Investigating the Site

Starting with Day 2, I've decided to get my feet wet by looking at the current site. Without even focusing too deeply on the current design, I've just tried to illustrate what the current map of the site looks like:

 

Current Site Map (2-8-11)

Remembering good practices I had picked up from working with a web design firm in the past, I am time-stamping documents/relevant folders as I use them, just to keep them sorted out from one another. Chances are I will be revisiting several of these documents throughout the Development Life Cycle of this project, and it may be important to know when/what changes are made.

Just looking at the current site map, it's easy to see a few things about the current site. "News" and "Laboratories" are the biggest areas of content for the site, followed by Personnel. A few boxes have question marks in them, which shows that there is no content in those areas. I've been asked to consolidate a few of those into other areas, so over the next few days I will be working through and deciding which areas of content will need to be changed the most.

I'm meeting with the director and compiling a list of who "owns" each page, and how I can contact them to ensure that the information they have provided is relevant and up to date. The next few days are off to a good start, at least!

In the meantime I am reading articles about relevant topics such as website redesign, or how people "read" websites. A large portion of the current website is massive blocks of text, and using text more effectively will help reach many of the goals the new website aims to achieve.