Web Redevelopment Project Building the University's new web site.

ATTENTION ALL WEB PUBLISHERS

All web publishers need to switch to the new URL when adding content… publish.newcastle.edu.au.

This change is effective immediately.  The old URL cmstest.newcastle.edu.au will be deactivated from Monday 6 May.

This is to allow the transition from the test environment to the live site.

Any problems, please contact web@newcastle.edu.au

Thanks.

Web Publisher Information Sessions have been scheduled for 8 & 9 May.

The April ‘go live’ of the new Homepage and Research pages was delayed to allow more time to work on key Research content – to make sure it is in line with the University’s strategic direction.   As a result, project dates need to be revised and the web project team is looking at the option of combining ‘go live’ for Phases 1 and 2.

For a full update on the project, please register to attend one of the sessions. As always, you’ll also have the opportunity to ask the project team questions about the project or your particular pages.

We hope to see you on:

Wednesday 8 May – 10am – 12noon – Lambert Lounge, Shortland Building, Callaghan Campus – Register at http://webpublisher8may13.eventbrite.com.au

OR

Thursday 9 May – 10 am – 12noon – Nelson Room, Shortland Building, Callaghan Campus – Register at http://webpublisher9may13.eventbrite.com.au

Following a pre-launch session with the Vice-Chancellor this week, the launch of the new web site will be delayed to allow a final review of Research pages content and ensure strong alignment with NeW Directions themes and initiatives.

We are hoping this delay will be no more than two weeks, however, we will confirm in due course. The Web Content Team has now moved to the Hunter Building HA01A, so if you have any questions please drop by or give us a call.

Happy Easter

Barbara

There are a couple of important things to note as we approach the big day…

Content “go slow”

We need to hold off on major content changes to allow Squiz time to deploy the new site.

From COB Monday 25 March, publishers should only make essential changes to content in Squiz. This “go slow” will  end once the new site is live.

Before any essential changes are made in that period, please contact the Web Content Team – Shashma Bonnet or Fiona Duncan – who will assess the importance and likely impact of the changes.

New URL for Phase 2 content.

Phase 1 publishers have been using cmstest.newcastle.edu.au for the past few months. These pages will now be moved to the live environment and will no longer be available.

From 3 April, publishers for future phases will need to use publish.newcastle.edu.au

Editing live content

Publishers needing to add or update material that has already gone live will simply add /_edit to the relevant page. eg.www.newcastle.edu.au/research/_edit

Reporting issues

In an ideal world, our transition to the new web site will be seamless. While we will be working hard to achieve this, we do expect a few issues here and there and we are relying on our users to help us identify any problems. Please provide feedback or report any issues to web@newcastle.edu.au

Thanks to our web publishing community for all your support and enthusiasm to date. Here goes!

Thanks to everyone who came along to our web publisher sessions last Tuesday.

It was great to see so many people there and to be able to give everyone a preview of the first pages of our new web site. Thanks to all who provided us with really valuable feedback. We’ll be plugging your input into our overall testing/feedback report.

For those who couldn’t attend, here’s a quick snapshot of what was covered:

• A preview of the first pages of new website
• Discussion around how redirects from the current site to the new site will work
• A look at the approved governance structure and discussion about the policy for approvals – approvers being a minimum HEW8 level
• A presentation by Marty Mag Uilhir from Ask UoN about the dynamic FAQs  and how this function will support all web publishers

After the project updates, smaller groups led by the team of Web Content Writers were able to focus on Student/Staff pages, Faculties, News/Events, Images and Google keywords/analytics.

Don’t forget the Web Content team conducts Weekly Squiz Workshops where everyone has access to a computer and the team is on hand to provide individual support. In March, workshops will focus on Writing for the Web, but if you have a different question/concern, please come along and ask for help. REGISTRATIONS ARE REQUIRED to secure a spot.

When:               Every Wednesday 10 – 12noon

Where:             Engineering ES 115c

Registrations:   http://squizworkshops.eventbrite.com.au/

The next round of Squiz Training will be run in April. Details to come.

All web publishers were invited to register for next week’s web publisher info session. Spaces are limited so if are planning to attend then we encourage you to register sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment.

An exciting benefit of our lovely new web site is the opportunity to draw your audience in with enticing images. So as you start to think about how your pages will look, take a moment to consider your pictures. Are they the right size and format, and of good quality? Are they relevant to the information on the page, and will they draw the user in?

• The majority of web publishers will be dealing with content images that sit within the main text area of a page.

