Session from Penn State Elements Conference, June 13, 2016.

2. Collaborate, create, curate,
and cut the crap
Elements: the Web Conference at Penn State
June 13, 2016
Heather Russell
Lisa Richards
with Tyler Poole

3. The Tiny Team
We are part of a campus administrative unit that supports and
guides the New York State extension system.
Heather Russell - Tech Lisa Richards - Content
Tyler Poole – Design (1/2 time, contract)

4. A partnership between federal, state, and county
governments, Cornell University and the citizens of New
York State
What is Cornell Cooperative Extension ?

5. Informal education system
Presence in every corner of New York State
Programs are research-based & community driven

6. Defined as subordinate governmental agencies organized under
a form of operation approved by Cornell University as agent for
the state
Where we are
Over 50 county offices plus the 5 boroughs of NYC operate
independently

7. We (administration) are the nearly-invisible hub in the middle…
…and our job is to showcase the extension programming and activity
around the state and on campus

8. Let’s Talk Web
Content
- Decentralized
- Inconsistent
- LOTS of it, not
always in an
easy format for
web
Tech
- SharePoint (ugh)
Design
- No design
expertise on
staff
- Design by
committee
Process
- Just us
- We’re also doing
everything else
- Support, but very
little interest from
management *
* We need to have a site. The site needs to say the right things (what are those?).
The site needs to not be broken or embarrassing. Oh, and by the way can you add
this random link/resource/PDF to a page I pay attention to?

9. CCE Website
2009

10. CCE Website
2015

11. • Everyone wanted their important thing on
the home page
• Add Twitter – so content seems updated
• Not responsive, looked awful on phone
• Not accessible, never was a consideration
• 190 pages
• No direction – lots of random content
• No people listed, anywhere
• Old site was web transition from print
• Who makes updates? Only Lisa.
• Internal content
• Too much content, old content
• No focus – why do we have a site?
• No audience specified
• Too many words (academic speak)
• …

12. Web Environment at Cornell
• Decentralized
• Drupal
• Cornell redesign
• Outreach
highlighted
• New web
insignia

13. We Need a Redesign

14. Our challenge
• Define the purpose of the public website
• Agree on our audience
• Understand who we are – nobody
• Align new content structure to something concrete
• Cut the crap – hundreds of outdated pages, old fact
sheets (PDFs), very disorganized
• Make visually appealing, accessible, responsive

15. Who is our audience? (We asked. We got a lot of answers.)
Faculty members
Deans
Elected officials
Staff (campus and county)
Educators
Prospective donors
Association boards of directors
Volunteers
Students
Program participants
Job seekers

16. What do they have in common?
• They are all just regular people
• Who need and want easily digestible, web-friendly
content

17. Who needs to approve?
Do we need to design by committee again?

18. What content can we provide?
• County associations provide program content on
their sites
• Best way to define CCE? 5 Program Areas
• No programmatic content (CCE Admin = invisible)
• Stories, events – from counties
• People
• Direct out to county sites
whenever possible

19. How to bring in content
CURATE.

20. Drupal : Information Architecture

21. Design

23. CCE Website
2015

25. Success!

26. Future
• Web is ever-changing
• Site changes are never-ending
• Better positioned to make changes –
– Bigger team
– More respect
– Accepted technology
– Cornell links to site, profile is raised

27. Takeaways
• Figure out who your audience is – why are we doing
this?
• Know what your content is – remember you’re the
expert
• Learn your environment, find a few key supporters
and take initiative

28. QUESTIONS?
Heather Russell – hlm2@cornell.edu
Lisa Richards – lisa.richards@cornell.edu
Tyler Poole – tjp58@cornell.edu
http://cce.cornell.edu
@ccecornell