NC State Engineering COE Web Committee, Nov '05 Destructive Creation Creative Destruction (only one of these is a good thing) Troy Hurteau - ITECS

NC State Engineering Overview ● Discuss the Direction of the College Web – Our Top Secret Strategy – Playing Roles ● University/College/Departments ● IT/Users ● Technologies – What Are We Not Doing That We Should Be? ● What Are We Doing That We Shouldn't?

NC State Engineering Top Secret Strategy ● New Template – Flexible Box Model - Shared – CSS Styles – Customizable – New Design Goals – Accessibility & Usability Enhancements – Integrated Scripts ● Content Miracle – Finding a Content Management Solution

NC State Engineering Shared Flexible Box Model ● Sharing Structure, Not Look & Feel – Programmatic Use of,, class and id – Content & Navigation “Chunks” – Every Chunk Can Be Styled the Same ● CSS Allows For Shared or Custom Look & Feel – Browser/WYSIWYG PHP Detection – Content Migrates – One Change Propagates The Entire Site Instantly – Soft or Firm Look & Feel Sharing

NC State Engineering Shared Box Model Illustration

NC State Engineering Design Goals ● Pure CSS Layout – Easy Migration to Future Looks – Browser Detection for Compatibility Fixes ● Text Only Navigation – Readily Available Fonts (Helvetica Neue/Arial) ● Clearer Sense of Location ● Built In Accessibility & Usability ● Discourage Arbitrary Styling

NC State Engineering More Design Goals ● Divorce Political Structure and Site Structure – Front Page Supports Finding Groups & Content In the College ● Navigation On the Front Page Allows Deep Linking & Is Easily Changed ● Everyone wants to be on the front page – Site Structure Organizes Real Content ● Careful Organization Helps Balance Lack of Content ● Emphasizes Primary Missions

NC State Engineering Enhancements ● Bleached Content In the WYSIWYG – (Optional) Hiding of Positional Styles In WYSIWYG Editor – Encourage Users To Not Style Content ● Printable Versions (Integrated Script) ● Unhidden Skip Links ● Contact On Every Page (Integrated Script) ● Bread Crumb Navigation Indicates Location (Integrated Script)

NC State Engineering More Enhancements ● Highlighting Indicates Current Section (Integrated Script) ● One Template (to rule them all) ● Better Use of Caching ● Expose Contribute Connection Keys (Integrated Script) ● Quick Links & Quick Accessibility ● Self Monitoring (Integrated Script) ● Shared Content (Ties Into Location Scripts)

NC State Engineering The CM Layer ● What CMS? – Still the Big Unknown ● Option Buffet (And/Or) – Contribute – PhpCMS – PhpWebsite – XML – Wiki – RSS

NC State Engineering New and Shifting Roles ● How Will the University, College and Departments Affect the Web? – Appearance – Content Management – Policy ● The Role of IT and the User – Splitting the Work Smarter – Teaching Old Dogs

NC State Engineering The Technology Piece ● It's a Real Bear ● Technology Addiction – “You'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands” ● Serving a Buffet Vs. a Four Course Meal

NC State Engineering The Technology Puzzle The Part We Still Haven't Pinned Down

NC State Engineering Shoulds and Should Nots Discussion Starter: ● IT Should Provide Facilities To Get Work Done – More Work on The Web – IT Shouldn't Author Content (Other than Computing Support Content Obviously) – IT Shouldn't Foster Exceptions ● Users (Without Technical Knowledge) Shouldn't Implement Dynamic Systems – PHP everywhere is a double edged sword, fortunately most users don't know how to take it out of the scabbard