Better late than never: a blog post about the redesigned JIBC website

We did it! After a year of planning and hard work, we launched the completely redesigned JIBC website on February 10, 2011.

Apologies to followers of this blog for not announcing the launch here and for the lack of blog posts after last December. The large volume of work that needed to be done in the last two months of the web redesign project got in the way of blogging. Big web redesigns are not for the faint of heart, but we survived and thrived.

When the website launched, the first news item on the homepage gave an overview of the new site’s features. Read the news item to see what we’re especially proud of with the site.

We’ve received many very positive comments about the redesign from students and other users of the website. We’ve also received suggestions for improvement, which we’re acting on. If you have suggestions for improving the site, please submit them through our feedback form.

We’re also eager to measure impact through a survey, which has questions about the new site that are the same as what we asked in a pre-launch survey about the old site. So please take a few minutes to fill out the survey, which will be open until May 15.

Finally, we’re excited about receiving the opportunity to present a session about our redesign odyssey at the upcoming  PSEWEB 2011 conference in Toronto. The May 19 session – Plan it and they will come: lessons learned from planning a post-secondary web redesign – will focus on how planning helped us in formidable tasks ranging from selecting a web content management system (which ended up being Drupal) to populating the site with a substantial amount of content. We’re also looking forward to attending sessions given by experienced higher ed web professionals from across Canada.

So while the website launched more than two months ago, the work of refining, optimizing and developing the site so users can have the best possible experience never ends. On that note, thank you for reading the JIBC Web Redesign blog.

Training underway, content uploading beginning

The first in a series of Drupal training sessions for JIBC staff took place December 13. The training was for JIBC staff responsible for overall administration of the website: Insook Kim, John Trimble, Lori Munro and Chris Wong. Domain7 conducted the training with the actual website that’s being developed, so it was exciting to finally see our ideas for the site take shape.

Part two of training for this group will take place December 16. Also that day, training will begin of Local Admins, staff who have been designated by education and instrastructure departments to maintain web content for their areas. As part of the training, Local Admins will get hands-on experience using Drupal. (Local Admins unable to attend the December 16 training will be trained in January. Refresher sessions for already trained staff will also be held in January. Staff designated as Content Editors will be trained after the website launches.)

By the end of this week, Local Admins who have been trained will be able to begin the important process of uploading content to the site. As Drupal is a brand new web content management system for JIBC, we know there will be an adjustment period with many questions about the system. Communications & Marketing, Technology Services and Domain7 will provide staff with support throughout this critical stage of the project, when we populate the site and bring it to life.

Please contact Chris Wong or Lori Munro if you have any questions.

Peeling the web onion

As part of the website redesign, we’ve been looking behind the scenes of the current JIBC site and peeling the web onion that is www.jibc.ca. We’ve found quite a few pages and even entire websites that are under our domain but aren’t part of the main website’s navigation.  These include Community of Practice/Community of Learners pages, e-blast pages, sites for clients, and miscellaneous pages and sites.

We want to be clear that if there are divisional pages or sites that have not been documented in your area’s content discussions with Web Editor Krista Lambert, they won’t be online after the new website launches unless special arrangements are made. This includes hidden pages and other websites located under www.jibc.ca. The new website will be on a new server, configured for Drupal, and these non-core pages and sites can’t be moved to that server.  

If you have pages or websites that need to exist post-launch of the new website, action is required from your division. First, identify them in an email to Chris Wong or Lori Munro by December 10, 2010.  From there, we’ll work with you to figure out the best solution.  This could be migration to host.jibc.ca/nameofyourchoice, a campaign landing page on the new site, or deletion.  It’s all fairly straightforward, but absolutely can’t be left until the last minute! Thanks for your cooperation.

Survey says …

We’re entering the final stretch of the JIBC website project, when we’ll be focusing on: completing the build of the site, training staff on Drupal, populating the site with content, and usability and bug testing.

We’re also looking ahead to evaluating whether the new site meets our objectives of having a user-friendly website, with strong content, navigation/search and design. As part of the evaluation, we will compare the new JIBC website with the existing site. This is where you, the reader of this blog and visitor to the JIBC website, can help: please take a few minutes to fill out a brief, anonymous survey on the existing JIBC website. The survey results will give us important baseline data that we can use when measuring the effectiveness of the new website. Thank you for your assistance.

Complete the JIBC website survey

Improved program and course search + good Training Partner data = website success

On a post-secondary institution’s website, it’s hard to think of anything that’s more important than being able to easily find programs and courses. That’s why one of the priorities of the web redesign project has been developing a much-improved program and course search.

