May 9, a.m. Capstone Team: Ashley Crockett, Nicole Garner and Thomas Koll Convergence Website Redesign Client Presentation

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

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

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

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

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

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

2150 course to soon receive its own website Remove 2150 Information Some help files outdated Updating FAQs, suggested links, etc.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

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

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?)

Javascript heavy No apparent CMS Would require a webmaster Clean design Columbia Journalism School

HTML5 No apparent CMS Would require a webmaster Clean design but lacked flow New York University Journalism School

Specifically hand built by a team Would require a webmaster Generic design overloads the eyes with text Walter Cronkite School of Journalism (ASU)

Used a Wordpress template Does not necessarily require a webmaster; school does have a web master Clean, catchy design Boston University College of Communication

Uses a Wordpress template Does not necessarily require a webmaster Busy design distracts eyes Missouri School of Journalism

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

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

Site Construction Design Kept with black and gold color scheme Using pre-made “Colorway Pro”theme 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”

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

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)

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

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 task’s difficulty Feedback about design helped us brainstorm new logos

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

Final Product Check out the upgraded, finished website

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 spam—had to temporarily disable Once Justin enables automatic updates, the spam plugin will work

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!

Questions? Comments? Let’s discuss.