Ready… Set… Launch
Tomorrow morning we will be launching the redesigned www.anselm.edu. We do so with a tremendous sense of pride and with gratitude to many, but with an equal dose of trepidation about what we know will be some initial points of confusion.
As we launch, we know there are a several bugs still present, some areas where load time will be slower than optimal and where some graphics and content are still in development. The Website is, and will remain, a work in progress. It’s a publication that will never be finished.
You will see that some things have moved. If a link had been on the homepage for 10 years, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will still be there. Please know that no decisions were made without the careful involvement from the broadest possible number of internal and external constituents. In all cases, decisions were made according to best practices in online publishing.
People will have immediate questions such as, “Where do I find this page?” As these questions arise, we will be in triage mode, doing the best we can to respond in as timely a fashion as possible. Please be patient. The site’s search engine will not be available immediately as indexing needs to occur post launch. We’ll need your patience on that front as well.
There will be a lag time between launch and on campus training for site editors and authors. This week, you will receive dates and times for training sessions in the new content management system. We will also be instituting a new service for faculty and staff where we will have regular Web workshops (CMS labs) for those who seek to expand their skills in writing for the Web or simply to discuss a unique challenge or a new idea.
If you were interviewed for our Faces section of the Website and do not see that profile, don’t worry – it’s coming. We are juggling multiple assignments, ranging from the technical to the creative.
As noted in a previous e-mail, people should be prepared for the fact that the site is organized to correspond with best practice in user experience of our lead audience, which is prospective students. It is not organized around administrative functions at the college.
Finally, please know that a tremendous effort has been devoted to laying the foundation, reviewing technology, creating road maps for navigation, and gathering literally thousands of pieces of information and photos. Much of the technical work is and will remain invisible to the site visitor, but will be absolutely critical to our ability to build the site out in new directions.
To every person who participated in this process, from RFP review committee and CMS selection committee to those who agreed to our requests to be interviewed and photographed and those students who spent their winter breaks migrating thousands of pages of information, you all have our gratitude. Thanks especially to the senior leadership team for supporting this endeavor. The college’s lead publication will help all of us to put a fresh face on an enduring legacy.
Site Hosting, Ingeniux Install, Campus Calendar, and Other Updates
A screen shot of the new campus calendar (beta version)
It’s been an incredibly busy last several weeks. Between juggling content writing, content migration, and setting up the technology to run the new Saint Anselm site, its been hard staying on top of everything. Over the past month and a half we’ve been configuring our new hosting platform with Rackspace. It’s a very robust hosting platform that will allow us to do a few things we haven’t been able to do to this point. The tech support at Rackspace has been great and they will provide us with another important layer of technical support for our Web site.
Last week we installed our new Ingeniux CMS on our servers. The new CMS comes in two parts, a design-time server, which is the server that stores CMS Web content and it is the software content authors and editors will access to edit pages in the new site. The design-time server then publish static pages out to a separate server called a run-time server. Changes and replication between the two servers are managed by peer-sync software. We’ve been hearing good thinks from the developers at BarkleyREI about the robustness of the new CMS.
Last week we also had our second walk through and review of all the new Ingeniux page types (Web templates) with BarkleyREI. It was very exciting to see everything coming together and to see just how easy it will be to post and manage content in the new CMS. The right column of the CMS will offer content authors many options from inserting photo galleries and video to pulling in Flickr feeds, YouTube videos, RSS feeds, and callouts to content on the site. Each department or section of the site will be able to have its own automated news and calendar areas. The new site will utilize a site-wide taxonomy (or keywords) allowing us to tag and distribute news content across the site.
The new site will also feature a vastly improved campus calendar, which will allow college departments to pull in events within their sites also using tags. I’ve included a screen shot of the calendar with this blog post and you can check out a beta version of the calendar at calendar.anselm.edu. Please note that none of the links in the header or footer of the calendar currently work as we still need to move the CMS to our Web server. The new calendar will allow visitors to subscribe to events, receive e-mail notifications and reminders, add to Outlook calendars, or bookmark an event to dozens of social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter. Both news and event categories will feature RSS, which will allow content contributors to syndicate content to any number of external sites. It’s important to note that a new campus calendar was one of the top three requests we received from students, faculty, and staff during the site discovery phase of the project.
