The COFA Web team supports, maintains and manages the technology for sponsored college and department websites. The chair or director must approve the Web initiative and a strategy must be devised to ensure the website is on-brand, accurate and maintained.
We have a limited amount of resources and all projects are weighed against other priorities. However, we are happy to help guide and consult anyone in the college with Web related questions.
Questions to Answer Before Starting a Web Project
- Why do you need a website?
- What is the mission of your program, project or event?
- What is the long-term vision for your program, project or event?
- How does you program, project or event support the mission of the department, college or university?
- How will your website support your mission and vision?
- In one sentence can you summarize the purpose of your program, project or event?
- What will be the top 3 priorities of your program, project or event?
- What actual business or perceived relationships does your program, project or event have with other entities in the college?
- How have you promoted your program, project or event so far? Please include a list of publications, other websites, news bulletins, etc..
- Do you have identity or branding assets? (logo)
- What is the voice, tone and style you wish to use for your website?
- Please list 3 websites that are similar (peer websites). What about these sites could be used as a model for your site? What about these sites would you want to handle differently?
- Who is the audience of your website?
- What does your audience want from your website?
- How will your website build a community and engage your visitors?
- Will your website need to facilitate event registration or other participatory activities?
- When will you publish new content to the site, what types of content and how often?
- Who will be contributing to the site?
- Who will review, approve and audit the content on the site?
- Who will be responsible for the accuracy, timeliness and quality of the content on the site?
- Will student information or other Category 1 information be shared on the site?
- Will you publish multimedia or will there be time based content, such as a calendar or news feed?
- Each month how much time will someone spend working on the website?
- How will you promote the website?
- How will we know the website is successful? What measurable goals can we set for the site? (number of visitors, participants, donations, etc.)
- Should requirements for added features or functionality arise, that fall outside of the COFA Web team’s skill or resource set, do you have any financial or other resources that you can direct toward the task?
- What is your ideal date/timeline for this site to be live and visible to the public?
- Please provide an outline of the pages you will have when your website launches.
Learn More
Learn Content Strategy Basics from usability.gov. Watch UX Foundations: Content Strategy on LinkedIn Learning.