Redesign Process

The website redesign process has six distinct phases: discovery, content, information architecture, site build, content entry and launch.  

All websites must have a business and technical owner identified before the project starts.  Read the complete website ownership guidelines

This overview will give you an idea of the the work required of you and Web Strategies at each step.

Discovery

All site stakeholders meet with Web Strategies to start the project.  There must be a business and technical owner for the site at this meeting.

Web Strategies explains the redesign process and gives you an overview of the tools we'll use for site organization and development.  After the meeting, Web Strategies sets up the internal resources we need to manage your project such as a a project in our issue tracking system. You'll receive a follow-up email summarizing our discovery meeting.

Content

Complete a site map and page inventory. (we'll give you templates and samples)  Now is the time to start working with your team to update and write content.  

You'll also want to familiarize yourself with OHSU's Visual Identity Guidelines.

Web Strategies is available to answer questions.

Submit your completed page inventory to Web Strategies via email. We'll review it and make recommendations (if applicable). You'll receive an email when the page inventory has been approved, indicating which pages will need wireframes.

Information Architecture

Complete an IA document for pages requested by Web Strategies - you'll be given Visio templates to start from. There are also samples on the Web Strategies website.

Web Strategies is available to answer questions.

Submit your completed IA document to Web Strategies via email. You'll receive an email letting you know the IA has been approved, or a list of modifications that need to be made.

In this phase, in addition to making sure the IA meets visual identity guidelines and adheres to web best practices, Web Strategies is also identifying custom requests and gathering requirements for features our team will need to implement.

Site Build

After the IA and page inventory are complete, you'll have a conversation with Web Strategies about the tools and configuration for your new site - analytics, search, shortcuts.

Setting up the tools for your website involves several teams across ITG.  After you figure out which tools you'll use on your site, Web Strategies creates tickets for each tool and begins working with other teams to set up the resources.

Web Strategies builds out the directory structure of your site, custom templates and the first page in each directory.  We also configure basic security permissions.  

This is a great time to finalize your content.

A 4 hour  training session for everyone who will be entering and managing content will be scheduled a week before content entry begins.  Consider it a guided tour of CommonSpot and your new templates with some hands-on practice.

Content Entry

Enter Content: 2 weeks-3 months
Start entering content!  All new pages must be created during the content entry phase.

Web Strategies is available to answer questions.  We also keep an eye on content entry to catch errors early.

Assets Submitted for Review: 2-4 weeks before QA begins
Send all banner graphics and promo images to Web Strategies for review.

Web Strategies reviews assets for compliance and quality.  Then, we make recommendations or manage the outsourcing to a vendor for corrections.

Quality Assurance (QA): 1-3 weeks
Web Strategies reviews your site content for compliance with our visual identity guidelines and verifies functionality of all custom features.

You'll be given access to a shared spreadsheet where we'll record issues on your site that were fixed or need to be fixed by your team.  If your site is large and you want to start fixing issues early, we can give you access to the site in phases as QA is completed.

Correct Issues: 1-2 weeks
Correct all issues in the QA spreadsheet.  You'll have access to edit content but not create new pages.

Web Strategies Sign-off: 1-3 days
Web Strategies verifies all issues identified during QA are corrected.  

At this point, there are no further edits to the content until after launch.

Launch

Final Launch Prep: 4 days, the Thursday-Monday prior to launch
Web Strategies and Web Engineering prepare vanity domains and redirects, continue working on enterprise tool integration such as search and analytics begins and conduct final load-testing.

You'll be able to review, but not edit, content while final preparations are made for launch.

Go/No-Go Meeting: Monday afternoon, the day before launch
Business and technical site owners for your site meet with Web Strategies to give final approval for go-live.

Launch: a pre-scheduled Tuesday
Celebrate! Your new site is live.

Vanity domains will take up to 24 hours to propagate; other types of shortcuts will take effect immediately.  When our launch tasks are complete, you'll receive a congratulatory email from us.

On launch day, Web Strategies also updates any old shortcuts and closely monitors server performance.

Post-Launch

Authoring Access Restored: 1 day post launch
The day after your new site has launched, you'll receive an email notifying you of restored access to authoring.

Web Strategies also publishes a news item on our site announcing your site launch.

Remove Old Site: within 2 weeks of launch
Within two weeks of the launch of your new site, your old website needs to be removed.  This includes deleting CommonSpot pages and taking old content off the Tier II environment.  This step is critical for making your new site "findable" by search engines.