The department of Pediatrics has been in the process of migrating over 40 websites to Apollo 2 since early 2019. Recently, one of their Website Managers, Leslie Galloway, shared some of her thoughts on the process after having been through the process for multiple sites. You can read the questions and her answers below:
How did you plan what you were going to do? What was your process?
I started by looking at the big picture and how the content on the site is organized. I review what pages we have and if they fit under a larger category like “About” or “Patient Care” – essentially creating a sitemap. Then I take one section/category at a time and go page by page reviewing the content and formatting the text. Sometimes there are pages with similar or related information that can be combined. This, of course, will help the end-user in finding the information they are searching for. As far as how I choose when to use a card block, buttons, etc., I look at the information on the page to see what is most important and how I can highlight it. For example on the “Our Clinics” page of the Peds Pulmonary site, scheduling an appointment is the most important and we want the user to be able to easily find it. Since there are different ways to schedule an appointment I used three cards to present the information.
Did you learn any helpful tips while going through the process that we can pass on to other people?
The optional preliminary report you provide is really helpful, especially for those who might not know where to start. I also highly recommend using the block editor – the drag and drop feature makes it really easy to move and organize content. I also found when moving content from the classic editor to the block editor that you can select all and copy/paste it into a paragraph block and it will convert headings and lists. With the exception of tables and some images.
How did you handle working on multiple sites, and was there anything you tried to incorporate on all of them?
My process for doing multiple sites at a time is really just focusing on one at a time. I’ll go through the process of reviewing the site, organizing the content, making edits and changes, adding photos, etc. Then I’ll set that site aside and move on to the next one. After I’ve done this with a couple of sites I’ll go back to the first one and review it again. I like to do this especially on larger sites because there are usually things I overlooked or missed and going back to it with fresh eyes helps me find those things. The optimization reports also help as you present different ideas that I might not have thought of.
There are a couple small things I like to keep similar between the sites. For example, in the footer there is typically always a link back to the main Peds Department site. I also like to try to keep the main navigation similar between sites. There is usually an “About”, “Programs/Patient Care”, and “Fellowship” section.
If you worked with other individuals, how did you facilitate?
Once I’ve gone through the design process and I’m comfortable with the site, I’ll send it to leaders in the division and ask them to review it. If I came across any questionable content during the process I’ll be sure to ask the division for confirmation or their input on how it should be presented. I also work closely with Matt Fletcher, our Web Developer, and the Web Services team to get input and bounce ideas off of.