The revamped program and course search will give website users:

• The option of using either a basic keyword search or an advanced search.
• An advanced program search where users can filter choices by areas of study and credential.
• An advanced course search where users can narrow down choices by areas of study, date of courses, location by campus and location by region.
• A user-friendly look and feel that supports effective searching.

Improving program and course search has been a collaborative effort involving Technology Services and Communications & Marketing, along with our vendors Domain7 and Signals. But there’s also a role to play for staff across the JIBC.

While many improvements have been made to program and course search, it will only be as good as the data on programs and courses that’s being searched. Given that this data will continue to be housed in Training Partner and maintained by staff in JIBC departments, it’s important that the data be as clean, accurate and strategic as possible.

Back in September, Communications & Marketing made a presentation to the Training Partner Users Group specifically on course descriptions in TP.  We showed a number of examples of course descriptions and talked about ways to improve them. For example, one tip was that essential information about each course that captures students’ attention should be at the beginning of descriptions, given that only the first 250 characters of descriptions appear in course search results. Another tip was to avoid special characters such as bullets or graphics in course descriptions because they’re not recognized in Training Partner.

We asked that course descriptions be updated in the months leading up to the launch of the new website, and followed up after the presentation by sending guidelines for preparing Training Partner course descriptions to members of the users group.

So this is a friendly reminder – if you’re responsible for course descriptions in TP, please do what you can to update them according to the guidelines listed below. The time to do that is now, because it would be ideal for Training Partner data to be in the best possible shape when the new website launches with its enhanced program and course search. Thanks to JIBC staff for their support with this.

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Guidelines for Course Descriptions in Training Partner

The Course Description field provides information about the content of courses to staff, faculty, the public, and government reporting bodies.  It is both a marketing and an informational tool.

Content Guidelines

• Opening Lines – The first 250 characters of the course description are viewable in website course search results.  Use these opening lines to catch students’ interest so they’re more likely to click for more information.  Get creative!
• Content – Describe the purpose and content of the course, or general learning objectives of the course. As space allows, include other information that would be of interest to a prospective student. Include key words in the description to help with search results.  Don’t use bullets, special characters or graphics, as this formatting isn’t supported. Each course description should be unique, even if courses are similar.  The maximum recommended length is 200 words (note: Central Data Warehouse will truncate anything over 2000 characters).
• Headings – Headings can help users scan your content more easily.  Don’t include a “Course Description” heading as it’s redundant.  Ideally, headings should be formatted as bold, with the use of pairs of HTML tags.  For example, to create a bolded heading of Computer Requirements in TP Online, type the following in TP:  <b>Computer Requirements</b>
• Links – Linking text in your content makes it easier for students to find information. Use pairs of HTML tags. 
  • link to a website: <a href=”http://www.google.com”>text which is linked</a> will produce text which is linked. 
  • link an email address: <a href=”mailto:communications@jibc.ca”>
    communications@jibc.ca</a> will produce communications@jibc.ca
• Contact Information – Including contact information is optional, but can be helpful for students.  Note that you should use only position titles and general departmental emails (i.e. rather than names and personal emails), so the information remains current.

Helpful Tips

• Since TP doesn’t have a text editor, create/edit/spellcheck your text in Word, then copy and paste the text into TP. Try using the Word Count function in Word to find the number of words and characters in your text.
• Language should be at a reading level appropriate for prospective students.
• Avoid including information such as hours, credits, prerequisites, etc. as this information appears in other fields in TP.
• Do a website course search to test the look of your descriptions.
• If you don’t have a description for a course, de-select “viewable online” at the course level in TP so it won’t show in web course searches.

Design is done, time to build the site

We’ve reached a major milestone in our project: design of core pages in the new JIBC website has been completed. Signals Design developed an engaging and user-friendly design for pages such as the homepage, landing pages for each school/division/academy, news and events, and course and program search.

The design was presented to the Executive, Web Steering Committee, Marketing & Communications Committee and Management Committee. All in all we’ve received a very positive response to the design. Thank you to staff for also providing suggestions for improving the design, which we will address as we begin building the site based on the design.

Speaking of  building the site, our web vendor Domain7 has begun to do exactly that. They will steadily build the site’s various sections and features to the point in December when staff can begin uploading and formatting content. Before staff can do that, they will need training on Drupal, our new web content management system. With that in mind, we worked with Management Committee on identifying staff who will maintain the website and need training. Beginning in December, more than 50 people will receive training. Staff will be able to upload and format content starting before the holiday season and continuing  in January.

While many things need to fall into place over the coming weeks, we’re on track for launching the new website at the end of January. Keep following this blog for updates, and comments are always welcome. Please contact Chris Wong if you have any questions.

