Content Management at FDU

In October, 2004, most pages of the Fairleigh Dickinson website at www.fdu.edu will be converted to “Content Management”. This ambitious change is taking place under the guidance of the Web Governance Committee chaired by College at Florham Provost Kenneth Greene, using content management software (CMS) supplied by Ripple Effects Interactive (REI). The page design and site navigation structure are also by REI, based on research they conducted in at FDU the spring and summer of 2004.

What is Content Management?

Since the World Wide Web concept originated in the early 1990's, web pages have become a common and powerful way to deliver information to those who need it, but they have not become any easier to create.For that reason, software to partially automate the web page creation task has been available almost as long as web pages have existed. The “Save as HTML”capability of Microsoft Word is one of those approaches; powerful standalone software like Macromedia Dreamweaver is another. Content management is a third.

In content management, the web page is conceptually divided into two sections. One section contains the organizational branding and global navigation that visitors will expect to find on every page. Individual page authors have no need to alter this portion of the page. The other larger section is the “publishing area”or “author area”, largely under control of the page author.

Special software, available as a web-based application, allows FDU staff with only a few hours of training and practice to update existing pages and create new ones, by controlling the contents of the publishing area of the page. Entering or altering text on a page is done using a form with editing features similar to a Microsoft Word word processing page.

Inherent in content management is the fact that some department or office is responsible for the content of each page of the FDU website. Content management allows the responsible unit to exercise that responsibility directly, by updating the page as often as changes are needed.

The Look of the Page

At FDU and many other organizations, the branding and navigation portions of the page are an upside-down L that extends across the very top of the page and down the left-hand side. This area contains several navigation lists intended as self-explanatory to visitors:

the audience navigation including students, their parents, alumni etc.
the resource navigation including the library, and computer resources
the main navigation including links to major website areas like admissions and academics
the breadcrumb navigation (named after Hansel and Gretel's trail of breadcrumbs) that shows the sequence of pages used to arrive at the current page
the footer navigation, with some logistical links

Between the breadcrumb navigation and the main navigation is the local navigation, showing the hierarchical place of the current page in the department or other subsite it is a part of.

Within the page content, several different templates or layouts are available, including versions with or without a band of photos across the top, and versions with one or two columns of information. See some examples by clicking the headings in the column at right.

The Conversion Process

During August of 2004, REI will be creating the initial pages of the updated FDU website, by converting, and in some cases combining or recreating, pages from among the thousands of pages in the existing www.fdu.edu site. There will be a period of weeks during which individual offices and departments will have the opportunity to alter the newly-created pages using CMS before the newly redesigned pages replace the pages currently visible at www.fdu.edu.

Page Maintenance Using CMS

To make changes to a content-managed page for their office or department, a page author will use their web browser (usually MS Internet Explorer) to visit the URL of the CMS. They will step down through the heirarchy or tree of FDU web pages until they find their own subsite and the specific page where changes are needed. A click will open the current contents of that page, and allow them to make any needed changes, including creating one or more new pages. Once the changes to a given page are complete, the author will submit it, and be able to review the updated page on the staging site. Submission will also trigger an email message to the respective page manager, who will also review the new or updated pages at the staging site. The manager will release the page to be made live at the next scheduled daily posting of new pages.

Glossary

template: A particular design or "look" for an FDU webpage. Templates always include university branding and consistent navigation, but separate templates might be provided, for instance , for column layouts of narrow-wide-narrow, narrow-very wide, and narrow-equal-equal.
author: Individual in an office or department assigned the responsibility for entering text and choosing layout and images for the web pages of his or her unit.
manager: Individual in an office or department assigned the responsibility for reviewing or validating previews of the unit's web pages before they are made live.
staging site: A mirror image of the full FDU website, where changes and additions are posted for review before they are made live.
branding: The FDU logo, website color scheme, and other consistent design features that insure visitors will recognize FDU webpages.

Page Examples

FDU Main Page

This page shows the current draft of the new FDU main page, including a prominent Flash animation that will “make it personal”by introducing two or three actual FDU students.

Getting Here

In this example, the visitor has clicked on a sequence of pages from the main page: first Explore the University, then Visiting the University, then the College at Florham, and finally Getting Here for directions to the campus. Notice that the breadcrumb navigation recaps the sequence of clicks. The author of this page has chosen a two-column template, with a photo bar across the top.

Explore the University

When a visitor clicks on Explore the University on the main page, the destination is a content managed page like this one, with local navigation for topics related to the topic. In this example, the page author has chosen a three-column template, with a related photo and caption in her right-most column.