Later this week, after BarkleyREI has finished running the site through quality assurance testing, we will start to build out the structure of the site (the site-wide navigation). Shortly thereafter, we will begin adding the thousands of pages of new and existing content that needs to be migrated into the new CMS. This is an enormous undertaking, one that will take several weeks to complete. At some point in the coming weeks we will have a beta version of the site available for the campus community to preview.
Lastly, we are currently behind on content writing, so this work will continue into the next several weeks as well.
Web Redesign Update / Tentative Site Launch Schedule
We are in the final months of the Web site redesign project that we have been working on for the past 18 months. I’d like to update you on our progress and seek some help as we prepare to switch to a new Content Management System (CMS).
Update
We are tentatively scheduled to launch the new site in mid-May following final exams. We are several weeks behind with finalizing site development, content writing, and content migration. You can follow our progress at http://www.anselm.edu/redesign or by clicking the link in the footer of the college’s home page.
Over the break, we pulled thousands of pages of essential information from the current site’s CMS in preparation to move them to the new CMS.
Much work remains, however, as we develop the new site, write content, and prepare for the migration.
For People Who Post Content to the Current Site
Please keep track of any updates you make to a Web site in the current CMS after Jan. 4, 2010. Keep those changes in a Microsoft Word document so we can incorporate them in the new CMS prior to launch. That way, the latest version of your pages will appear with the new site. Additional directions on this process are provided in this blog post.
For Those Who Maintain Non-CMS Sites
This notice does not pertain to sites uploaded via FTP, managed with software like Adobe Dreamweaver, or any other sites outside our current CMS. These pages will be automatically migrated to the new hosting platform the week prior to launching the new site. All faculty and staff will be notified via e-mail as we get closer to the date.
Thank you for your patience and for your assistance as we move through this exciting project. When launched, our new Web site will allow Saint Anselm College to tell its many stories in new and dynamic ways.
If you haven’t yet seen the new site design, I urge you to visit the design category of this blog.
Changes Regarding Web Site Update Requests
Early this week the campus was notified via an all-campus e-mail that the Web staff would be “unable to take on any new Web projects from November though January” given that we are in the home stretch of the redesign project.
We will continue to perform Web updates on the site that are important or critical to the business of the college. But we will push off those updates that are of a less critical nature so we can focus our full attention on the new Web site.
This is by no means an odd thing. Michael Stoner (mStoner) wrote a great post on his blog this week entitled “Timing is Everything,” which offers some insight into the amount of time it can take to redesign or redevelop a college Web site. It’s a good read and offers some details on the experiences of a few colleges that have gone through recent redesigns. And just to reference one sentence in his post, Saint Anselm is “redeveloping” its Web site (its much more than a redesign). We are deploying new CMS technology, introducing new functionality and content, and redesigning the look and feel of our site. So our project time frame has been on the longer side.
Ingeniux Selected as New Content Management System
I’m pleased to announce that we have selected Ingeniux as our new content management system (CMS). The selection comes after nearly eight weeks of work and with considerable assistance and input from our Web vendor, BarkleyREI, and the CMS Selection Group, which included staff, faculty, and student representation.
The CMS finalists were Ingeniux (based in Seattle) and Hannon Hill (based in Atlanta). Both CMSs have a strong foothold in the higher education space with hundreds of college implementations between the two companies. Both CMS companies spent a full day on campus in April where they met with the Web staff, key staff from Information Technology, and provided two-hour demos of their CMSs in front of our selection group.