• Images that are 400px x 320px (or 320px x 400px depending on the orientation) work best in the content area. This is more of a guide than a steadfast rule as each page is different.

• Images should be no bigger than 50KB each – a maximum of 750KB worth of images per page.

• Resize images before uploading them to the CMS rather than using the editing tools in Squiz.

• You can resize images using Microsoft Office Picture Manager by clicking on the Picture tab at the top of your screen and going to the Resize tab. Or, open your image with Adobe Photoshop, if available, and click on the Resize tab under Image in your top menu bar.

• Make sure you “Smush” your images before uploading them (http://www.smushit.com/ysmush.it/). This online program compresses the file size and optimizes images for the web, which will reduce the time it takes for your page to load. Alternatively, if you have access to Adobe Photoshop, you can save images “for web and devices” by going to the File tab in the top navigation bar.

• Quality is crucial. When you look at your current images, make sure they are in focus and not pixelated. Stretching images to make them bigger will cause some pixelation.

• The preferred image format is JPEG. Most small digital cameras and mobile phones will save photos as JPEGs for you. If this is not the case, open your image using Microsoft Office Picture Manager and hit Save As under the File tab at the top of your screen – then click on the Save As Type drop-down menu and select .jpg from the list.

• Consider the relevance of you images. This Jakob Nielsen eye-tracking study: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/photos-as-web-content/ confirms that images with no importance or relevance to the content are ignored by the reader. In other words, adding “fluff” images to improve the look of your pages will not draw your audience in. However, images that are relevant to your information can spark interest, break up long sections of text and engage the reader.

We are working on a complete Style Guide for web publishers but in the meantime, if you have any questions about images, one of our friendly team members will be happy to help.

Usability testing of the new web site is now under way.

Jodie Preston our resident Market Intelligence Officer kicked off the focus group sessions last night with a group of five Year 11 and Year 12 students.  This morning we asked her a few questions, starting with the fairly unoriginal…

So, how did it go?

Really well.  They were a great group of kids, with different levels of familiarity with our current web site.  They had lots to say and weren’t shy about sharing what they liked and what they didn’t like, which is what you want.

What did you do?

I started by showing them web site 1 (our current site) and talking about their perceptions of the site and what it ‘says’ about the University. I then showed them web site 2 (the new one) and we went through the same sort of discussion followed by some more specific questions about the new site features.

Because it was only a small group (focus groups would normally be 8 people) it meant we could all sit around a computer which was great. I didn’t want to project the site onto a screen because that makes for a very different experience.

As it was, they were able to get on and have a look at the site on the desktop computer, an i-pad and a smartphone. It was really interesting to watch what they did and where they tried to click.

So what did they think?

That’s for me to know and others to find out later!  What we are looking for in testing are not one-off observations or preferences, but trends and common reactions (positive and negative). So I can’t comment on what the testing reveals until the process is complete.

When will that be?

I have a four week window for usability testing to ensure we can still meet our go live date of 3 April.

What do you do with the findings of your testing?

I will write a report which for the Business Owner. It will be up to Andrea to decide whether changes are necessary.

Hi!  I am one of an enthusiastic bunch of eight Web Content Officers who joined in January, excited to bring the new web site to life. We come from backgrounds in web content writing, publishing, editing, online and digital media, local and state government internal communications, PR and advertising to name just a few areas of expertise.

We have hit the ground running with this project, under the guidance of Barbara, Fiona and Shashma.

We have already met with lots of web publishers around the university, helping them to complete a Web Brief – which gives us all a firm idea of what the different web pages need to say and do. We can then help to ensure that key content is effectively communicated with target audiences and that it is channelled through compelling and engaging ways.

Over the past few weeks we have been hard at work on the Research pages with Jen, ensuring we are on schedule for this first go-live phase in April.

We look forward to continuing to work with you on your new site.

The second round of Squiz Training is on next week at Callaghan and the following week at Ourimbah.

All web publishers need to complete the training and priority will be in order of ‘go live’ dates.

Places are limited, so please register to book by following the relevant link…

Monday 4 Feb:    http://squiztraining4feb.eventbrite.com.au
Wednesday 6 Feb:  http://squiztraining6feb.eventbrite.com.au
Thursday 7 Feb:   http://squiztraining7feb.eventbrite.com.au
Friday 8 Feb:   http://squiztraining8feb.eventbrite.com.au

and at Ourimbah

Wednesday 13 Feb: http://squiztraining12feb.eventbrite.com.au

We look forward to seeing you.