I Need a New Site! How Do I Start?

DETERMINE YOUR NEEDS
Key issues to consider:

Purpose
What is the desired result? What do you want to accomplish? What do you want the Web viewer to do? What information do you want to have available?

Audience
What group are you speaking to? (Faculty, staff, current students, prospective students, parents of current students, parents of prospective students, alumni, donors, community members, businesspeople, friends of the campus, etc.)

Other info
Does the material already exist in print format, or will it be in print format soon? Is our Publications office designing the material for you? Are there special online features that should be mentioned in the print publication?

Deadlines
When does your audience need to see this site? Is there a print piece being mailed that references this site that doesn't exist yet? PLAN AHEAD! Consult with the Senior Web Producer either before or while the print piece is in the design phase. Keep in mind every Web site takes a different amount of time to complete depending on the complexity of graphics and programming, available staff resources, and how long it takes you to proof the site and submit changes back to the Web office.

Address
What would you like the Web site address to be? Keep in mind it should be as short as possible, and needs to be all lowercase. The only symbol that can be used is the underscore, but we don't recommend the use of it.

Colors
We strongly encourage the use of the university's official colors on all New Paltz Web sites, but are there other colors that should be used to convey a certain feeling or to follow a theme developed in print literature?

NOTIFY US

Schedule a meeting with the Senior Web Producer as soon as you've determined your Web site needs. The Senior Web Producer can help you with the best options for the structure of the site and establish a rough production timeline.

Requests for new sites must come directly from a faculty, professional faculty, or classified staff member to our office.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

After you've gone through the "determine your needs" section above, you're ready to move forward. When planning the content for your Web site, think about it like putting together a book. First, write down everything you want to be sure you include in the book. Then, start to group them into logical sections/chapters. Create a "table of contents." This would include broad categories that would potentially have several logical topics under each one. These broad categories become the names of the links off the home page and part of the overall navigation throughout your site. They should be as short as possible. When you have all of this content together, submit it to the Senior Web Producer to add your project to the queue.