The Faculty Development and Diversity Office stalled the launch of its new website for months. When a new site owner came on to drive the efforts home, focus over vision was the key to success.
The Faculty Development and Diversity Office had begun development on a new site with Stanford Web Services over a year before it was launched.
After a change in staffing, the project was stalled for months because there was no one in the Faculty Development and Diversity Office to lead the effort internally.
About 10 months into the project, Assistant Vice Provost and Director of Programs, Rania Sanford, came onboard to take over the initiative. From her previous web experience and goals, Rania had her own unique vision for the site. However, the majority of the site had already been built and because of the delayed launch, the goal of FDDO shifted to hitting a target launch date, rather than revision. As Rania said, “[We] weren’t in a position to create a new site. The goal was to launch because it had been dragging on for months.”
The Challenge: How to launch a site on budget with a change in ownership partway through development (specifically, in the last stages of development).
Back to the White Board
The first step with any client is to understand his or her needs. To effectively transition to a new site owner, this step is equally critical. Therefore, our team workshopped and white-boarded with Rania to show her the current layout of the site and discuss any potential restructuring ideas. Although most of the site had already been built, there was some room for individual page alterations. Instead of redrafting formal mockups and wireframes, after the whiteboarding meeting, the SWS team took a snapshot of the board for easy reference.
Sticking to the Original Goal
Because the focus shifted from revision to launch, it was important for both teams to bear in mind the original goal of the project: to create an easily navigable and editable website for the Faculty Development and Diversity Office. Previously, FDDO had to contract out to do web edits; the website maintenance was not self-service. The site itself was also confusing for users to follow. As Rania said, “The old website was really old; the navigation was really clunky. There was even some repetitive content. The structure was lacking for users to understand where they were [on the site]. It was expired in look, feel, and content.”
To accomplish this challenge, Rania and our team thoroughly reviewed the site to make sure it made sense for both users and editors. We also provided Drupal training to set Rania up for content editing.
In the end, we launched a site for the Faculty Development and Diversity Office optimized for ease of use and navigability. “[It’s like] day and night with new site. It looks cleaner and is way better than what we had before. What we had before was unacceptable,” Rania said.
FDDO Original Home Page
New SWS-produced FDDO Home Page
This project taught our team a lot about flexible revisioning and the importance of sticking to goals when launch pressure is high. While it can be difficult to keep a client happy when it is too late in the process to redraft, if both teams work together, the original goals can be achieved. This requires effective listening on our end to understand client needs and address them accordingly.
To accomplish goals on a tight deadline, it is also important for us to be there for the client to help them through any site-editing challenges they may face. We were delighted that Rania felt our support along the way, saying, “Cynthia [Mijares] (SWS Web Producer) has been tremendously resourceful and supportive, very responsive. She is definitely on the mission. We’re all here to support the faculty and I felt that I didn’t have to jump through hoops or anything [to get help from SWS].”
Now that the Faculty Development and Diversity Office is growing, the team has a greater sense of its web needs and the future of its site. “We want our site to be the best,” Rania told us. “The web is always changing. It is a living creature and we have to keep up.”
If you're interested in learning more about this project, contact SWS Manager, Sara Worrell-Berg SWS at swberg@stanford.edu.