Making progress

We’re making excellent progress on the web redesign project. Things are coming together at a number of levels:

Content
We have approximately 80% of the content that will be on the new website. We’re working with departments on editing text and getting the remaining content. Thank you to all departments for your hard work in putting together content.

Design
We’ve been working  closely with our design vendor, Signals, on design of the new website. This week the design is being presented to the Executive, Web Steering Committee and Marketing & Communications Committee. We’re looking forward to receiving feedback from those committees before finalizing the design this month.

Program/Course Search & Online registration
We’ve also been working closely with our web vendor, Domain7, on beginning to build the site. The initial focus has been on building the program/course search and online registration. Technology Services had taken the lead in this area, and we’re excited about the work that has been done on developing a much improved program/course search and online registration.

Roles & Responsibilities for Maintaining the Website
A plan for managing roles and responsibilities of JIBC Staff who will maintain the new website was presented to Management Committee Oct. 19. The plan provides a framework for managing web tasks including: adding and editing content, editing navigation and technical admin to keep the site optimized.

Calling all departments: we need your content

If you’re the person in your area responsible for preparing content (text) for the new website and you missed the September 3 content deadline, then don’t despair. We knew that it would be a tough deadline to meet with people on vacation.

But we still need your content as soon as possible. Even though the site launch is a number of months away - approximately January 2011 - we need time to review content for style and web friendliness. Final edited content will also need to be ready well in advance of the launch to ensure there is ample time to upload and apply formatting to all of the text on the new site.

If you haven’t already submitted content, Web Editor Krista Lambert will be in touch with you. If you’re in the process of preparing your content, please note the following:

• Text for each page of the new site should be in separate MS-Word files. Each file should be named with the title of the page in the departmental navigation that has been developed for each area. If you need to see the navigation for your area, please contact Krista.
• There should be no formatting in the files. If you’re copying and pasting text from existing pages on the JIBC website or other web pages, please strip out all of the formatting and graphics.
• In the text, please include instructions for links or placement of graphics. If you’re linking to other pages on the JIBC website, please note that URLs for pages on the existing site may change in the new site, so it’s best to indicate the title of the page you’re linking to rather than a URL from the existing site.
• Instead of embedding graphics in the Word files, submit them as separate files in formats such as jpeg or gif.
• A shared drive has been set up for JIBC web content. When submitting your content, all text and graphics should be placed in that drive in a folder with the name of your area (eg Police, Fire, Library, etc.). If you don’t have access to the shared drive, please contact Tech Services to receive access. Tell them you need access to the ”JIWebContent” area.

Thanks for your cooperation. If you have any questions about content, please contact Krista.

Busy times in the web redesign project

It’s August, but these are busy times in the web redesign project. Here’s an overview of what the project team is doing:

Content & structure
Web Editor Krista Lambert, Web Communications Administrator Lori Bodin and Chris Wong (Senior Manager, Web Communications & Corporate Marketing) continue to work with educational and infrastructure areas on content and structure. Following the two Writing for the Web workshops that Lori  and Krista  gave in July, writing templates were distributed. Staff can use the templates as a guide for preparing certain types of typical web content. All areas have a deadline of September 3 to complete content that will be on the new website. We have also worked with areas on finalizing a structure for their departmental navigation that will appear on the site. 

Course & program search
A JIBC working group has met a number of times to tackle the challenge of improving course and program search on the website. The group, which has reps from Communications & Marketing, Technology Services, Student Services/Registration and all three JIBC schools, has had excellent meetings. We’re aiming to provide a simpler search than what has been used in the past, with an option for using an advanced search.

myJIBC
Another working group has been struck to explore the concept of creating a myJIBC page on the new site. This would bring together logins for Training Partner Online and online courses, and provide other resources.

Web and design vendors
Last week we began working with our web vendor Domain7 and design vendor Signals. Communications & Marketing and Technology Services held a kickoff meeting with the vendors to clarify roles and responsibilities, go over project goals and objectives and confirm deliverables.

Timeline
The big question many people have is: when will the new website be launched? Our original goal was to launch the site by the end of November 2010. We would still like to launch the site at that time, but given the volume of work to be done, the launch date may be approximately the end of January 2011.

JIBC selects vendors and CMS for web project

JIBC is pleased to announce that Domain7 has been chosen in our request for proposals (RFP) process as the web vendor that will work on our web redesign project. Domain7 will implement Drupal as the web content management system (CMS) that will be used to build our website. Drupal will replace Dreamweaver and Contribute as the enterprise system that JIBC staff will use to edit and maintain our site.

We are also pleased to announce that Signals has been chosen in a parallel request for quotations (RFQ) process as the design vendor for the project.

Thank you to all JIBC staff and vendors who participated in our selection process.