Training the CMS

Oftentimes sites begin to droop after site launch. This is because documentation and style guides get ignored (or don't exist in the first place). This presentation provides practical advice on moving site documentation and style guides into the Content Management System itself through the use of clear field labels, help text, help pages and site documentation within the site itself.

Transcript

1. Collaborative Notes pad.riseup.net/p/train-cms
2. Training the CMS Clayton Dewey
3. Hi, I’m Clayton Dewey Aten Design Group, Information Architect OpenAid, Co-Maintainer @claybolto cedewey
4. aten.io @atendesign
5. Training the CMS by Eileen Webb
6. What’s to train?
7. “How do I change it to Comic Sans?”
8. Behave Yourself • Images that clash with design • Content formatted improperly • Inconsistent voice and tone • Titles that are too long (or short)
9. Know Your Audience • Familiarity with the style guide • Tech savvy level • Turnover • Size of team/editorial oversight
10. Content Types • Include descriptions
12. Field Names • Specific and descriptive • Describe the content (Featured Image instead of Image) • Use a consistent format
14. Help Text and Instructions • Messaging and information • Style, voice and tone • Technical • Design and display
15. Messaging and Information • What’s the underlying message? • How is the audience and what is the purpose? • Must include, must not include?
16. Style, Voice and Tone • Grammatical structure • Ideal length • Reminders (eg: don’t write “click here”)
17. Technical • Allowed formats • Suggested filename structure • Size limits
18. Design and Display • Does the field value determine placement? • Will images scale and resize? • Will images be displayed in multiple areas?
21. Happy Authors • Simple WYSIWYG • Ordered and grouped fields • Authors test the authoring experience
24. Review pages post- launch
25. Break out!
28. Show of Hands • Content Authors • Editors • Developers • Other?
29. Group O’ Three • Author • Editor • Developer • Team Name (NOT OPTIONAL)
30. Problems • List all the problems you have with your site • Group them • Add them to the Etherpad
31. Collaborative Notes pad.riseup.net/p/train-cms
32. Solutions • Come up with a solution (or multiple) for each problem • Choose someone (or divvy it up) to present to the larger group • Add it to the etherpad
33. Collaborative Notes pad.riseup.net/p/train-cms
34. @OpenAidDistro
    drupal.org/project/openaid
35. Thanks! Clayton Dewey @claybolto cedewey