April 29, 2012

IDATI, the road ahead

I have just completed a extensive roadmap document for the IDATI project and this, my last post to weblab, will serve as a update on the project. First of all, even before my departure delayed the schedule until a replacement is hired, we’d already altered the dates as part of the discovery during our initial tasks, so the schedule outlined in the introduction to the project is now being reordered and rewritten. With that, I’d rather refine what’s coming …

By David McKelvey

 

I have just completed a extensive roadmap document for the IDATI project and this, my last post to weblab, will serve as a update on the project. First of all, even before my departure delayed the schedule until a replacement is hired, we’d already altered the dates as part of the discovery during our initial tasks, so the schedule outlined in the introduction to the project is now being reordered and rewritten.

With that, I’d rather refine what’s coming as far as the roadmap suggests and that is largely based upon the evolution of the industry since our 2009 redesign.

At redesign launch, we’d used cutting-edge technology, content strategies and navigation designed to unify our previously siloed website, all wrapped up in a brand new content management system (CMS) LiveWhale. However, altering the underlying infrastructure, be it design, or navigation and content strategy, or the technical underpinnings is never easy for a site the scale and depth of the Lewis & Clark site, and so we’ve held off, being busy growing the site and its editors among other projects in the meantime.

However, we are now at a key period where it is exactly the right time to make major updates in the website. IDATI does this by (in no order):

  • responding to navigational and content changes initiated with the merger of the institutional and undergraduate home pages,
  • making significant changes to the top-level navigation and content,
  • integrating space for the coming results of the strategic planning process,
  • changing the website design to be mobile-friendly and more easily utilized by site editors,
  • switching to newer LiveWhale built-in modules for a reduction in code maintenance and increased benefit as the system matures, and
  • further centralizing the management of the website.

I have left my extensive roadmap in the hands of New Media, PubCom and key acting stakeholders of the website with the strict instructions that they should adapt it in the process of executing it. While posts will no longer be made by me, continue to watch this space for ongoing updates as to the process of IDATI.