Web Design and Development Services
SAS External Affairs provides web design and development services for departments, programs and centers within the School. Our approach combines usability, design and interactive best practices with the ease-of-use, power and flexibility of the Drupal content management system (CMS) to deliver usable, accessible web experiences that engage their intended audiences and further institutional goals.
Process
To initiate a web project, please contact designservices@sas.upenn.edu. A member of the External Affairs office will contact you to schedule an initial consultation meeting. We will work with you to develop your communication goals, define project milestones, identify departmental liaisons and coordinate communication and decision-making procedures.
Please do not hire any contractors or students to build your site without first contacting SAS External Affairs. We can help determine if the site can be built by our staff; we can recommend experienced contractors where indicated or review the qualifications of any people with whom you want to work.
The specific steps that lead to the launch of a new website can vary considerably based upon the requirements and scope of the project, but most website projects consists of these phases:
- Discovery
- Define audience, content needs and functionality requirements
- Assign roles, responsibilities and review process
- Identify sources of content
- Design
- Create site architecture
- Identify content
- Develop layout and visual design
- Develop
- Apply visual design to website templates
- Customize the Drupal CMS
- Load initial content
- Deploy
- Train content departmental staff
- Final technical and security review
- Launch website
Each stage in the process provides opportunities for review and feedback, allowing us – and you – to fine-tune your department’s website.
Updating content over time
Drupal provides all of the tools necessary to maintain your new website, and SAS External Affairs will provide training to designated faculty and staff, enabling you to create, update and maintain website content through Drupal’s easy-to-use browser-based interface.
In the future, should you decide to add new functionality or features that are outside the capabilities of the website as is, you can get back in touch with External Affairs to add to your current website.
Timeline
We typically plan a timeline of no more than six months for most websites, but this can vary based on website complexity, current workload and the availability of department or program stakeholders to provide timely input. Throughout the project you will be regularly apprised of progress, milestones and what’s required of you and your department, such as feedback, content and decisions.
Launching your new site
Prior to launching the new site, we will train departmental staff on how to use the site and work with you to to ensure that content and resources from your current website are properly migrated to the new site. We will perform a final technical and security review and schedule a launch date.
After the website launches, we will thoroughly review the new site to ensure that links work and images appear where they should, and that your website is healthy and thriving in its new habitat.
Examples
Here are a few examples of websites developed by SAS External Affairs:
- Department of History of Art
- Department of History and Sociology of Science
- Department of Economics
- Department of Philosophy
Ready to get started? Send us an email to begin the process or ask more questions.