1.
Conceiving, Developing, and Creating a
Great University Press Website:
Lessons Learned from Three Four Case
Studies

2.
Panelists
Bill Bishel, Information and Business Systems
Manager, University of Texas Press
Patricia L. Searl, Editorial and Technical Specialist,
University of Virginia Press
Laura Furney, Assistant Director & Managing Editor,
University Press of Colorado
Michael Regoli, Director of Journals and Electronic
Publishing, Indiana University Press
Paul Grotevant, IT Manager, Web & Contract
Services, University of Texas, Austin

3.
PATRICIA L. SEARL
EDITORIAL & TECHNICAL SPECIALIST
THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESS
pls4e@virginia.edu

4.
Previous Site: 2011-2016
★ Created In-house
★ Wordpress Template
★ Book Data Separate
★ Not Mobile-Friendly

5.
Goals of the New Site
★ Content Management System (CMS)
★ Mobile-Friendly
★ Improve Search/Navigation and Book Discoverability
★ Integrated Database
★ Updated Look

6.
Drupal Platform
★ Popular, Reputable CMS
★ Fully Customizable
★ Large-Support Community
★ Flexible Database

7.
New Site Design Process: Oct 2015-May 2016
1. Examine Traffic on Current Site (Google Analytics)
2. Base Theme Using Zurb Foundation Framework
3. Content Modeling/Organization
4. Migrate Static Content from Wordpress
5. XML Export/Import Scheme for Book Data from ONIX Feed
6. Feature Coding
7. Visual Design

8.
Technology Used
★ XML
★ XSLT
★ HTML
★ CSS
★ PHP
★ Javascript
★ Photoshop
★ Drupal Framework

9.
Designing In-House
★ Cost
★ Customized
★ Quick Edits/Updates
★ Limited by Staff Abilities
★ Time/Learning Curve

10.
Challenges
★ Balancing Features and Front-End Ease
★ Content Modeling & Organization
★ Design by Committee
★ Understanding Drupal
★ Balancing Aesthetic Design with Mobile Accessibility

11.
Tips/Lessons Learned
★ Analyze Site Traffic
★ Content-First Design
★ Use a Front-End Framework (Bootstrap, Zurb etc)
★ Perform User Testing
★ Budget 5-10 Hours Consulting for any Roadblocks

12.
UPRESS.VIRGINIA.EDU

13.
PATRICIA L. SEARL
EDITORIAL & TECHNICAL SPECIALIST
THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESS
pls4e@virginia.edu

14.
Conceiving, Developing, and Creating a Great
University Press Website: Lessons Learned
from Three Case Studies
Michael Regoli
Director of Journals and Electronic Publishing
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS

15.
The Plan
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Determine website functionality
• Decide on the overall look and feel, develop site map
• Identify preferred navigability, ensure accessibility, mobile and
tablet responsiveness
• What is on the home/landing page, and top level containers
(subject areas, new releases, about page, and so on)

16.
The Process
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Teams created by functional area (marketing, acquisitions,
operations, customer service, etc.)
• Conduct research, develop plans, provide draft reports
• Meetings, meetings, meetings
• Create a final report to serve as blueprint for a Request for
Proposals (RFP)

17.
The Teams
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Analytics
• Audience, Branding, Content, and Functionality
• Design, Navigation, and Vendor Identification
• Technical Requirements

18.
Analytics Team
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Determine usage trends
• Identify most frequently access areas of the site
• Understand geographic reach
• Develop a general visitor demographic profile

19.
Audience, Branding, Content,
and Functionality Team
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Identify key audiences, stakeholders
• Reinforce, strengthen branding and messaging
• Determine content to enhance value
• Navigation elements, define experiences by audience

20.
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Consumer Navigation

21.
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Student
Navigation

22.
Design, Navigation,
Vendor Identification Team
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Identify features and “the look”
• What is/is not working on the current site
• Emulate those features found in best-in-class websites
• Identify potential design groups to approach for an eventual RFP

23.
Sample Front
Page Design
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS

24.
Sample Title
Page
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
INDIANAUNIVERSITY
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Days of Knight
HOW THE GENERAL CHANGED MY LIFE
KIRK HASTON
Category: Sports | Memoir
$22.00
What happens when a 6’ 9” kid from Lobelville, Tennessee
is recruited by legendary basketball coach Bob Knight? Kirk
Haston’s life was changed forever with just a two-minute
phone call. Containing previously unknown Knight stories,
anecdotes, and choice quotes, fans will gain an inside look at
the notoriously private man and his no-nonsense coaching
style. Which past Hoosier basketball greats returned to talk
to and practice with current teams? How did Knight mentally
challenge his players in practices? How did the players feel
when Knight was f red? In this touching and humorous book,
READ AN EXCERPT
Look Inside | Back Cover ADD TO CART
Paperback
Ebook
– 1 +
SEE MORE ▼
SHARE:
PRAISE
“I’ve always had the ultimate respect for Coach Knight as one of the great coaching
minds of our time. When I was a young coach, he took me under his wing and provided
valuable knowledge, just as he had with so many of his players. Thanks to Kirk Haston,
a player I once recruited and have always appreciated, readers will gather insight as to
what made Coach Knight successful, while also of ering a view to a side of him that not
all of us were fortunate enough to see.” —Coach Tom Izzo, Michigan State Spartans
“I’ve read lots of words about Bobby Knight, but never from one of his players. I can’t
wait to read this.” —Tony Kornheiser, co-host of ESPN’s Pardon the Int erruption and
former sport swriter for The Washington Post
“Here’s a Bet You Didn’t Know, Hoosier Fan: among IU’s 3-year career players, only
Scott May, Archie Dees and Walt Bellamy outscored Kirk Haston; only Bellamy, Dees
SEE MORE ▼
ABOUT KIRK HASTON
Kirk Haston was a member of the Indiana Hoosiers basketball team from 1997–2001
ALSO BY KIRK HASTON
Explore Publish Connect Meet | Give
CREATE AN ACCOUNT | SIGN-IN | MY PROJECTS

