Creating and Redesigning Websites

Website creation and redesign projects move quickly, and the Digital Marketing team will walk you through every step of the process. We’re here to help you create a web presence that is useful and effective through one of our processes.

Key Ideas

• Websites are never done. Things are always changing, and unlike printed media, web content can be changed at any time and for any reason. Don't worry about making everything perfect because you can go back and update after launching a new site.
• Websites should be visually engaging. Like books, people judge websites by their “covers,” so we strive to create websites that are visually engaging.
• We adhere to the Goldilocks principle for web content—not too little, certainly not too much, but just right. Audiences for websites are more likely to scroll and skim than to dive deeply into the content, so use headings and lists to help organize content on your pages.
• Unlike a printed environment, websites are viewed on a myriad of devices with a range of screen sizes. We prioritize structures for content that are accessible and usable for all website visitors on all devices.
• Websites are like pets. They need to be fed and watered on a regular basis. And like free puppies, there’s quite a bit of work early on. Be prepared to invest some time and effort during the implementation process, and your work will be rewarded.

The Process

We’re here to help you create a web presence that is useful and effective, and we rely on your team to be subject matter experts for your content.

Depending on the size and scope of your project, you should be prepared for members of your team to allocate 10-20 hours a week for each of the weeks during the project. The exact amount of time needed will depend on how much content will need to be generated (pages written, images selected, etc.).

Phase 1: Planning & Scheduling

• Spend some time considering goals and objectives. Your website should be helpful by providing useful information to website visitors and advancing the mission of the University. Evaluating your objectives before the project will help you articulate these goals to the digital marketing team.
• Determine a good time for the project. We want to make sure that our team and your content managers are available to work on the website. We'll work closely with you to schedule the project.
• Plan to work collaboratively to finish the project on schedule. We support nearly 400 websites, so  it's important that we start and finish on schedule. Projects that are delayed may have to be rescheduled.

Phase 2: Website Implementation

Week 1

Project Kickoff

• Digital marketing hosts a kickoff meeting on Teams (or in person if practicable) to discuss goals and objectives. This meeting includes your web consultant, someone from the digital design team, and key stakeholders from your department. These meetings often include a departmental chair or area director.
  • During the meeting, the digital marketing team crafts a homepage narrative based on the key points.
  • This homepage narrative is supplied to your team for review and approval.
• Digital marketing arranges a Drupal training session where you receive a hands-on tutorial on how to use Drupal.
• Your team creates a draft sitemap. As the subject matter experts, we rely on you to enumerate and the structure for web content. A sitemap serves as the blueprint for everything to be included on the site (example sitemap), but like all website projects, this sitemap doesn't have to be complete. It needs to be a solid draft.

Week 2

Begin Implementation

Once the sitemap has been drafted, the homepage narrative has been approved, and the training session complete, the project can enter the implementation phase.

• Digital Marketing:
  • Create a Drupal site.
  • Begin implementation on landing page(s).
  • Find imagery and create bespoke design elements.
• You:
  • Create pages based on sitemap.
  • Generate and add content to pages on the site.
  • Share a Box folder with images (optional).

Week 3

• Digital Marketing:
  • Finalize imagery and design elements.
  • Continue implementation on landing page(s).
  • Provide support as needed.
• You:
  • Continue to create pages and add content.

Week 4

• Digital Marketing:
  • Finalize landing page implementation
  • Provide support as needed.
• You:
  • Finish creating pages and adding content.

Week 5

Website Launch

• Both: Final review of the site.
• Digital Marketing: Launch the site.