Redesign & Giving Content
The CLA-OIT web team WILL work with us to create an updated VG site.
The Good: The technical stuff will be handled by capable web designers and developers whose job it is to make websites in CLA. They know a lot about web design and web architecture. And, they can implement a site that is sustainable whether we have four RAs working or just one humble volunteer. Here's a list of recent work they've done (I particularly like elements of Asian L & L and PoliSci). They've done a number of department websites, so in some ways we present a new challenge for them since our site is a different species.
Asian Languages and Literatures
CLA
Geography
Political Science
The Bad:
First of all, CLA can't begin working on the site until May. What we can do in the meantime is get all the content in updated and ready. (Marcia has made a wonderful tutorial on how to format the content for Microsoft Word according to the web team's standards).
Secondly, by going with CLA, we move from off-the-radar to on-the-radar in terms of being an 'official' U site. On the plus side, that means our website will meet the best accessibility standards so that visitors with special needs or visitors with slower internet connections will still be able to interact with our site. BUT, this also means we have to have the U's "universal header" in maroon and gold at the top of our page. Asian L&L snuck in one of the last integrated headers, but from now on the header has to be like it is on the English mainpage.
Marcia and I have worked up a basic draft of the navigational hierarchy, which I will bring to the meeting on Wed.
I also met with Emily Paulson about the giving content. I'll talk about that on Wed. There are some ways we might improve the language of the giving content, which is another thing we can discuss on Wed.