We started the CMS selection process with a clear understanding of our CMS functional requirements and objectives. These were communicated early on in the Web redesign project in the original RFP and then again during the CMS selection process. Both vendors submitted full proposals, which covered in detail how they matched up against our functional requirements. Their on-site demos also addressed how each product addressed our requirements. Both Hannon Hill and Ingeniux met most of these requirements, but in the end, Ingeniux came out on top. Read more
Schedule Set for On-Site CMS Demonstrations
All faculty and staff are invited to attend two upcoming content management system (CMS) on-site demonstrations. The dates for these sessions are included below. If you wish to attend any of the sessions, RSVP with Tricia Halliday at 656-7240 or thalliday@anselm.edu so we can provide a head count to Dining Services for refreshments and have enough seats set up to accommodate everyone who wishes to participate.
As was announced previously in this blog, a campus group is assisting College Communications and Marketing will CMS selection. The CMS is the software used by the college to manage Web site content.
INGENIUX – http://www.ingeniux.com
Date/Time: Wed., April 15 – 9:30a.m.-11:30 a.m
Location: NHIOP Auditorium
Ingeniux has more than 100 college implementations of their CMS, including Stonehill, Franklin and Marshall, Bates, Roanoke, Swarthmore, University of the Pacific, University of Puget Sound, and University of Pittsburg, to name a few.
HANNON HILL CASCADE SERVER - http://www.hannonhill.com
Date/Time: Wed., April 22 – 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
Location: NHIOP Auditorium
Hannon Hill has more than 100 college implementations of their Cascade Server CMS, including North Carolina State University, William & Mary, Bowdoin, Brandeis, Duke, Emory, Hofstra, and Northwestern, among others.
Campus Group to Assist With CMS Selection
As part of the redesign project, the college will be selecting and implementing a new content management system (CMS). The CMS is the software used by the college to manage Web site content.
The following faculty, staff, and students are assisting College Communications and Marketing with reviewing three-to-four content management systems. The CMS Selection Group will review content management system proposals, participate in on-site demos for each system, and provide feedback and recommendations to College Communications and Marketing regarding CMS selection.
CMS Selection Group Members
Doug Minor, Communications and Marketing (chair)
Adam Albina, Information Technology
Katherine Bentz, Fine Arts
Lauren Chooljian, Student, History
Lorie Cochran, NHIOP
John Dillon, Geisel Library
Fr. Mathias Durette, O.S.B., Student Affairs
Lisa Gowern, Events Management
Nancy Griffin, Admission
Keith Hrasky, Admission
Rui Li, Information Technology
Anne Lord, Alumni Relations
Br. Issac Murphy, O.S.B., Monastery
Jessica Pappathan, Chapel Art Center
Michelle Rocheleau, Academic Affairs
Laura Rossi, Communications and Marketing
Bob Shea, Dana Center
Cory True, student, politics
College Communications and Marketing is very appreciative of this group’s assistance during this phase of the redesign project during what is a very busy time of year for everyone.
Share Your Thoughts at an Upcoming Web Redesign Listening Session
As College Communications and Marketing (CCM) continues to plan for the redesign of the Saint Anselm College Web site, we have scheduled several upcoming listening sessions in an effort to gather further input on the college’s current Web presence and campus needs.
Listening sessions will feature 60-75 minutes of discussion moderated by CCM staff. We’ll be available to go beyond 75 minutes if extra time is required.
Dates and Times (all sessions held in North Lounge, Cushing Center)
- Wed., November 12 – 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. (faculty and staff only)
- Wed., November 19 – 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. (faculty and staff only)
- Wed., November 19 – 7 p.m. – 8 p.m. (student-only evening session)
- Thurs., November 20 – 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. (faculty, staff, and students)
- Fri., November 21 – 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. (faculty-only session)
Please make plans now to attend an upcoming listen session and tell CCM what’s on you mind. If you have questions, please feel free to use the comments feature of this blog or contact Doug Minor, managing editor/director of Web publishing, at 656-6184.
Web Redesign RFP Out the Door
Earlier today the Web Redesign Request for Proposal (RFP) was mailed to 12 vendors who have expressed an interest in submitting a project proposal. The deadline for responses is August 4. All of the vendors have worked on higher education Web sites and several have experience in multiple industries (tourism, health care, financial, among others).
An advisory group will assist College Communications and Marketing in reviewing the submitted vendor proposals and narrow the selection to three finalists. The finalists will then be invited to campus for onsite proposal presentations.
