Notes from CASE Conference
Washington, DC
April 14 to 06, 2004
Theresa Chamberland
The Whole-Site Approach to Web Development, Michael Stoner
1. Google is the best example of good branding on the Web.
2. Washington Post is a good example of branding and uniqueness with
consistency.
3. Your site makes an impression on everyone who comes to your site. They
make judgments about your college based on what they see on the Web.
4. People come to your site to feel and touch your campus, the more you help
them do this, the better.
5. Speed selecting the Web site – in less than one minute, if nothing grabs their
attention – they leave.
6. Prospective students visit your site ten or more times before making their
decision. They will notice new images and content.
7. Book Recommendation: Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping, by Paco
Underhill
8. See Bucknell University (http://www.bucknell.edu/) site for good example of
personalization.
Everything You Say: Integrating Your Web site, Email and Print
Communications
1. We need to rethink how we weave together the Web and the Viewbook.
2. Print materials and the Web should look similar – start projects at the same
time so they come out looking similar.
3. Continual review of Web content – look at Admission site – is the content upto-date?
The Importance of Content, Michael Stoner
1. Look at Amazon – a company who manages a lot of content.
2. What Amazon does really well is provide a lot of content that they don’t have
to generate.
3. Their technology allows a large number of outsiders to provide content.
4. This allows for a wide range of writing styles and content.
5. Think about other kinds of content that would be valuable to your visitors, but
that you no not have to generate.
6. From this session, I had an idea that we might consider creating a site with
books by MHC faculty, where faculty can submit their books etc. A link could
be included to the Odyssey.
Notes from CASE Conference, April 2004
By Theresa Chamberland
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7. Think about strategic value of content
 Communicates your key messages
 Sharing content across the site reinforces messages and ensures that
people see it.
 Prospective students have a great BS meter – they know if content is
truthful or not. They want authentic content.
8. Link to student newspaper, regardless of how fearful Admission and the
President feels about this.
9. Content Management
 Strategic use of CMS consists of technology that allows many people to
participate in updating and maintaining Web site content.
 The decision can’t be made by IT people alone – user interface is most
important – our community needs to work with the product to verify it is
user friendly.
 Emphasis on content needs to happen at the beginning of this process.
 Who approves and publishes content is decided outside CMS.
 Quality control needs to be a part of the equation.
 Appropriate training to key employees is essential.
 Equally essential is to have IT staff involved.
 Content Management = Content + People + Technology
10. Content Management System
 By a show of hands, approximately 25% of the people at this conference
are using CMS
 Separates content from display of content
o Maintains interface consistency
o More effective control of brand
o Deploys content dynamically
 Automated distribution of content maintenance responsibility
o Allows you to involve many content contributors
o Content is maintained closer to the source
o Provides workflow tools that help ensure quality
 CMS is brain-dead simple – anyone can use it.
11. ROI
 Frees up technical staff to do more important work
 Leverage design investment
 Leverage content and use it more effectively: assuming you have a
content strategy
12. CASE Awards
 Many winners used outside design firms
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By Theresa Chamberland
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13. What to look for in a CMS
 Technology
 Open standards
 Scalability
o Deployment tools
o Syndication
 Dynamic navigation
 Management tools
o Workflow
o Assignments
 Client interface – this is very important
o end users must be able to easily use it
o involve a group of users who will be interacting with system so
users are comfortable with the product.
 Interaction with campus authentication technology (LDAP, etc.)
 Longevity of the vendor
o Big is not necessarily beautiful
o How committed are they to serving higher education?
 Don’t assume CMS migration tool will work for us
o Have student interns linked up
o This takes a lot of time
o There will be lots of decision that need to be made along the way
and lots of cut & paste
14. Acquiring a CMS
 Why build a CMS?
o Who: U Alabama, Hamilton, Lewis & Clark
o Less expensive
o Completely customized
o Programming challenge
 Why not build a CMS?
o Time to market
o Staff skill base
o Institutional will
o True cost accounting
o Upkeep and updating
o When the developer leaves, there is no one there to update – no
one else has a vested interest
o When looking at a true cost, it really is likely more costly in the end
 Why buy a CMS?
