Using the University Templates and CMS to Build and Maintain Your Website

1. Using the University Templates and CMS to Build and Maintain Your Website www.cmu.edu/cms

2. The Purpose of the CMS and Templates The purpose of the CMS and Templates is to give people the tools to build and maintain their own websites. Choosing to use the CMS and Templates is completely voluntary and free of charge.

3. How to Get Information Everything you need to know about the CMS and Templates can be found at www.cmu.edu/cms.

4. Examples of Sites Built in the CMS Academic schools and departments as well as administrative groups have built their websites using the CMS. Here are a few examples: Civil and Environmental Engineering The Hub The President’s Advisory Boards Dining Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley The School of Architecture Conference and Event Services Institute for Software Research Government Relations Physics

5. The First Step Know your content. The first step in building a website is to know your content. Make a list (or a pile) of everything you want to include. Don’t worry about organizing it at first. Whatever ends up in the pile is the raw material we need to work with to create your unique site.

6. Information Architecture Know your users. Think in terms of action items. Make the obvious obvious. Choose words that leave a strong information scent. Use progressive disclosure.

7. Information Architecture TipsKnow Your Users The most common mistake people make is that they organize their content according to their internal administration rather than according to how their users will be looking for it. Put yourself in the shoes of your users.

8. Information Architecture TipsThink in Terms of Action Items. Most of the time people go to a website to DO something.

9. Information Architecture TipsMake the obvious obvious. Be specific. Don’t bury good concrete information under broad, generalized categories that are meaningless. Bad Example Good Example Programs Offered Nutrition Stress Management Vaccinations

10. Information Architecture TipsCreate an Information Scent. Word choice matters a lot. Be explicit and use key words when writing labels for navigation, headings, and links. Labels help users find what they are looking for. The more explicit the words, the stronger the information scent, and the easier it is for users to find what they are looking for.

11. Information Architecture TipsUse Progressive Disclosure. Web users scan pages first, before they read them. Don’t overwhelm them with running paragraphs of text before they are ready. Well-written navigation, headings, and links will help the user make smart decisions about where to click. With each click the website should provide more information about the topic.

12. Best Practices. Whenever possible, leave content in its canonical location. It is preferable to link to another website rather than to copy and paste information from someone else’s site into yours. Use relevant text for links. (Never “click here!”) Write for the web. Web users scan pages first, before they read them. More information can be found here: http://www.cmu.edu/cms/writing-for-web/index.html.

13. Version 4 Features. We recently released Version 4 of the templates, which includes: • Carnegie Mellon University in the red bar. • Expand/Collapse Page http://www.cmu.edu/hub/graduation/requirements/grad_faq.html • Bio Index Page http://cms-staging.andrew.cmu.edu/len-playground/people/faculty/index.html • Social Media Icons in the Header Navigation Eg: http://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley

14. Newly Enforced Procedures. If you have not already done so, please contact cms-help@andrew.cmu.edu with the following: Provide Sponsor/Lead information for your site. Request an upgrade to Version 4 of the Templates Request a Unitmark using the new typeface.

15. Thank You. Thank you for making the CMS a success. Total users: 569 Total websites: 246 Total pages: 26,631