WordPress Case Study: John Ritter Research Program

This is the original presentation I gave at the WordPress Houston Meetup on 2/21/2011 about a WordPress Case Study.

Transcript

1. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY johnritterresearchprogram.org bit.ly/ritterrules
2. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 Goals Lessons Learned Key Features Implementation 2 4 3 1
3. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 Designer/Developer for Office of Communications at The UT Medical School at Houston... a non-profit, full-service creative resource in the Texas Medical Center. Office of Communications: facebook.com/utooc This presentation: slidesha.re/estfxq HOWDY! Eric Rasch ericrasch.com
4. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 GOALS Provide platform for different types of content + interactivity 1
5. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 PURPLE and a bit of burnt orange GOALS Provide platform for different types of content + interactivity Carry design themes over from supporting organizations. 1
6. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 2WEEKS all within GOALS Provide platform for different types of content + interactivity Carry design themes over from supporting organizations. Launch before book tour 1
7. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 GOALS Provide platform for different types of content + interactivity Carry design themes over from supporting organizations. Launch before book tour Stay within budget 1 DUH!
8. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 GOALS Provide platform for different types of content + interactivity Carry design themes over from supporting organizations. Launch before book tour Stay within budget Client wants it 'easy-to-update'! 1 THANK YOU
9. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 GOALS Provide platform for different types of content + interactivity Carry design themes over from supporting organizations. Launch before book tour Stay within budget Client wants it 'easy-to-update'! Developer wants it easy-to-update... code... design... extend... upgrade... 1 THANK YOU
10. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 Footer links Dynamically displayed from central repository. Pop-up Forms Used for reporting website errors, etc. (jQuery + Gravity Forms). Plugins Let’s take a look under the hood... KEY FEATURES Homepage Featured Post Through Categories (vs. Sticky Posts). Regular pages are... Pages No need to complicate things. News & Blog pages Again, Posts controlled through Categories. 2
11. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 Footer links Dynamically displayed from central repository. Pop-up Forms Used for reporting website errors, etc. (jQuery + Gravity Forms). Plugins Let’s take a look under the hood... KEY FEATURES Homepage Featured Post Through Categories (vs. Sticky Posts). Regular pages are... Pages No need to complicate things. News & Blog pages Again, Posts controlled through Categories. 2
12. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 Footer links Dynamically displayed from central repository. Pop-up Forms Used for reporting website errors, etc. (jQuery + Gravity Forms). Plugins Let’s take a look under the hood... KEY FEATURES Homepage Featured Post Through Categories (vs. Sticky Posts). Regular pages are... Pages No need to complicate things. News & Blog pages Again, Posts controlled through Categories. 2
13. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 Footer links Dynamically displayed from central repository. Pop-up Forms Used for reporting website errors, etc. (jQuery + Gravity Forms). Plugins Let’s take a look under the hood... KEY FEATURES Homepage Featured Post Through Categories (vs. Sticky Posts). Regular pages are... Pages No need to complicate things. News & Blog pages Again, Posts controlled through Categories. 2
14. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 Footer links Dynamically displayed from central repository. Pop-up Forms Used for reporting website errors, etc. (jQuery + Gravity Forms). Plugins Let’s take a look under the hood... KEY FEATURES Homepage Featured Post Through Categories (vs. Sticky Posts). Regular pages are... Pages No need to complicate things. News & Blog pages Again, Posts controlled through Categories. 2
15. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 KEY FEATURES 2 Gravity Forms MailChimp add-on Broken Link Checker W3 Total Cache Google Analytics [Yoast’s] Analytics 360 SEO Ultimate Custom Sidebars WP No Category Base Don’t forget... Security Exploits Anti-spam Backup (Plugins in-use) +
16. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 Have content ready before anything else Make sure the system is easy to teach someone else. Client hasn't caught on to News vs. Blog (remove/simplify confusing features) Educate your client on modern web design practices (the click 'here' issue) Have a game-plan on the who/what/how regarding content & features. Be prepared to react when news events & opportunities mirror your mission. Don't wait on management to make decisions. (unless you'll get fired for it) The project push doesn’t end when the website launches. LESSONS LEARNED 3
17. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 IMPLEMENTATION 4 !"#$%&'()*+
18. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 IMPLEMENTATION 4 !"#$%&'()*+ Content Management (a CMS? Gasp!) Coding Framework Layout Framework Cool Stuff Framework
19. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 “[Choosing jQuery] is like choosing the guitar. If you’re going to pick an instrument to play, the guitar’s a cool one to choose, because there’s so much information about it out there. There’s a lot more [Google] results for guitar tabs and jQuery tutorials than there are for banjo tabs and MooTools tutorials.” Chris Coyier css-tricks.com WHY?
20. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 Results... WHY? Flexible platforms for coding/design/hosting Updated often Easy to update/upgrade Easy to understand Trusted & Proven Tutorials galore Strong communities
21. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 Results... Built 9 Days 90+ contacts 7 submissions 170+ signups 80% spikes 0 downtime WHY? Flexible platforms for coding/design/hosting Updated often Easy to update/upgrade Easy to understand Trusted & Proven Tutorials galore Strong communities
22. WORDPRESS CASE STUDY by ERIC RASCH WORDPRESS HOUSTON MEETUP on FEBRUARY 21, 2011 THANK YOU! John Ritter Research Program @EricRasch @TheOOC at work 8 everywhere else 8 http://ericrasch.com/ http://med.uth.tmc.edu/comm/ http://bit.ly/ritterrules Check it out! 8 Twitter 8 8 qr Codes 8 8