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.
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Building Academic Websites (in the real world)
1. Brian Farr
Valerie Forrestal
Systems Manager
College of Staten Island
Web Services Librarian
College of Staten Island
CUNY IT Conference ~ 12.6.13
2.
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
3.
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?
4. 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-directorystructure-sear.php)
8. Joomla:
• Customizations prevented
updates
• Messy back-end/admin
interface
• Old, vulnerable plugins
Learning curve
Will you need user
accounts?
Will it continue to be
supported?
Server requirements
Back end code
Versioning
Functions vs. content
Site performance
Why WordPress?
• Any CMS will do what we need
• Leanest
• Easiest
• Least intimidating to librarians
• Better separation between
code & content
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14. For questions or more info:
brian.farr@csi.cuny.edu
valerie.forrestal@csi.edu
Site @ did.csi.cuny.edu/wp
Slides @ vforrestal.com