Website Refresh Tips & Strategies

Provides guidelines and strategies for refreshing your website content.

Transcript

1. Website Refresh Tips Brett Pollak Jeremy Wiles Allisa Becker Tariku Tessema
2. Housekeeping Type your questions in the chat window and we’ll answer them at the end We’ll provide answers to questions and send to listserve We’ll provide link to recorded session
3. What we’ll talk about Target Audience & setting goals Create a site outline Develop content Select CMS templates Go Live
4. Let us know you’re embarking on a refresh journey cwo@ucsd.edu Give us a heads up
5. Content & pages added over time without thinking about the big picture Department responsibilities & scope have shifted or changed Site was originally launched with the idea that “we’ll work on the content later” Your target audience has complained they can’t find what they need Why do a refresh?
6. Your website is not an encyclopedia for your department Less is more Your audience doesn’t read, they scan your site The content you provide is far more important to your users than your logo or any images Website Refresh Mantras
7. Your website is not for you (or your boss) Identify the target audience
8. Current Students? Prospective Students? Parents? Staff? Faculty? Identify the target audience
9. Example: Provide self service resource for prospective students to view academic related information about our department Develop 2-3 goals for the website
10. Example: Generate increased online donations to our fund Develop 2-3 goals for the website
11. Example: Reduce phone calls to our academic advisors by elevating access to info about department majors including… - what prospective students will study, - admission requirements, - what you can do with a degree, and - why we’re renowned. Develop 2-3 goals for the website
12. Inform UCSD staff about the benefits & capabilities of the campus CMS Provide CMS training information to existing clients Make self service web templates available to non-CMS technical developers CWO Website Goals
13. Student workers are a great resource for feedback Doesn’t have to be formal Involve them in the redesign Ask your users
14. Your website & the communications strategy
15. Should map to your website goals Shouldn’t be about how the website looks but how it works Put content goals ahead of design goals Develop refresh project goals
16. Words like “streamline” usually indicate the site has too much text/clutter Optimize the website for mobile devices Be specific
17. Benchmark with analytics
19. CWO Website Goals Inform staff not in the CMS about the benefits it provides Provide CMS training information to existing clients Make self service web templates available to non-CMS technical developers
20. Judging by analytics, how well does your current site align with your site goals? Are users going to the pages you expect them to? Are there pages that can be eliminated? Gap analysis
21. Categorize content in a logical way Logical to your users, not necessarily to you Think the way your users think Create a website outline
22. Don’t use jargon your target audience won’t understand Avoid acronyms No more than 7-8 top level categories Create a website outline
23. Keywords are excellent top navigation labels Search terms are good resources for navigation labels Create a website outline
24. Create a website outline
25. Home Programs - Major - Minor - Courses - Forms Career - Job Resources - Internship Resources Calendar Alumni Faculty Contact Us Create a website outline
26. Rewrite your content outside of the CMS (Word documents) to help focus on the messaging and not the formatting You can more easily route it around and/or refine it Rewrite content
27. Use clear, concise wording to get your message across Use active voice Format text with headings & bulleted lists for easy scanning Use pictures where appropriate to reinforce messaging on the page Tips: http://blink.ucsd.edu/go/webwriting Rewrite content
28. About the CWO The purpose of the Campus of the Campus Web Office is to provide tools and services that integrate UC San Diego Web content so campus information is more accessible to end users. We provide a centrally hosted content management system free of charge, templates that reflect campus branding, Web application User Interface standards and guidelines, User Experience consulting, testing and design services. We provide services to websites in the Campus Content Management System, Public-facing, campus-wide applications including maps, calendar, search apps, portal widgets, iPhone and mobile devices, and ACT Developers. The CWO is made up of Programmers, User Interface Designers, and Web Project Managers and you can find out more about us on Blink. Format Content
29. About the CWO The purpose of the Campus of the Campus Web Office is to provide tools and services that integrate UC San Diego Web content so campus information is more accessible to end users. We provide a centrally hosted content management system free of charge templates that reflect campus branding, Web application User Interface standards and guidelines, User Experience consulting, testing and design services. We provide services to websites in the Campus Content Management System, Public-facing, campus-wide applications including maps, calendar, search apps, portal widgets, iPhone and mobile devices, and ACT Developers. The CWO is made up of Programmers, User Interface Designers, and Web Project Managers and you can find out more about us on Blink. Format Content
30. Format content
31. Home Page Template (2 flavors) http://pdel.ucsd.edu/, http://acms.ucsd.edu/ Two Column http://ccc.ucsd.edu/about-us/what-we-do.html Three Column http://parents.ucsd.edu/events/ Drawer Template http://admissions.ucsd.edu/finances/ Match content to a template
32. Match content to a template
33. We can create a folder in the CMS where the new content will go Build the site structure Migrate the content from Word to the CMS Working in the CMS
34. Make a commitment to minimize changes to the current site while the refreshed pages are being built out Working in the CMS
35. Make sure proper metadata and formatting is used when creating the pages We can make our QA checklist available to you Working in the CMS
36. QA Checklist CAMPUS WEB OFFICE WEBSITE QA CHECKLIST Project Name: Go Live Date: Reviewed By: Review Date: REVIEW CRITERIA COMPLETED NOTES NAMING CONVENTIONS AND INLINE METADATA Are all System Names lower case, separated with dashes, short and relevant? Yes All pages and folders are named correctly with our policy. Are all Display Names correct, short and relevant? Yes Are all pages' Summary fields populated with relevant text? No Either no summery or the summary is too short. Are all Author fields populated? No Did we delete all extraneous files / images? Yes *only one image linked externally. Please read Tab "Sheet 2" SITE INFORMATION Site Header Name correct? Yes Site Header URL correct? (not staging URL) Yes * Since the site is not published yet. All URLs are staging URLs. Site-specific CSS and Javascript files configured? Yes Feedback form created / configured No GSA collection created and name added? No Google Analytics account created and script added? No checked google analytics and I do not see eoap.ucsd.edu on the list. CONTENT / HTML / CSS HTML tags (H1, H2, P and A HREF, etc.) used correctly and consistently? Yes Page elements (e.g., sidebars, tables, etc.) formatted correctly? Yes Site-specific CSS approved and implemented consistently / globally? Yes Content (e.g., bulleted lists, subheader case, underlining, centering) formatted consistently / correctly? Yes Content spell-checked? Yes
37. Contact us first so we can be there to assist cwo@ucsd.edu Select a go-live date ahead of time
38. unpublish existing content un-archive new content publish new content Go Live (we will help)
39. Celebrate!
40. Thank You Any Questions? Campus Web Office cwo.ucsd.edu