Content Management
The big question….how do you keep your content fresh (especially on over 75,000 pages)? Well, it’s up to your content contributors…your stakeholders…your faculty/staff/graduate students/student workers. So, the easier it is for them, the more likely your content will stay fresh, updated and pertinent.
So, we looked at a content management system to ease this work for our content contributors. Unfortunately, many of our focus group users found it to be clunky, unfriendly and much more difficult and time-consuming than the current software….Microsoft Frontpage. So, we decided to forgo the CMS (for now) in favor of the most recent Microsoft product…ExpressionWeb. It has many of the same functions as Frontpage. It even follows the same look, structure and icons. It also takes advantage of ASP.NET functionality, allowing us to develop Master Pages, site maps and such to ensure that our users are only changing content, not making major design changes. Consistency, consistency, consistency.
So, many of our new pages will follow the ASP.NET language, having the extension aspx. However, we also be taking advantage of some new capabilities for database management, using PHP and MySQL. Therefore, some bookmarks will no longer work.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:58 pm
For design, APSU should look to flash based elements for seamless style and unending service possibilities. A mirrored HTML site should be established for older computers without flash capabilities. This enables media content to provide endless programming opportunities. With a point and click user interface data could be inputted into the flash and mirrored HTML sites the way it is on popular sites like MySpace.com, that is, in the same format this comment box is in. This feature enables fresh content to be added by anyone with basic computer skills.
-Ash Wright
Photographer, The All State
http://www.wrightfoto.com
July 6th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
While FLASH does make a good looking site, keep in mind that that you also need to make the site “readable” by applications for the visually impaired. Using FLASH also adds some maintenance complexity to pages that are maintained by non-technical staff (such as department pages). Keep FLASH on the main page with an HTML option for those who have problems using it. Also do not build your site around INTERNET EXPLORER (IE). Other browsers, such as FIREFOX and SAFARI, are growing in use, especially among high school and college students. Finally, take into consideration the growth in the use of other web-enabled devices such as PDAs. Stay ahead of the tech adoption curve.
Please also expand what is available for alumni AND keep the information posted on the site up to date.
July 19th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I agree that the webpage should not be build around IE. When I lived on campus, the browser that I used on my older computer 99% of the time was Firefox.
July 15th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
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