Presentation for the 2013 CUNY IT Conference, on realistic website development for non-commerce sites. Presenters Brian Farr & Valerie Forrestal from the College of Staten Island, City University of New York.

1. Brian Farr
Valerie Forrestal
Systems Manager
College of Staten Island
Web Services Librarian
College of Staten Island
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CUNY IT Conference ~ 12.6.13

2. 
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Clear, concise and logical navigation
Simple, elegant design
Advertise news and upcoming events
Central search box for finding resources
Repository for forms, policies, hours and
contact information

3. 
Site organization
o Will your page groupings make sense to users?
o Deep hierarchical design may require extra navigation, such as
secondary nav menus and/or breadcrumb links
o Folder structure will also affect how links look
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How many templates? (1 vs. 2 column design – how will
mobile handle side column? Drop it? Stack it?
What kind of navigation? What nav should go on every
page
External links? Deep footer?

4. Source:
“How to Create a Directory Structure
Search Engines Rock To”
by Stoney deGeyter
(http://www.searchengineguide.com/ston
ey-degeyter/how-to-create-a-directorystructure-sear.php)

6. How did we get here?

8. Joomla:
• Customizations prevented
updates
• Messy back-end/admin
interface
• Old, vulnerable plugins
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Learning curve
Will you need user
accounts?
Will it continue to be
supported?
Server requirements
Back end code
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Versioning
Functions vs. content
Site performance
Why WordPress?
• Any CMS will do what we need
• Leanest
• Easiest
• Least intimidating to librarians
• Better separation between
code & content

14. For questions or more info:
brian.farr@csi.cuny.edu
valerie.forrestal@csi.edu
Site @ did.csi.cuny.edu/wp
Slides @ vforrestal.com