designing a one-size-fits-all university web template, and other impossible behemoth challenges
TRANSCRIPT
Designing a One-Size-Fits-All University Web Template, and other Impossible Behemoth Challenges
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Other Behemoth Challenges
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Institutionalized
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The similarities between prison life and university life are several...
credit: http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/2005/06/
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Both places have tiny rebellions and mutinies, mostly insignificant, sometimes violent.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Most people are involved in sports.Every else reads.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Lots of free concerts.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Some say there’s also very bad pay, and/or squalid living conditions.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The most common parallel: one’s inability to leave after years of regimen.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Get to know the internal academic and administrative mechanics of a university while keeping your edge, staying productive, and remembering your duty to the
external audience...
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Don’t Get Comfortable
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Design Arrogance
We design things to work one way, and we’re unprepared for how people REALLY use them.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
A desire path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and
destination.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Do not build what you cannon sustain
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Oh, we could build a custom website for...
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Websites, like campfires, require tending and maintenance. You can’t build 12 of them, walk
away, and expect anything but failure.
They’ll become useless and die without constant care.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Or they’ll rage out of control and burn you alive.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The negativity. What about the positives?
• cool things going on
• relative job security
• hey you’ve got a gym, and a library, at WORK!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Universities are great places to work.
Interesting People
Interesting Stories
Great place to escape corporate life and work for the public good.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Universities have trouble publishing and promoting their content in a unified, dignified manner, which leads us to...
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Web Templates
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Designing a One-Size-Fits-All University Web Template
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Teamwork
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Outliers
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
think about this
• Hundreds of crazy websites
• Who knows how many are coded correctly. SEO?
• Who knows how many are accessible?
• They don’t benefit from campus Google analytics.
• Etc..
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The student experience
Saturday, July 24, 2010
…Along they way they bounce through three additional department Web sites, but the prospective student feels like they’ve been to three completely different university sites.
Source: .eduGuru: Reining in the outliers for a university-wide cohesive web presence
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Each step along the way they have to figure out where the navigation and search bar have moved, how their content is organized, what lingo they use, and likely have a completely different experience on each site.
Source: .eduGuru: Reining in the outliers for a university-wide cohesive web presence
Saturday, July 24, 2010
From a Branding Perspective
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Branding is about more than logos and colors.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
User Experience IS the Brand.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Mass production of pages is a good thing because the audience wants the information, not each content contributor’s own personal vision of how it should look. We tried that model. It was called GeoCities and it didn’t work out that well.
source: http://www.contenthere.net/2009/07/you-bought-a-web-page-factory-not-a-webmaster-android.html
Saturday, July 24, 2010
How to Proceed?
Where to Start?
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Focus on enforcement?
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Or
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Focus on building better templates.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Part of the problem is our current template offering...
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Mistakes were made.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Collective Blame
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Banner Area
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
800 px width is old school
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Global navigation
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Do this once, and do it right
• Design an attractive, sustainable system of layout/templates.
• Design them to expand and adapt.
• Don’t get sloppy. Pay attention to detail. Your work will be propagated and reproduced on hundreds and thousands of pages.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
First, let’s get something straight.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Presentation is secondary.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
In order of importance
Saturday, July 24, 2010
1. Our web content. What we say How we say it How we organize what we say 2. How that content is presented.
In order of importance
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Product vs Packaging
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Presentation is secondary, but still very important.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Where to start?
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Design standards, and centralized set of templates
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Who are you?
Web people in large organizations come in two types:
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Who are you?
Those who conjure up web branding and identity policies...
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Who are you?
And those who live under them.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
This I Believe
For every 1 site owner upset about restricted design freedom, there are 15 site owners who just want a solid foundation and framework to work within.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
This I Have Noticed
I’ve been pilfering through dozens of university web branding guidelines lately. I’ll attempt to categorize them:
• Nazi Web Branding Guidelines
• The Helpful and Supportive Web Guidelines
• The Loose, Lax, Almost Anything is Acceptable, Web Branding Guidelines
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Why is this IMPORTANT?
Besides branding? It's important because it allows people to spend their resources on CONTENT, not hiring designers, css gurus and developers.
They can spend money on content creation. Text, videos, photography, news, etc...
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Don’t screw this up
• Be "more wider"
• Allow for a higher level of sub-branding/customization and design while maintaining consistent level of presentation.
• Require less graphic labor to setup/launch
• Room to grow; Allow pathways for future enhancements
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Start with a grid.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Why the boxes? Show me something, Mr web designer.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Ye Old Box Model helps us to:
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Ye Old Box Model helps us to:
• Get a head start coding the structure of the site(s)
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Ye Old Box Model helps us to:
• Get a head start coding the structure of the site(s)
• Make important decisions about structure and formatting without caught up in conversations about finding the right font, color, or photo
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Ye Old Box Model helps us to:
• Get a head start coding the structure of the site(s)
• Make important decisions about structure and formatting without caught up in conversations about finding the right font, color, or photo
• In the same way an author makes an outline before writing a book, this serves as my visual outline before creating a design.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
What next?
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Typography
Saturday, July 24, 2010
http://informationarchitects.jp/the-web-is-all-about-typography-period/
Saturday, July 24, 2010
• Be "more wider"
• Allow for a higher level of sub-branding/customization and design while maintaining consistent level of presentation.
• Require less graphic labor to setup/launch
• Room to grow; Allow for future enhancements
• We want something simple and elegant, in which layout and typography can stand on their own.
Don’t screw this up
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
http://ualr.edu/communications/assets/images/tierzoom/index.html
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Cookie Cutter?
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
True Statement:
We don’t know for certain HOW people are viewing our site(s).
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
One of the Goals
• Allow for a higher level of sub-branding/customization and design while maintaining consistent level of presentation.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Things that Templates won't "Fix"
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Well crafted messaging
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Information Architecture
Saturday, July 24, 2010
With templates, content contributors have less responsibility for layout and branding of the site but they are responsible for the words and pictures and organization of the content.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The quality and craftsmanship of those aspects of the site needs to be recognized.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Before you hire a designer,
Saturday, July 24, 2010
hire a writer.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
That is everything I know.
Learn from my continued failure...
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Drew Stephens
The E to the mail:[email protected]
Incoherent ramblings:collegewebguy.com
Shorter incoherent ramblings:twitter.com/collegewebguy
Steal some bookmarks:delicious.com/thisisdrew
View an awful design portfolio:thisisdrew.com/portfolio
I took a photo of myself. How pathetically egotistical.
Saturday, July 24, 2010