o Who: Bates, Ball State U, U Miami, U Redlands, Kenyon College,
and many others
o Time to market
o Lots to choose from
o Better systems
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o Price more reasonable
o Some one else is responsible for ongoing product development
15. Success factors for CMS
 Leadership commitment to manage the site
o Clearly committed (from top) to work through issues that will come
up to effectively managing content.
 Clearly identified site management team with agreed upon rules and
responsibilities
o Ability to work cross-functionality as a team
o Clearly identified content owners at start of project
 The capacity to create content
 Strong internal project management investment in change management
o Willingness to change procedures
 Training and ongoing communication among contributors
 Brand standards in place
 Bite the bullet and manage content – a good project manager can keep
people on deadline.
 Michael has pulled only 25% of content from previous site to new site.
 Have to decide if content is worth keeping
16. We reviewed these sites that have CMS:
 www.hamilton.edu
 www.kenyon.edu (built their own CMS)
 www.bsu.edu (Ball State University) – used CMS by Vignette
 www.redlands.edu
17. Cost for small Liberal Arts Colleges $40,000 to $70,000 range for CMS
18. CMS Watch - $900 report to learn about CMS technology, but does not
address actual implementation
19. Start with content and architecture then interface. Need to be led by people
thinking about content strategically and how it is deployed on the site.
20. People who are maintaining are then trained in how to make appropriate
decisions about growing their site so they have a knowledge base that helps
them evolve their site over time.
21. Dynamic branding – content can be shared even if the look and feel is
different (i.e.: academic departments)
22. House cleaning – you need to have an idea of what content you’ll be working
with before deploying a CMS. Note: one college (in audience) indicated their
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By Theresa Chamberland
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staff did this during the migration because of time – they made decisions to
eliminate content.
Beyond Tex: Developing Content Around User Experience by John Fritz
1. Web developers serve 2 masters: users and sponsors (content writers)
2. What makes a good site? Does the site do what was desired?
3. U Buffalo does an incredible job of addressing prospective to alumni on the
Web. Excellent collaboration goes on to make this happed. End results: wins
CASE awards.
4. U Buffalo also did a “Day in the life” video – they have it down and they know
how to do it well
 UB video: http://www.buffalo.edu/admissions/visit/ubvideo.php
 UB article about the project:
http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/vol31/vol31n26/n2.html
 http://www.smbs.buffalo.edu/ortho/day/
5. President or trustee mandate to attend to the Web
6. Print in sync with Web
7. Create a wire frame and use this to show what should be included on the
home page (not to show a design).
8. Resources: boxesarrows.com always have at least one Web Content report in
higher education site evaluation (1 out of 4).
The Inside Scoop: Tips for Managing a Great Web site by Kari Chisholm
1. People on campus felt left out of the loop. His approach was to pull them in –
never say no and to sell them on ideas. Never say no, because you never
know when it will come back to haunt you.
2. Web department of 4 people
3. In building a department, understand what makes people reluctant to support
you
4. Bottom line is the cost
5. Try to partner with others on campus who will help pay and then be vested in
the outcome
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By Theresa Chamberland
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6. Celebrate success – make acknowledgement of new sites. Make sure right
people get positive feedback.
 Idea that came to me from this workshop: have Dean’s report include new
MHC Web sites.
7. Let your users know a CMS can fix a typo in 30 seconds or less
8. CMS implementation:
 Volunteers first process – he only works with those who want to work with
them. Two years later 86% have migrated.
 Allow color options to departments to help people have more interest in
CMS.
9. Comments from audience:
 they don’t use the workflow portion of CMS
 they allow students to do work, but to deploy
 they are looking at top 50 pages to edit
 give feedback from an external source, “a parent was asking . . .” to Web
maintainers.
Student Panel
This is a summary of comments and/or answer to questions addressed to a
panel of 4 high school students, 2 female, 2 male:
1. What are you looking for on a college Web site?
 Prospective student site
 Course list and descriptions
 Club lists
 Calendar of events – current information very important
 Directions
 Would like colleges to IM with them at 11 or 12 pm
 Dorms – what are they like – pictures are really good
2. Comments:
 Class information/schedule/location – they would like colleges to keep this
information up to date. When one student visited a college she found the
