The College of Engineering recently redesigned their website and launched it in July 2014. In the first week, the site had approximately 6,000 unique visitors and served over 15,000 pages to 25% of users on mobile or tablet devices. The new theme is available for other schools within the college to use. The development process involved preliminary planning, design, integration, review, and migration stages. Key lessons learned included preparing for broken links, communicating changes to dependent users, using staging environments to test new features, and conducting a soft launch to identify issues.

1. College of Engineering
Retrospective on Redesign Process
College of Engineering - Communicator’s Meeting - August 2014

2. CoE Theme
Ready for prime-time!

3. • Soft-Launched on July 29 2014.
CoE Website is Live!

4. By The Numbers
~6,000Approximate unique visitors in a week

5. By The Numbers
15,000
Pages served to end-users

6. By The Numbers
25%
Users browse the website using a mobile or tablet device

7. Available for Usage!
• Theme is available for the schools in CoE
• Contact me to download components
!
• Components:
• 1) GT College of Engineering Theme
• 2) Helper Module/Plugin
• 3) Sub Theme Starter Kit

8. Themes Working Together!
• Themes provide styling and design adjustments
• Does not provide structure or hierarchical elements
• The CoE theme inherits the GT theme, which can be extended!
GT Theme GT CoE Theme Your Theme!

9. Let’s Meet
• Feel free to contact me to discuss any
aspect of a web development/redesign
process!
• Redesign Steps
• Development Practices
• Working with a Firm
• Drupal 101
• Campus Best Practices
• (I’m sure there’s more than this!)

10. Our Redesign
Looking Back on Development, Processes

11. A Quick Note
• We are still developing the website!
• Iterative development cycle
• Changes, bugs, additions
• Security updates & patches
• Learning from the past to develop new
pages, features, and functionality

12. Development Process
Preliminary
Web Developer creates a site map to detail existing site organization and design.
Client and Web Developer have initial meeting to discuss site goals, needs, and purpose.
Client adjusts site map to simulate site organization and design.
Client and Web Developer have meeting to agree on website features and front page design.
Web Developer creates a site mockup to simulate site layout.
Client and Web Developer communicate to revise and adjust the site mockup.
Client selects faculty or staff members as site editors.
Design
Web Developer develops site theme, layout, and structure.
Client prepares and updates existing site content.
Web Developer delivers a completed site theme, layout, and structure.
Integration
Web Developer provides training to site editors on updating and adding content to the site.
Client adds and updates content to the site.
Web Developer adjusts site theme, layout, and structure as necessary.
Review
Client determines a suitable time for site migration.
Communicators copy-edits site pages and content.
Web Developer prepares site for migration.
Migration
Web Developer migrates site to its permanent location.
Web Developer checks site for defects, bugs, and issues.
Web Developer makes site redesign active.

13. Things We Learned
• 1) Broken Links will happen
• Think about approaches to solving,
mitigating issues.
• 2) Communicate development
• Faculty and staff may depend on the
website for particular content.
• 3) Develop, Test, and Roll Out
• Staging environments for new
features are crucial to a smooth
rollout.
• 4) Soft Launch
• Test out the deployment and focus
on squashing 0-Day Issues

14. Demo
Quick highlights and features!

15. Let’s Chat
Questions, Comments, Concerns, Discussions about Web Redesigns