These are examples of the questions we discuss at meetings with the departmental web committee. Topics can vary by department. It usually takes 6-8 meetings over 12-16 weeks to address all the questions and complete the website build.
Vision/Goals
- What audience(s) are your top priorities?
- What are the strengths and key attractions of your department?
- What improvements do you hope to make by redesigning your website?
Content Strategy
- What content belongs on the site?
- Who is responsible for what content?
- How will you provide content to be transferred now?
- How will you manage the content moving forward?
- How will you manage collateral communication tools such as event calendars, social media, and newsletters?
Information Architecture
- Why do we use these primary sections in the navigation?
- How will content be organized so that users can navigate it easily?
- What categories will we use for classifying and sorting content? (fields of interest, news categories, event types, research categories)
- How else can we help users find and explore content?
Visual Design
- What content should be on the front page, and how should it be laid out?
- What style (color scheme and font combination) best reflects your department?
- What background imagery would complement the selected style and reflect your department?
- What photos should we use for front page, default images, visual interest on content?
Operational
- How does editing work on the new site?
- What type of training and support will our team provide?
- How do we launch the site?
- What happens to the old site?
- How do we ease faculty and students through the transition?
- Are we complying with all applicable university guidelines? (branding, accessibility, security, privacy, records retention)