Bucknell Web Development

Now that the project of migrating our website into a new Web Content Management system is behind us, I’ve found myself thinking back to the start of the project and wondering what we could have done differently. With my perfect 20/20 hindsight vision, I offer this list of lessons learned for those of you whole might be undetaking a similar project:

1. Demos, Demos, and More Demos. During the product demos, ask for real demonstrations of all features that matter to you. Not screen shots, not verbal reassurances that something will work, not a promise that the next release will be able to do what you need. Ask direct questions about versions of the software -- what features the current version has; what features are under development. Make sure you are clearly understand the answers.


2. Get Your Hands Dirty. Ask for some hands on time with the product. No matter how hard you try to keep the products sorted out in your head, they inevitably start to blur. Hands-on experience will help. And by "hands-on," I don't mean watching the sales person using the CMS; I mean you, at the computer, mouse in hand.


3. Know What You Need. Will you have lots of people editing the website? Then focus on the end user interface. Will your web editors use the workflows? Is email notification as part of the workflow important or not? Do you have web editors using both Macs and PCs? Think about how your campus will actually use the WCM and build questions for the sales people around that.


4. Communicate With Your Campus. Update your campus regularly about the status of the project, new developments, changes that they can expect to see. For example, if the new system is going to mean a change in URLs sitewide, make sure your campus knows this and understands the implictions (e.g. that bookmarks will break; that references to URLs in printed publications must be updated). Communication more than you believe is necessary.


5. Do It Yourself. Lots of CMS companies promote some sort of "import" tool. My advice? Even if they offer such a tool, no matter how tempting it sounds, import the site yourself. You know your website inside out; the CMS staff does not. And it's the only way to really learn all the ins and outs of the product. Hire a crew. Ask for volunteers. Host a weeklong migration party. Whatever it takes.


6. Be Patient. Estimate how long you think it will take to get your website into the CMS. Now take that figure and double it. Seriously. You are going to encounter unpredictable issues, convoluted challenges, and depths to your website that you never knew existed.


7. Nothing is Perfect. Finally, remember what I said in an earlier entry: there is no perfect CMS system out there, even if you have the people-power to write your own. Repeat after me: there is no perfect CMS.

Web pages are always evolving. They morph, grow, shrink. New pictures, new content, new sub-pages. The possibilities are endless. But if no one is updating your web page, it grows stale, and pretty soon, no one will bother viewing your page. Web pages need to be tended to, just like plants. Without water, your plants will wither and turn brown. But if you give your plants the right amount of water and sunlight, new growth appears. Tend to your web pages, and new visitors will come.

So if your answer to the question: "Who is updaing your web pages" is no one, then it's time to contact the Web Development team.

• Send us an email
• call (73310) or
• drop by (entrance to the library, on your right, opposite the Teaching & Learning Center).

We'll set up your account, give you access to training material, and by the end of the day, you could be updating your website.

The Ingeniux WCM might be hard to pronounce (that's In-genie-x), but it's easy to use. We have over 50 people updating their pages, and many of them know to little or no HTML.

We have online tutorials, weekly sessions for first-time users, and weekly sessions for learning more advanced features in the WCM. We're here between semesters to answer your questions, and the weekly sessions will start up again in January.

So what are you waiting for?