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Consultation Meeting

As Web communicators, we have one chance to make a first impression – on every page and within every sub-domain of Virginia Tech's Web presence.

University Relations is committed to improving the quality of content as it is migrated to Ensemble CMS. A significant portion of the current content within vt.edu sub-domains has usability problems which we do not want to import into the CMS.

We know that you want your online content to reflect the excellence of Virginia Tech. On their first visit, website visitors can arrive at any page in any location. One of your pages may very well be the first page a prospective student visits. So it's important that every page meet high standards.

Usability is the measure of the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which users can accomplish specific tasks on a Web page or series of Web pages. It means improving conciseness, scanability, and accuracy of the website's content and information.

Writing well for any purpose requires training and practice. Writing for the Web requires a specialized set of skills. The skills are not just limited to pure writing, but require you to think about your content from your website visitor's point of view. Things to consider:

• How your visitors will look for your information
• Exactly what information you want to give your visitors
• What information your visitors are likely to seek
• What terms and phrases your visitors are likely to use
• How to organize your information in a way that makes sense to your visitors
• How your visitors respond to certain kinds of language

Delivering information on the Internet requires you to balance your desire to get certain information across with your visitor's desire to find or do something within Virginia Tech's Web presence. This probably will not match how your organization thinks about and organizes its information.

The Ensemble CMS implementation team is ready to help you create a user-centered, attractive, high-quality website that represents the university in the best way possible.

During the consultation meeting, we will discuss:

• Project scope, tasks, and timeline
• Ensemble CMS roles and responsibilities
• Taking inventory of your existing site (if applicable) in order to determine what/how much might migrate and how much will be purged or retooled
• Ensemble CMS content types to determine if they will fit your site’s needs
• Establishing a point person in your department to coordinate the project