25.
Technical Requirements Team
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Recommendation of content management system as well as the
key functionality of the site
• Blog integration, content authoring capabilities
• Content integration
• Author and community engagement tools, social media
• E-Commerce, customer relations management (CRM)
considerations

26.
The RFP Process
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
• State university brings levels of complexity to the process
• Auxiliary of the Indiana University Library System
• Vendors appreciated the depth and coverage of our blueprint

27.
The Dos and Don’ts
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
• Do the homework, know where you want to go
• Devise realistic goals, and develop a reasonable plan
• Involve all staff and stakeholders, internally and externally
• Budget accordingly in terms of your crucial resources: time,
funding, and staffing
• Don’t rush the process
• Don’t underestimate your crucial resources, especially staff time
• Don’t focus exclusively on one component like design

28.
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Michael Regoli
Director of Journals and Electronic Publishing
regoli@indiana.edu

29.
Laura Furney, Assistant Director & Managing
Editor, University Press of Colorado
http://upcolorado.com/

30.
From:

31.
To:

32.
A University IT Shop’s
Perspective on University Press
Website Development
Paul Grotevant
IT Manager, Web & Custom Solutions Team
ITS Applications
University of Texas at Austin

33.
Who am I?
• Part of UT Austin central IT department
• Provide “recharge” website maintenance and development services
in addition to centrally-funded core services
• Team of eight Drupal developers

34.
How do we work?
• Typical custom website development project:
• Scope includes branding, custom page types, minimal interactive functionality
• 100-300 hours
• 1-2 developers (front-end/back-end), plus project management (20%)
• Process
• Initial conversations
• Estimate
• Agreement
• Development
• Testing/QA
• Launch

35.
How was a University Press site different from
our typical project?
• Unique branding needs
• Extensive custom functionality needs:
• Page types for books and journals
• E-commerce/shopping cart
• Automated imports from inventory management system
• Integration with University credit card gateway
• Tailored search experience
• Larger than average budget

36.
Approaching this project differently…
• Start process with discovery engagement estimate:
• 20-40 hours for documenting existing behavior and business processes
• 40-80 hours for prototyping and technical solution analysis
• 15-30 hours for documenting requirements and building estimate
• Deliver final report from discovery engagement, including detailed bid
for build phase
• If desired, proceed to build phase – no hard commitment up front

37.
Discovery Engagement Process
• On-site interviews with Press staff
• 3-4 meetings of 1.5-2 hours each with different groups
• Developer analysis of existing site
• Extensive prototyping to explore viability of candidate e-commerce
framework
• Meeting with University Accounting to discuss requirements for credit
card gateway integration

38.
Discovery Deliverables
• Final summary report (9 pages):
• Documentation of current business processes
• Limitations of existing system(s)
• Recommended system design (high-level)
• Conclusion/high-level estimate
• Bid estimate (4 pages)
• Detailed estimate with hours breakdown per task (4 pages)

39.
What did Discovery provide?
• Established documented basis of agreement for goals of project
• Provided relatively low investment way for Press to figure out what
they were getting into; option to bail out before build phase
• Allowed ample time for technical exploration/prototyping for a
previously unexplored use case, increasing confidence of estimates
for build phase
• Build phase quickly resulted in demonstrable results, due to pre-work
in prototyping
• Built trust between Press and IT teams by showing that we deeply
understood their business problems/processes

40.
Moving on to the Build Phase
• Five months from kickoff to launch
• Sprint demo meetings every 3-4 weeks
• Target “MVP” for launch, prioritizing some tasks/features as being
okay to wait until post-launch
• Budget discussions – keep an eye on the hours, and talk honestly
about how to stay on target if something goes wrong
• Cloud platform means being able to build in parallel, and just “flip the
switch” to launch the new site on a given day

41.
Critical Success Factors
• Discovery set expectations correctly on both sides
• Press staff had extensive experience with an existing commerce solution,
so they knew what they liked and what they needed in a new system
• Developers and press staff used a shared system for making all work visible
as task “cards” and discussing issues asynchronously
• Press provided highly engaged staff to represent business needs, and were
available for frequent demo check-ins (2-3 week cycles)
• Use of existing, flexible commerce solution for Drupal greatly reduced
development time
• Mixing in-person and virtual meeting modalities

42.
What questions should you be prepared to
answer from a development team?
• What role does your website play in your overall business strategy?
• What are the pain points with your current website?
• Who is your primary target audience?
• What is your budget?
• Do you need to sync book/journal data from a canonical source
system to your website?
• If doing ecommerce, describe all of your back-end business processes
for order fulfillment in detail

43.
What questions should you ask from a
development team?
• Should we use separate or integrated CMS and commerce solutions?
• Should we use a custom or software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution?
• What is the anticipated life-cycle of the selected solutions?
• How does the selected solution handle PCI compliance for payments?
• How will the selected solution integrate with my inventory system?
• How easily can the selected solution be customized for specific business
use cases?
• Promo codes/discounts
• Examination copies
• Sales tax collection
• Domestic vs. international shipping
• Flat rate vs. calculated shipping rates