A detailed view of what you can expect when moving your website from its current content management system, into the new UCSC WordPress service.
Including topics like where to begin, where to ask questions, and the expectations for creating and maintaining a great website.
On this page
First steps
1. Explore the Website Redesign Toolkit and develop a content strategy
Form a plan to make sure your content is doing the work you want it to. Develop your skills with training, tools, and support to enhance the effectiveness and accessibility of your site. This includes goal-setting, content auditing, analytics, accessibility, intranet tools, and more.
2. Request a website
Get the process of requesting a new website started. In 3-5 days, you’ll be notified via email when it’s time to start work in your new UCSC WordPress site.
3. Take the required web training
Set yourself up for success in WordPress, understand university requirements, and start planning your site’s transition.
Next steps
Attend an orientation session
The Web Service Team will schedule you a Getting Started orientation session, where we’ll cover some WordPress specifics, training, where to get help, and opportunities to ask questions.
Attend an Open Lab
Open labs are held on a regular basis and provide an opportunity to ask your specific questions about your web transition, WordPress questions, and strategy design questions.
Access your intranet
If an intranet is part of your plan, you can get access right away by creating a new Google Site. Learn more about creating an intranet.
Then, it’s time to put your content strategy into action.
More ways to support your website transition
Get inspired
Review examples of how people at UCSC are making creative and unique website experiences.
Learn how to make it better
Hit the lab. There are multiple learning opportunities to help create a sustainable and effective website, including required training.
Find answers and resources
Interested in how to do something specific? Explore our guides to help you walk (or bike) through your website questions, anytime you need them.
Who can I talk to about design, technical, content, and other questions?
To start, please review training options and self-service guides, including detailed information about how to use WordPress and it’s many functions.
If you’d hep with content strategy or design:
- Talk with your Website Liaison align your site’s strategy with your department, division, or unit.
- Attend a weekly open lab with expert web, design, and content staff.
- Join the Web Users group a monthly community meeting of website owners and content creators.
If you have a technical question or need to report a bug:
Submit a question via a ticket in SlugHub.
Before you launch & launching your website
Schedule a check in about 3-4 weeks before you are ready to launch. A quality assurance review will happen before launch.
Ways to stay engaged
Responsibilities, standards, and quality
About the new Campus WordPress service
The new, easier to use WordPress service will provide you with the freedom to create, design, manage, and develop a sustainable and effective web presence.
More communication. Less technical.
Because of the easier to use content management system, we are shifting the focus from the technical tools that develop websites to the communication aspect of how you tell the story of your organization.
Responsibilities
Website owners are responsible for ensuring their web content meets accessibility, security, and identity standards.
The Web Service is responsible for hosting, WordPress Theme maintenance, Theme iterations, site performance, WordPress plug-in functionality and maintenance, content strategy training, questions, status communications, and support for all websites using the UCSC WordPress theme.
Any development outside of the standard UCSC WordPress theme is considered custom development. In this situation (example: use of a different theme,) Website Owners will be responsible for the ongoing functionality, support, maintenance, development, security, updates, accessibility and identity standards for their Content Management System, and associated themes and plug-ins.
New website and application standards
One of the ways to ensure we are producing effective websites is to create web standards that everyone who hosts a site with UCSC will need to follow. These standards mean website owners will need to meet the established requirements for accessibility, usability, security, identity continuity, hosting, and domain names. These same standards will apply when outsourcing website work to vendors/suppliers.
Accessibility
We will continue to use SiteImprove, to help develop accessible websites. While SiteImprove is a good tool to help us think about accessibility, there is still a need to make sure the content that we place on our website is clear, understandable, and easy to use.
Review before launch
In order to assure accessibility, usability, and design We will have a quality assurance process that each website owner will be responsible for, and there will be a heuristic review of each website before each website launches, to ensure it meets website and usability standards.
Sourcing content and copyright
When developing and populating websites it is important to ensure that you have the right to reuse any content that is not your original creation. It is potentially a violation of the original author’s copyright to reuse materials, even those openly published on the web. There is information provided by the UCSC team on copyright, as well as a very useful FAQ from UC. The Library also provides information on fair use. It is a common misconception that fair use will cover reuse in an educational setting. Be sure to review what UCOP has to say about fair use in research and the classroom.
Images
Make use of the UCSC Photo Library. It contains high resolution images, that can be used on any UCSC website.
If you use Google Image Search for an image, ensure you are searching for license-free images. In addition, here is a list of free image libraries as well as other resources and interesting websites about “open content.” Also, familiarize yourself with Creative Commons, which provides free, easy-to-use copyright licenses through Flickr and other platforms.