information she had obtained on a Web site about the location of a class
she wanted to visit.
 Mom helped get the application
 I want a place that feels right, since I’ll be there 4 years
 Wants to know if classes are taught by TA’s.
 Liked the idea of a personalized online brochure form (when asked), as
long as it isn’t too long
 Prefer to search and drill down on their own rather than use the search
feature
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By Theresa Chamberland
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3. What’s the coolest non-college sites?
 Ones where you can play games
 IM
 pogo.com
 bored.com
 Google
 yahoo – great links to news, sports, games, movie reviews
4. Where do you go most on college sites?
 Dorms
 About school/history
 Clubs
 Prospective students
 Likes to see what students have gone on to do in life (alumni)
 Demographics
 Virtual tours – this got one student more excited about possibly going
there.
5. What do you most want to know about dorms?
 How it’s set up
 Bathroom status – how far are they from the rooms
 How many to a room
 Am I guaranteed a single room?
6. What makes you crazy on the Web?
 Unorganized and confusing sites
 Dead links
 Slow download “forever” - Waiting for a page to load
 Pop ups
 Six clicks to get what I want
Open Discussion
1. No regrets about having build a CMS, but would not do it today due to time
and costs. Part of process includes making decisions prior to installation, so
features need to be addressed first or you’ll caret a limited program and no
time to add on features.
2. Strongly discourage building a CMS today because the box products offered
today are more realistically accessible.
Notes from CASE Conference, April 2004
By Theresa Chamberland
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3. RedDot co-current license become too expensive. Be careful to understand
what we’re going to use it for. If we’re rolling it out to everyone, the licensing
aspect can be very expensive.
4. Training
 Initially only people who are building back end of project
 Ongoing training to users – issue – need long term support for campus
training because of staff turn over.
 Consider developing online tutorials
 Ask users: 1) what do you need 2) how do you like to learn (I on 1 or small
groups)
 Helpline
 Listserve –announce new features, tips, etc.
 If you want this to work, help people understand communications better.
Most people like to understand why they need to do something.
 Multi-dimensional approach best strategy.
 Grab new employees when they’re hired and let them know you’re there to
help make their job easier.
5. Establish an Annual State of the Web Address, to include
 Summary of excellent progress and success
 Who are our primary audiences
 New resources available
6. Establish Email policies
 Who can use email to market?
 Approval process necessary? (i.e.: for specific lists or whole group)
 Always given an option to opt out of email in ALL instances.
 It is important to honor requests to opt out.
 People love email as long as they know who it’s coming from.
 Look carefully at system for managing these lists – when you drop people,
add them to a “drop forever” list.
 If you send too many too fast, AOL and others block you from sending any
email to their providers (i.e.: AOL blocked one university for 2 months).
 Email product: Target X
 Use minimal HMTL in your email. If 30% if HTML, it will not go through –
send to yourself (at your account with AOL, Yahoo, etc.) to see what
happens.
From Strategy to Launch (by Michael Stoner staff)
1. Web site is the second most important thing prospective students look at.
2. Change management is essential.
Notes from CASE Conference, April 2004
By Theresa Chamberland
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3. Strategic Discovery
 Think about how you will deploy to departments and what kind of support
everyone gets. Create zones.
4. Timeline
5. Budget
6. Consensus
7. Rewriting (3-4 months) – bulk of process
 Decide: Archive? Revise? Migrate? Or, start from scratch.
 It’s easier to write from scratch than to rewrite.
 They rewrote as deep as they felt the student would go
8. Development process about 9 months. Most of the time spent on writing.
 1 ½ - 2 hours per page
 ½ hour copy editor review time
9. Staff – 1-1 one staff to one consultant (11 –12)
 Strategic Lead
 Project Manager
 Tech lead
 Creative Designer
 2 content writers
 Copy editor
 Interface design
 2 migration staff
 qualify assurance
10. Training
 Provide different training sessions
 Generally ½ day training
 Information architecture training
 Systems training
11. Resist creating a mock up before content is written
 Know what content will be before beginning design
12. Wire frames
 Stick figure drawings of what it will look like – without design
o Navigation sets
o Image assets and how much above the fold devoted to images
o News – how much real estate will be devoted for news?
 Wire frames drive design - shows how people drill down
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By Theresa Chamberland
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


