NHGRI Web Presentation

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NHGRI Web Presentation

• Presented by the Communications Branch
• National Human Genome Research Institute
• NIH/DHHS

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History
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History Overview

• Four years of redesign
• The Web Oversight Committee (WOC)
• Project management or struggling for control
• Tentative redesign
• A new beginning CPLB given redesign assignment

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The Old Web Site
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Not 508 Compliant!
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Building a Team

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Accumulating Resources

• Funding and support provided by institute
• Gathering the team members
• Charlie Pastel and Debbie Hill switch contracts
• Zeki Mokhtazarda and Ken Gold join team as Web
  Developers
• Nancy Seybold and Jo Miller hired to develop the
  architecture
• Judy Wyatt hired as the Web editor

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Building Consensus
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Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick

• The three components of the institute (OD, DIR,
  DER) disagreed on manner and control of the site
• NHGRI Director decides effort-to-date does not
  meet institute needs and backs new effort
• Redesign to be monitored by the Executive
  Committee
• Reviewed then current site and previous redesign
  effort
• Preliminary meetings held with divisions and
  programs

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Consensus Gathering

• Interviewed NHGRI staff for Web input
• Presented staff interview questions well before
  interviews
• First time anyone had initiated direct
  discussions with staff members and focused on
  their prospective audiences
• Stressed staff ownership of content
• Interviews made staff stakeholders in the site

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Consensus Gathering (cont.)

• Notes from meetings were instrumental in guiding
  the web development
• Meeting notes were made available online to
  members of the institute provided transparency
  to the development
• Stressed to staff the flexibility in sites
  content
• Planned independent user review to test site
  design
• User review based on differing programmatic
  priorities vs. ease of use

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Consensus Gathering (cont.) Closing

• Result of building consensus was an overall
  acceptance of site design by institute staff
• Staff feels the site represents their efforts and
  programs
• Web team appears approachable for changes and
  content/design concerns
• High confidence in a response and implementation
  to their requests

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Building Tools
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Inheriting a Platform

• Initial job was to salvage the redesigned site
• Previous redesign was expensive and drawn out
• This redesign built on the ColdFusion platform

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Content Management

• Content Manager designed by Web Developers for
  Web Developers and team members
• In-house development proved less expensive than
  purchasing available software packages
• Major benefit is to separate content and
  structure from design

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Content Manager Draft Page
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Initial Design Template
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Final Published Page
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Assignment Desk

• Keeps track of assignments and tasks
• Get an idea of the status of a task
• Ensures tasks dont get dropped when reassigned
• Sends out reminder e-mails

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Assignment Desk
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Approval Process

• Every page on the Web site has been inherited by
  one or more individuals
• The Approval Center form ensures that anyone
  closely attached to a page can add feedback about
  that page
• Treats each page as a forum
• Places time limitations for reviewing pages

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Approval Center Form
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Quality Control

• Designates each task to the person who can best
  check that attribute (i.e., writers check
  grammar, programmers check HTML, etc.)
• Creates a list of distinct checks, so that people
  can work in parallel

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Quality Control Checklist
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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Additional Tools

• Dreamweaver WYSIWYG used to edit HTML
• Prevent pages with known problems from being
  published
• Give pages an expiration date to ensure content
  is fresh

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Creating the Site
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Role of the Writers

• Web team decided the fate of every page on the
  site (either rewrite/update, archive or dump)
• A total of eight writers hired
• Content was organized into seven sections
  (Research, Health, Policy/Ethics,
  Careers/Training, Grants, Newsroom, About NHGRI)
• Content was created in several Word documents
• Set up a document tagging/title system for each
  document

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Final Word Document
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Role of the Web Architects

• Lead Architect began mapping out tentative 3rd
  and 4th tiers, in consultation with Web Editor
  and Developers
• Some areas mapped back to original site others
  described areas of new content
• Initial mapping done by The Wall post-it
  notes arranged in an organizational manner on a
  board
• The 2nd and 3rd tier architecture was captured
  with Screen Decks, and shared with the team

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Tier 2 Screen Deck
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Tier 3 Screen Deck
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Developing the Look and Feel of the Site
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Setting the Foundation

• Preliminary discussions regarding the look and
  feel commenced in September 2001
• Web team was asked to select their own favored
  Web sites helped to reach an initial consensus
  on key elements
• Global assumptions/design issues were narrowed
  down in several ensuing brainstorming sessions

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Graphic Bake-Off

• Five graphic sources were propositioned to design
  Web site comps
• MFM Design
• Words Pictures Ideas
• In-house resources
• New City Media
• Grafik
• Designs were presented separately and critiqued

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Several Design Comps
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Selecting Grafik

• Grafiks designs were selected
• Though the overall feel was appropriate, the
  look was still in question
• Another major revision was presented the look
  was finally getting tied down
• Subsequent alterations occurred process would
  span several months

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Design Implementation

• Final Photoshop files were delivered in March
  2002
• Files were enhanced further by in-house designers
• Resulting files were converted to individual
  graphics
• Graphics were placed into HTML templates
• ColdFusion templates later replaced HTML files
• Unusual for Web team to carry the process from
  design stage to technical implementation
  generally done by the marketing/communications
  firm

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The Launch
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Before the Launch

• NHGRI staff was reminded of launch deadline
• Web team triaged remaining quality control
• Closed down incoming staff input 2 hours before
• Closed down Web team input 1 hour before
• Web site launched without a glitch!

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The Launch Video
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The Process of Continuing Updates
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Page Aliases

• Some staff members complained about the original
  URL naming conventions
• Old page addresshttp//www.genome.gov/page.cfm?p
  ageID10001772
• New page addresshttp//www.genome.gov/10001772

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Revised URL
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Archive Viewer

• Archive viewing function has been added to the
  Content Manager
• Allows for viewing of all previously saved Web
  pages

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Archive Viewer
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April 2003 Extranet

• Created to serve as a form of communication
  between NHGRI staff and external collaborators
• Future extranets will be created

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April 2003 Extranet
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Future Developments

• A searchable image database will reside in the
  Newsroom section
• Better faster search engine
• More online databases
• Intranet Project

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Web Page Statistics

• Started with 630 pages at launch currently have
  a total of 758 pages (128 Pages in 10 months,
  12-13 new pages per month)
• All pages are reviewed on a regular schedule
  pages are updated and republished daily
• Page expiration dates fall in a range of 10 to
  180 days from initial creation
• Revisions occur on an average of 4 pages per day,
  20 pages per week an approximation of 800 pages
  since launch!

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Lessons Learned
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Checklist

• Resources
• Gather skilled team
• Build and maintain consensus
• Focus on end user
• Political support
• Separate content from structure and design
• Be flexible
• Editorial process