VG Staff

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.

Posted by ats at 9:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I will work up a comprehensive report on the pros & cons, ups & downs, etc of my meeting with Karen and Dan last Wednesday. It looks like this semester we should put our efforts into getting the current content updated and polished in prep for redesign. More to come on that tomorrow and in the meeting next week.

In other news, we have had 10,000 visitors in the last 3 days! Zora Neale Hurston is our most viewed writer this the week.

Posted by ats at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The class I took this week confirmed for me that Dreamweaver is the way to go. If Dieter and 1-Help can help me figure out the current server situation, we can tell Dreamweaver to capture the VG site--pics, files, warts, and all. Once Dreamweaver captures it we can go to work making templates and cleaning it up.

So what goes into making the switch beyond the magic push of a button?

1) Planning and designing. Without getting too crazy, I think we should take this opportunity to improve the look and layout of the site. Everything from menus to color to navigation. If we do this part well, everything else will be fairly easy. And, when we've left VG to new folks, the transition will be smooth. Ideally the foundation of the site can be built for longevity even if nifty this-n-thats come and go.

2) Building templates accordingly (or stealing templates accordingly). The templates will really make the site consistent, yet with enough flexibility in the editable content areas for the inevitable variations. No more line by line coding. No cyberduck.

I think the challenge for us will be to figure out what needs improving, and more importantly, the best way to improve it.

The color panels in this post are from the great Adobe color site, Kuler . They have collections of color families and a tool to create your own color family. The ones here are from the top-rated collections. They are not suggestions, just show-and-tell on the tools and possibilities available for our little site.

Posted by ats at 9:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have filtered out the VG computer so that every time we visit the site from the office it won't be counted.

Posted by ats at 6:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a very productive chat with Dieter last night. Here are some of the highlights.

1) First and foremost, he agrees that a switch to Dreamweaver is an excellent idea that would simplify all aspects of maintaining VG site. For example, Dreamweaver will seek out dead links and inform us of them (rather than having to hunt them down). Dreamweaver would also be WYSIWYG--freeing us from the tedium of coding. And lastly, FTP transfer is built in to Dreamweaver, so we can leave Cyberduck behind.

Again, I'm taking the Dreamweaver course next week and hopefully then I will know more about its abilities. I know Dreamweaver will take up the Movable Type site. Most of the front-end labor for us will involve tweaking the site, adapting it, and building some new templates, etc. Dieter also pointed my to the Uthink master, and informed me that he might be helpful in advising us as we switch over.

2) The "New Additions" to Bios and Criticism on the main page side bar should automatically update itself. It will only list NEW entries, not updated entries. This function is written into the Main Index template in the Main blog on Movable Type. It seems to be working. Marcia, the criticism you added yesterday appears in the sidebar. In general, though, I don't think we should spend too much time working through issues like this until after the switch. (For example, I'm going to postpone my consternation over why pictures of Pearl Cleage won't load onto the site).

That said, in the meantime, if you are posting a lot on Ecto, I suggest you make an account for yourself (so Lauren and Dieter don't get all the credit:-) Here's how to do that.

3) Dieter is willing to help us out with any problems as long as we're on Ecto. Keep track of questions and issues, and I can forward them on to him.

4) Lastly, (and this has little to do with my talk with Dieter), I have unpublished the Attic, The CFPs, and The Kitchen. It still exists out there in the ether, it just doesn't show on the website. It's easy to put back online if there are strong feelings about keeping it up. I think things like Attic and Kitchen are initiatives we can revisit after the switch, but in the interest of de-cluttering for the moment, both Lauren and Dieter suggested that taking them down temporarily would be a fine idea.

Posted by ats at 9:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rather than wait on word from CLA-OIT, I just set up Google Analytics to track trends on the VG site. It seems to be working. (We've had 78 visitors since last night at 6pm). However, if we want stats going back further, we'll have to check with CLA-OIT.

I set up the trend tracker through my gmail account. If anyone else wants access and control of the analytics, just send me your gmail address and I'll add you.

How I did it: I cut and pasted the code generated by Google Analytics into the footer template in the 'Main" blog on Movable Type.

Posted by ats at 8:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)