Spinning the Web Cascadia Style

1
Spinning the Web(Cascadia Style)

• Aaron Munter
• President-Elect
• ASTD-Cascadia Chapter
• aaron_at_oetc.org
• 503.694.4499

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About the Chapter

• Approx. 500 members
• Covering all of Oregon SW Washington
• History of technology innovation
• Board of 11-12
• Includes VP, Technology
• Part-time business manager
• (webmaster, lifesaver)

3
Identifying the Challenge

• Existing site didnt scale
• Clumsy navigation
• Inconsistent look
• Not good WebBoard springboard

4
The Project Need

• Expansive site redesign
• Expandable architecture
• Cleaner, more professional look
• Straightforward navigation

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Project Constraints

• Very little money
• Needed coincidence w/WebBoard
• Committee of volunteers
• Very little money

6
Process at-a-glance

• Needs Assessment
• Design/Test Info Architecture
• Design Mock-Ups
• Select Design
• Convert and Test Site
• Deploy

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Detailed Needs Assmt

• Baked into annual member survey
• Leveraged committee, board
• Questioned today and future
• Used existing site stats

8
Design Info Architecture

• ID all the info-bits
• Speculate about future (vision)
• Sort them into categories
• Use known design research
• Think about maintenance
• Helpful activity the card sort

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Test Info Architecture

• If youre looking for an upcoming program, where
  would you look?
• Can use online survey instrument
• A bit less effective, but quick/dirty
• Validate/improves architecture

10
Design Mock-ups

• Main page subsidiary pages
• Prep a few options
• Include a dog or two
• Used pro bono consultant
• With multimedia design/branding firm
• Difficulty beholden to external timeline

11
Select and Propose

• Committee IDed leading choice
• Structured board proposal
• Who let the dogs out?

12
Convert Existing Site

• Tedious
• Takes longer than you think
• There will be content mismatches
• ID whos responsible for where
• Keep full board in the loop

13
Test, test, test

• Follow all the links
• No, really! ALL the links
• Allot enough time
• If you dont, your members will

14
Deploy

• Coordinate with marketing
• Manage expectations
• Allot some here
• Party down!

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Spinning the Web(Cascadia Style)

• Aaron Munter
• President-Elect
• ASTD-Cascadia Chapter
• aaron_at_oetc.org
• 503.694.4499