1. Website Migration Plan
School of Public Service
2018

2. Overview
The Boise State website will be changing, with a staged rollout beginning in late July.
The School of Public Service change will take place at some point between October 1 & end of December.*
Individual pages will need to be repaired one page at a time.
*Caveat: Subject to change
Apologies – there is a lot of text on some slides. The presentation will be sent to everyone to read at their convenience.

3. Challenges
SPS has a large number of pages & posts. Approximately 1,300.
Subsites were built over different times by different people. Although a lot of work has been done to make them look more SPS-branded, there are still inconsistencies across subsites.
Even if many pages take only a few minutes, repairing 1,300 pages/posts will be extremely time-consuming.
We still have several pdfs that are not yet ADA-compliant.

4. Opportunities
The need to rebuild pages will force us to make decisions about what to keep and what to eliminate.
Since we don’t want to rebuild pages with outdated information, subsites could be rebuilt with new text and new urls.
We can create a meaningful work-study experience for a student.
We can exit the migration process with a much more manageable and cohesive site.
Since some of the non-compliant pdfs are on rarely-viewed pages, eliminating the page will bring us even closer to full ADA compliance.

5. Goals
Making it easy for students to find relevant information, especially since students are mostly using phones. Examples include:
Advising needs
Program requirements
Understanding the value of our programs and institutes
Presenting a positive image of the School and the University
Compliance with University directives and making SPS look and feel cohesive with Boise State’s theme
Ensuring accessibility of website for those with disabilities
Breaking down silos between programs. Having a cohesive look and navigation will help to make SPS look and feel more unified.
Eliminating redundancies and incorrect or outdated information
Arriving at a website that is more manageable and that can be worked on - in a limited and supervised way - by student workers.
Rather than throwing in more needles, we can make a smaller haystack.

6. Work Done So Far
Back-office work such as eliminating plug-ins like staff directory; rebuilding these pages in way compatible the new theme.
OIT working on our site as well. If they “fix” something, please don’t unfix it. It will look better on the new site.
Attending meetings with the new designers and sandbox session with OIT.
ADA-compliance of 100% (minus a few pdfs), which makes OIT very happy with us.
Review of SPS migration strategy by Dean’s Office and OIT.
Also, I am remediating shortcode when I encounter it.

7. Phases Pre-Migration: Now until sometime late Fall
Determine pages to keep
Eliminate as much shortcode as possible
Active Migration: Brief window in late Fall
Rebuild all pages
Create cohesiveness across SPS
Do as much as we humanly can
Changes made to existing site in this time won’t apply to new site
Post-Migration: after migration – Spring semester
Fix any coding errors
Improve aesthetics
Add any additional pages

8. New Site Department Homepage Example
Notice anything missing?
Old site:

9. ▽ ▽ ▽ We control these below ▽ ▽ ▽
New Site - A Few Details
Boise State Site – We DON’T control
Our menus are not prominent
Menus are not nested
▽ SPS ▽
▽ ▽ ▽ We control these below ▽ ▽ ▽

10. Two Big Issues Before Migration
Site architecture
Shortcode
90/10 Rule: 90% of users are looking for 10% of the stuff.

11. Information Architecture
With no left menu, we need to be more purposeful in how we organize our site.
Need to determine pages to include in menu at bottom of page.
SPS will be one. Maybe 5 more? Fewer the better. Viewers are on phone.
Combine pages or build landing pages.
What is most important to our users? Make those pages most visible.
90/10 Rule: 90% of users are looking for 10% of the stuff.

12. Not more needles, a smaller haystack

13. Shortcode
A shortcode is a WordPress-specific code that lets you do nifty things with very little effort. Shortcode = shortcut.
Shortcode will not be supported in the new site.
Popular Shortcodes:
Column Layouts
Buttons
Notice/Warning Box

14. Example of Shortcode in Current Use

15. What the Code Looks Like: Code view

16. What page will look like if not changed

17. Shortcode Replaced with formatted text
It looked better before. But this way works with new site.

18. Timeline Phase 1: Pre-Migration
July Moving pages not on menus to draft status. This will allow us to see if anyone misses any of these pages and if any show up as broken links in SiteImprove report.
August 20. Determine pages to be kept. For example, programs can limit number of pages to +/- 25. Pages beyond this amount will be rebuilt after all programs and institutes have theirs built.
Pages to be kept will be indicated on this spreadsheet.
Pages to be included as menus also on spreadsheet.
Rewriting of text to reduce it to more manageable length.
September: Replacing shortcode throughout pages (with exception of Dept. homepages, which will be built w/ panels).
Prior to migration: Schedule meeting with Jim to discuss goals for your pages. Can be short or long as you like.
If a page is important enough to miss, let’s put it on the menu. If it’s not important enough to put on menu, why have it?
Click on Spreadsheet link: show tabs for each program and what I’ve done with Dean’s Office.

19. Timeline Phase 2: Active Migration
Two- or Three-Weeks in Late Fall Repair/rebuild pages one at a time.
Starting with home pages, then secondary pages, then additional ones

20. Timeline Phase 3: Post-Migration
Fix any coding errors not caught such as shortcode
Improve aesthetics
Add any additional pages
Add any additional functions
Fix any broken links
Clean up
If a page is important enough to miss, let’s put it on the menu

21. Recap: Who Does What?
Selection of pages to rebuild and noting them on spreadsheet (prior to August 20): Team Support and/or program leads.
Information Architecture. Jim or Team Support. Let Jim know.
Replacing shortcode prior to migration: Jim and student worker.
Building primary & secondary pages during migration and managing student worker: Jim
Rebuilding tertiary pages (such as blog posts): Student worker
Troubleshooting and rebuilding any additional pages post-migration: Student worker, Jim and Team Support.

22. Thank You!