building academic websites (in the real world)
DESCRIPTION
Presentation for the 2013 CUNY IT Conference, on realistic website development for non-commerce sites. Presenters Brian Farr & Valerie Forrestal from the College of Staten Island, City University of New York.TRANSCRIPT
Brian Farr Systems Manager College of Staten Island
CUNY IT Conference ~ 12.6.13
Valerie Forrestal Web Services Librarian
College of Staten Island
Clear, concise and logical navigation Simple, elegant design Advertise news and upcoming events Central search box for finding resources Repository for forms, policies, hours and
contact information
Site organization o Will your page groupings make sense to users? o Deep hierarchical design may require extra navigation, such as
secondary nav menus and/or breadcrumb links o Folder structure will also affect how links look
How many templates? (1 vs. 2 column design – how will mobile handle side column? Drop it? Stack it?
What kind of navigation? What nav should go on every page
External links? Deep footer?
Source: “How to Create a Directory Structure
Search Engines Rock To” by Stoney deGeyter
(http://www.searchengineguide.com/ston
ey-degeyter/how-to-create-a-directory-structure-sear.php)
How did we get here?
Joomla: • Customizations prevented
updates • Messy back-end/admin
interface • Old, vulnerable plugins
Why WordPress? • Any CMS will do what we need • Leanest • Easiest • Least intimidating to librarians • Better separation between
code & content
Learning curve Will you need user
accounts? Will it continue to be
supported? Server requirements Back end code
Versioning Functions vs. content Site performance
[email protected] [email protected]
Site @ did.csi.cuny.edu/wp
Slides @ vforrestal.com
For questions or more info: