was at NTEN we started going to their conferences, which led us to launch a tech leadership initiative where we supported participating parent centers across the nation. As part of that, we got connected with great consultants and thinkers in tech, and we were asked by the US Department of Education to participate in the creation of website templates in 2 content management systems — Wordpress and Drupal — that could be used in other parent centers in the future."

Getting Experienced Assistance

With help from Aaron Pava and Nikki Pava at Alegria Partners, the staff at PEAK Parent Center has been learning to use their new Drupal website. Aaron has advised Bronwen and her colleagues every step of the way, from proposing solutions in the discovery process to walking Bronwen and her coworkers through specific tasks.

Occasionally, Bronwen encounters small problems due to updates or little glitches with distributions, which is why Aaron has encouraged her to get involved and do some training on Drupal. Unfortunately, most of Bronwen’s time is spent trying to get the website ready to launch, as she’s under pressure from the federal government and her board of directors to deploy the new site. Though Bronwen isn’t working on the technical side of the website, she’s busy populating it with content and making sure that it will be a useful tool for her clients.

“What I haven’t done is specific Drupal training,” said Bronwen. “I know about Lynda and Build A Module, but I’ve only had time to do sessions one-on-one with Aaron, for example, ‘Here’s how to upload content in this template.’

"I have learned a lot on Drupal.org, but it’s been primarily through Aaron sending me a link— for example, he’ll send me links about Red Hen since we’re exploring our CRM options— but I haven’t surfed around it much,” Bronwen added.

Areas For Improvement

Bronwen wishes there was a recommended Drupal 101 section on Drupal.org, something that would help content editors like herself learn to use the CMS better, but for now, she is limited to relying on more educated ambassadors for Drupal to point her in the right direction.

“It’s delicate to recommend vendors,” said Bronwen, "but it seems that the community is really powerful, and is certainly one of the most unique aspects that sets Drupal aside from other CMS options. Even a few vendors recommended by the community, or a recommend Drupal 101 lesson where you can go through it, go off and work in Drupal, and come back and get Drupal 201 would be really valuable for me.

“I know that there are local Drupal meet-ups that happen all over the country” Bronwen added. “[One group we talked with] told us that nonprofits can go to these events and say “I need this or that,” and some hardcore Drupal techie will take the work on pro bono. That was another factor that helped draw us to using Drupal — the availability of the community. It would be useful if there was more information on how to tap into those meetups, perhaps, when they’re happening."

Bronwen knows that the Drupal community is really powerful, and considers it one of the most unique aspects that sets Drupal aside from other CMS options. She is excited by the availability of the Drupal community, and is looking forward to interacting with it and working with them as she continues to run and improve PEAK Parent Center’s website.

Personal blog tags: drupal.org user researchpersona interviews