Academic departments - don’t take this on until after launch ( 1-2 years
later).
Make sure content decisions are foundational - not incidental
Most students don’t respond to term “prospective student”.
13. Create design, then implement CMS
 Built out – cut/paste
 Beta site, complete with links, image, content etc.
 Quality assurance
 Training
 launch
14. Managing Expectations
 Make sure community know what’s going on – let community know what’s
coming and celebrate when you go live.
Advertising and the Web by Bob Johnson
1. Collect Web examples (look extensively) before you begin.
2. Know what they are doing so you can do something different. Look at what
primary messages are being used and no matter how “good” it is – use
something different.
3. Virtual Marketing – create a space to “Tell a Friend” after virtual tour.
4. Reinforce key message on the landing page – from print as well as online
ads.
5. Repeat the key message on the front page which was previously referenced
(in the ad).
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By Theresa Chamberland
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2004 CASE Awards
Process

155 entries

14 Judges


o
13 Americans, 1 Canadian
o
Publics, privates (small, large), colleges & universities, schools
o
Varied backgrounds: marketing/PR, Web design, print design,
writing, technical, consulting
2 rounds of judging
o
Elimination: end up with 30 sites
o
Everyone looks at 40 sites
Discussion (lots of discussion) and awards
General observations

Few really bad Web sites this year, but: floor raised, ceiling lowered

Less use of egregious technology like Flash

Inattention to detail: addresses, phone numbers missing

More intranet sites, hospitals

More examples of institutional will and good political maneuvering

Better web content

Inattention to web standards like CSS
Bronze

Cushing Academy, Fisher-Watkins Library
http://fwlibrary.cushing.org/

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Medical
http://web.mit.edu/medical/
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By Theresa Chamberland
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
University of California, San Diego Alumni
http://www.alumni.ucsd.edu/

University of Pittsburgh, Germanic Languages and Literature
http://www.pitt.edu/~germanic/

Westminster College of Utah, Studying Science at the Great Salt Lake
http://westminstercollege.edu/gsl/
Silver

Dana Farber Cancer Institute
http://danafarber.org/

Stanford University Events Calendar (this is pretty incredible!)
http://events.stanford.edu/

University of Miami: Campaign for the University of Miami
http://miami.edu/campaign/

University of Pittsburgh Panther Central
http://www.pc.pitt.edu/

University of South Carolina Web Presence
http://sc.edu/webpresence/
Gold

Baltimore Collegetown Network (an affiliate of Goucher College)
http://baltimorecollegetown.org/asp/home.asp

California Institute of Technology Admissions
http://admissions.caltech.edu/

Peddie School
http://www.peddie.org/

University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School (MBA Admissions)
http://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/mba/
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By Theresa Chamberland
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Online alumni “magazines”
Silver

Vanderbilt University Explorations
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni/publications/
Bronze

Ohio University Today
http://www.ohio.edu/ohiotoday

University of Iowa
http://www.iowalum.com/magazine/indexWithFlash.html