Making it happen A 6

Making it happen A 6 - Web Site Redevelopment IWMW 2001: Organising Chaos

Implementation

Kent’s case Ø Structure and content from in-house Ø Design and template preparation by consultants Ø So - how to find the right outside company? M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

Criteria Ø Varied portfolios Ø Experience with public sector companies Ø Well-presented corporate sites Ø Structural design Ø Interface design Ø Graphic design M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

First round Ø 30 companies chosen from – Yahoo. co. uk - UK Web Design houses – New Media Age – Internet Magazine – Other Websites – Other design magazines – word of mouth M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

First round (cont. ) and invite Ø Small group of publications team and designers whittled down and chose 9 companies with a reserve list of 7 Ø 9 companies invited to tender – brief – covering letter – publications pack – suggested timeline to be followed if successful M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

The brief - important bits Ø Why Kent needed a new site Ø Who the site was for Ø What resources were available to maintain it Ø What technological aspirations were there (standards, browser compliance, speed) Ø Corporate style and publications pack Ø Have a contract - with penalty clauses M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

Second round Ø 5 companies accepted and tendered 13 designs in all Ø 45 staff and students invited to come and see - carefully chosen Ø Evaluation / ratings forms filled in by each Ø 3 companies invited to interview - 2 companies very popular and a third added due to popularity amongst design staff M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

Third (and final) round Ø Three companies invited to present their designs to selection panel of 8 – Senior management (including VC) – Web committee reps – Director of C&DO and Web Editor – University designer – Students’ Union M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

The project Ø Keymedia chosen Ø Initial meeting on-site with successful company Ø Communication via email and phone through design stages and then coding Ø Each stage involved a “signing-off” process M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

Staffing Ø Keymedia – – Project manager - liaison role Designer - initial stages until designed off Coder - later stages until end of project Design and technical managers - checks Ø In-house – Web Editor - 1 fte – Support -. 8 fte < 2. 3 fte for final fortnight – University designer - checks M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

Content Ø Re-organisation of current content - lengthy but possible – maintenance issues solved by pigging-backing on paper publications schedules Ø New content - tricky and time consuming – Who provides this and how often? – Will they meet your deadlines for the re-design? – Can your Web team do it all? Should they? M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

Challenges Ø Designers need to know limitations of Web as well as opportunities Ø Coders need to have read the brief or at least been told about it Ø Coders (ideally) should be as good or better than your in-house ones Ø Project manager needs to know their colleagues and be aware of all issues M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

Costs Ø 25 k server on special offer (Sun Ultra 450 lots of memory and big disks) Ø £ 500 to each company who tendered Ø Estimates of 8 -18 k for same brief Ø Tell them what you have and they will spend it - is this a good idea? Ø Razorfish - no marketing, no need - average client 100 k+ - : -( M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

Milestones Ø Structure finished Ø Design drafts 1 + 2 Ø Final designs Ø Coding of a page 1 Ø Templates drafts 1 + 2 Ø Final Templates Ø Content written Ø Scripts installed and tested on server M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury Ø Validation and accessibility checks done Ø Templates and content merged Ø User testing Ø Be prepared to go back to an earlier stage

Consultation Ø Strategy - management Ø Structure - users (as far as possible), management and peers Ø Interface and graphic design - usability literature, accessibility guidelines and user testing M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

Management and maintenance

Those involved. . . Ø Content writers Ø HTML coders Ø Information managers Ø Graphic designers / Multimedia Ø Server maintainers - script installers Ø Stats producers M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

Low maintenance options Ø PDFs Ø Static pages for static content Ø Databases for retrieval and collection Ø SSIs - Server Side Includes Ø Stylesheets Ø Dreamweaver templates and Library items Ø Excellent search and replace tools M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

How not to waste time and effort Ø Use tools that save time Ø Make sure that all pages have a purpose Ø Check they meet that purpose Ø Do not tie your Web site to any particular technology Ø Try not to duplicate the page length, writing style and graphic design of paper documents - change your content to fit the medium Ø Prioritise your activities to fit those of University M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

High maintenance options Ø Regularly changing structure Ø High graphics intensity for text and fonts Ø Templates that cannot be changed globally once applied Ø Static pages for regularly changing content Ø No search and replace tools Ø Text editor page editing M. E. C. Banbery@ukc. ac. uk : 26/06/2001 (c) 2001, The University of Kent at Canterbury

Making it happen A 6 — Web Site