The following faculty, staff, and student will review the proposals.
- Adam Albina, CIO, Office of Information Technology
- Anne Botteri, Asst. VP, College Communications and Marketing
- John Dillon, Assistant Librarian/Head of Tech Services, Geisel Library
- Fr. Mathias Durette, O.S.B., Asst. Dean of Students, Student Affairs
- Nancy Griffin, Dean of Admission, Office of Admisison
- Doug Minor, Director of Web Publishing, College Communications and Marketing
- Prof. Jay Pitocchelli, Chair, Biology Department
- Laura Rossi, Web Producer and Editor, College Communications and Marketing
- Cory True ‘09, Politics Major, Student Representative
Listed below are many of the key elements included in the RFP
Redesign goals and objectives
- Provide a consistent look and feel across all newly designed pages
- Improve the design and navigation of the top level of the site, while representing the college in a consistent and compelling manner
- Information categories are consistent across similar pages
- Select and deploy a new content management system (CMS)
- Improve the user experience for all visitors with specific emphasis on prospective students and on-campus users (current students, faculty, and staff)
- Present a highly interactive user experiences (using current technologies, including blogs, podcasts, viral video, virtual tours, photo galleries, wikis, etc.)
- Improve the site’s “sticky-ness” to produce return visits and increased time on the site
- Enhance the student recruitment process
- Simplified maintenance of site for all content editors
- Search engine optimization for higher and lower level pages.
Site hosting, requirements, and functionality
- Site hosting can be done on a Windows, Linux, or Unix platform
- Site must adhere to currently accepted Web and accessibility standards, specifically follow W3C standards for XHTML transitional and accessibility requirements as outlined in U.S. section 255 guidelines and Section 508 standards, as well as WCAG 2.0 issued by the W3C consortium
- Server and CMS platform that integrates with current campus technology and systems
- CMS should feature cross-platform compatibility and browser-based editing
- Considerations should be made for the increase use of the Web from mobile devices
- Externally accessible, Web-based events calendar, that supports online submission of events, subcalendars, RSS feeds, iCal and Outlook posting capabilities, and content syndication or tagging for use across the site
- Consideration of how the site can leverage Web 2.0 approaches and technology: social networking, blogging, podcasting, viral video, content tagging, wikis, and additional interactive features.
Vendor deliverables
- Detailed production schedule with listed milestones
- Clearly defined Web redesign strategy
- A site audit of current site (including current information architecture and content inventory), college resources, and staffing
- Technology audit and technology strategy/technical specifications for hosting new CMS, non-CMS sites, database server(s), and multimedia content (audio, video, and digital assets)
- New design including original artistic elements, graphics, logos, wireframes, color palette, and three site design concepts
- Design standards and a plan for implementing them consistently
- Design and respective coding for homepage and interior, lower-level pages
- Design and coding for specialty sites: admission, NHIOP, academics, academic departments, athletics, library, Dana Center, Chapel Art Center, news, campus calendar, campus map, and virtual tour
- Style guide
- Redesign project/client site for tracking project deliverables, status, and reporting bugs.
Web redesign projects of this size are typically broken out into five stages
- Discovery – The “get to know us” phase. This phase is all about gathering data about the college as well as our current Web presence. The vendor will visit the campus for two or more days, meet with groups across campus, survey college constituents, gather any completed market research we’ve done, review existing print publications and college competitors, among other areas
- Strategy – The discovery phase informs the strategy phase. A comprehensive plan is put together outlining our approach to the redesign, including content, approaches to information architecture, technology, messaging, among other details
- Design – The strategy phase informs the design phase. During this phase, design comps are created for the home page and interior pages. Focus groups and acceptance testing are used to identify issues and opportunities with the designs
- Build – During the build phase, all the pieces come together: technology, design, information architecture (site navigational structure), and content (text, images, multimedia). Existing content from the current site’s CMS is migrated into the new CMS
- Testing and deployment – During this phase the site is run through quality assurance testing as well as usability testing to catch issues before launch. After QA testing is complete the site is publicly launched.