May 9, 2012 9 a.m. Capstone Team: Ashley Crockett, Nicole
Garner and Thomas Koll Convergence Website Redesign Client
Presentation
Slide 2
Project Summary Creating a user-friendly, fluid website for the
Convergence Journalism interest area Current site dated Difficult
for faculty to update Not meeting all student and faculty needs
Second semester of the project Sorting through previous work to
continue project
Slide 3
Previous Work Online Survey Sampled Convergence students
regarding needs 100% completion by 31 students Poorly constructed
questions Faculty Interviews Discussions with faculty members
regarding needs Information was not passed along to current team
Research into Content Management Systems (CMS) Final report
inconclusive, difficult to interpret Team created a rough site we
were able to expand from
Slide 4
Client Needs Shaped how we addressed site redesign project as a
whole Less research, more construction Short amount of time to
complete site migration Last team spent more time researching than
building Determine student, faculty needs early Quick
re-interviewing of faculty Using our own opinions/experience as a
student perspective Explore CMS/platforms used by similar online
entities
Slide 5
Client Needs One client, multiple audiences Faculty site for
class organization/reference Students using site for class
information, reference, help files Prospective students looking for
program information Online audience yet to be exposed to website or
who might have stumbled across the website While only one client,
we had to consider all of these audiences for site
reorganization
Slide 6
Faculty/Interest Area Easy updating system Updated, clean look
Repository for student work Students Updated, clean look Ease of
access for class info and help files Display of their work
Prospective Students Updated information about the interest area
Contact information for questions Unknown Audience Clear,
understandable information about the program Examples of what the
Convergence is/does Client Needs
Slide 7
Place for upcoming department events Emphasis on easy and
regular updating Calendar Events First return on a Google search
Would like ability to track site traffic Metrics Analysis Way for
4806 students to be included in web producing Ability to
continuously update website with new student work Inclusion of
Project Managers Client Wants
Slide 8
2150 course to soon receive its own website Remove 2150
Information Some help files outdated Updating FAQs, suggested
links, etc. Sort through old content Client Wants
Slide 9
Initial Planning and Research Project broken down into two
segments: Pre-site construction Understanding, developing list of
client needs through interviews Exploring and researching similar
websites Determining a CMS Migration of site content Post-site
construction User Experience Testing (UX Testing) Final site
corrections and edits Site publishing
Slide 10
Researching Comparable Schools Spent time looking at other
journalism schools and their websites Main observations: The design
of the site Site building technique (hand-coded or CMS?) Need for a
webmaster (can anyone without a web background update this?)
Slide 11
Javascript heavy No apparent CMS Would require a webmaster
Clean design Columbia Journalism School
Slide 12
HTML5 No apparent CMS Would require a webmaster Clean design
but lacked flow New York University Journalism School
Slide 13
Specifically hand built by a team Would require a webmaster
Generic design overloads the eyes with text Walter Cronkite School
of Journalism (ASU)
Slide 14
Used a Wordpress template Does not necessarily require a
webmaster; school does have a web master Clean, catchy design
Boston University College of Communication
Slide 15
Uses a Wordpress template Does not necessarily require a
webmaster Busy design distracts eyes Missouri School of
Journalism
Slide 16
CMS Selection Wordpress as selected CMS Current site ran off
Wordpress, potentially making site migration easier Familiar to
faculty, staff and students Easy to update and access Would not
require a webmaster or web design pro to maintain
Slide 17
Site Construction Updates and plugins Old site was five updates
behind Obtained needed plugins: video embedding, spam control,
calendar, creating backup files Major Changes Changed the theme to
Colorway Pro One time cost of $45 Allowed us to access HTML/CSS for
futher customization Allowed a photo slider to display more content
on front page
Slide 18
Site Construction Design Kept with black and gold color scheme
Using pre-made Colorway Protheme for pages Created a less dated
banner Ashley created multiple banners before we settled on one we
liked Updated navigation Created two main navigations on home page
Interior pages also hold navigation and quick links
Slide 19
Convergence Home For Students Courses Resources Student Work
Career Center Prospective Students Undergrad Info Grad Info FAQ
About Convergence About Faculty Partners FAQ Events Calendar
Slide 20
User Testing and Feedback Spent time researching user testing
methods Created own test consisting of six tasks Required user to
find their way to a particular portion of site Required user to
find a particular item Allowed user to give us feedback on design
or portions of the site that were not naturally easy Goal was to
target multiple kinds of users: Students in a variety of
Convergence courses Non-journalism users Faculty (less testing,
more feedback)
Slide 21
User Testing Tasks Recorded information about each test taker
Age, journalism status, computer and Internet skills Normal online
activities, previous visits to Convergence site, computer/browser
information First glance feedback Asked about the interpreted
purpose of the site Questioned first glance design appeal Six
tasks: Locating contact information of a faculty member Finding a
specific student-produced story Locating Frequently Asked Questions
Finding a student blog Locating information about lab equipment and
checkout procedures Finding a specific assignment on a
syllabus
Slide 22
UX Testing Feedback Problems Minimal errors in testing Second
navigation on interior pages was often bypassed Original home page
header was bland, sent us back to drawing board Task Time T1: 23
seconds T2: 21 seconds T3: 14 seconds T4: 34 seconds T5: 17 seconds
T6: 14 seconds Issues with time were often student tasks completed
by non-student testers Feedback Mostly positive Minimal suggestions
or no comment about a tasks difficulty Feedback about design helped
us brainstorm new logos
Slide 23
Problems Encountered Server connection Had some issues with the
server connection often times slow CMS control and customizing Many
fancier websites are built/maintained by private companies; those
sites use fancier techniques that would require a webmaster Had to
keep much of site relatively simple and easy for future managers
Task team issues After dividing up work and creating a scheduled
work flow, we lost a group member and had to re-saddle the amount
of work
Slide 24
Final Product Check out the upgraded, finished website
Slide 25
Sustainability Calendar We suggest having a TA, project
managers or department administrative assistant regularly editing
this Student work Project managers will be able to log in, add a
new page and upload content This system takes responsibility off
faculty and gives project managers something to show for efforts
Course information Faculty can easily edit syllabus and course
information on one page no longer a series of pages for each week
of the semester Enable Commenting Too much spamhad to temporarily
disable Once Justin enables automatic updates, the spam plugin will
work
Slide 26
Project Manager Inclusion Simple as creating a blog post, also
gives experience with SEO and web publishing Project Manager logs
in, creates new post Adds content to post Categorizes as student
work Creates tags, potentially an excerpt Selects a featured image
Publishes!
