Presentation given at Digital Dialogues, February 10, 2009, organized by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities.

1. Managing Projects
in the Digital Humanities
Jeremy Boggs
Creative Lead, Center for History and New Media

2. C Jeremy Boggs Digital Dialogues, February 10, 2009
Five Phases
• Strategy - The big picture
• Scope - Specific requires and goals
• Content - The Stuff.
• Design - How the Stuff looks and works
• Development - How to get the Stuff to the user.

3. C Jeremy Boggs Digital Dialogues, February 10, 2009
No phase should finish until
the previous phase is finished

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Timeline for Project
Strategy
Scope
Content
Design
Front-End Dev
Back-End Dev

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Areas of Responsibility
Branding
Aesthetic
How users interact
with content Design Data Structure
Programming
Front-end and Back-end
Content Development
Text, Images, Video
Information Architecture
What users will interact with

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Strategy and scope
encompass content, design,
and development

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Strategy

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Strategy
• Usually comes in the form of a grant
• What you’re building, broadly.
• Why???

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Gulag: Many Days, Many Lives

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Strategy - Gulag
• Create resource for teachers and students to
learn more about the Soviet Gulag
• Archive hard-to-access sources
• Provide ways for the public to share stories.

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Scope

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Scope
• Tangible components to realize Strategy
• Outlines responsibilities for each person
• Translates user needs and objective into specific
requirements to build.
• Make a Scope Document!!!

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Scope - Gulag
• Upload ~300 primary sources, with Russian
translation
• Create exhibit with ~20 pages, organized by
theme
• Create plugin to let users follow a prisoner
through exhibit
• Create a form to allow for public contributions

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Content
• Information Architecture
• Content Inventories
• Site Maps

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Content Inventory

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Site Map

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Content Outcomes
• Sitemap with overall structure of the site,
relationships among pages
• Inventory of content; what gos on each page or
“state” in your project.

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Design

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Design = Communication
• What do you want to communicate?
• What do you want users to remember?
• How do you want users to respond?

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Wireframes

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Point of Wireframes
• Make sure all content is accounted for on each
page; A visual content inventory.
• Display relative importance of content
• Serve as basis for...

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Color Mockups

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Pre-Mockups
• Talk to stakeholders about look and feel
• Create mood boards, color palettes
• Help people make informed design decisions

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Design Critique
• Designers: Explain WHY you made specific
decisions
• Avoid talking about likes: “I like green,” or “I
don’t like Garamond.”
• Do the design choices work for the message you
want to convey, the experience you want to
provide?

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Development

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Front End Development - HTML, CSS

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Back End Development - PHP, MySQL

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Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
• Create a starter kit.
• Use a CMS: Drupal, Omeka, WordPress
• Use Frameworks: Zend, CodeIgniter, CakePHP
• Use Libraries: Yahoo UI, Prototype, jQuery

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Strategies for Success
• Make responsibilities, deadlines clear.
• Efficient communication
• Create a hub for sharing information

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Milestones
Strategy
Scope
Content
Design
Front-End Dev
Back-End Dev

31. C Jeremy Boggs Digital Dialogues, February 10, 2009
Milestones
Strategy
Scope
Content
Design
Front-End Dev
Back-End Dev

32. C Jeremy Boggs Digital Dialogues, February 10, 2009
Clear communication
• Responsibilities - Assign roles, tasks.
• Expectations, goals - Scope is important to all.
• Meetings
• Have a purpose, agenda, specific timeframe
• Someone leads.
• Evaluate afterwards.

33. C Jeremy Boggs Digital Dialogues, February 10, 2009
Project Management Apps - Basecamp

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Project Management Apps - Trac

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Project Management Apps - PB Wiki

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Provide a central place for
project team to share info,
keep track of progress.

37. C Jeremy Boggs Digital Dialogues, February 10, 2009
Be a Cheerleader!