Selections from the Creative Brief – Door No.2
…The new Brooklyn College Website presents a clear, easy-to-use, program-focused presence, based on the newly established branding… …The Website needs to convey the strengths and vision of Brooklyn College, and connect with the right prospective students and all other target audiences in a meaningful and supportive manner… …Consistency in organization, design and tone is critical to the success of the new Website… …The (site) will seek to strike a balance between flexibility and structure, fresh content and rotating features… …The Website should encourage the visitor to move beyond the Internet and to take action – this action may be to apply, to visit the campus, to get more involved in an upcoming event, to contribute a story or a photo, to donate money to further an initiative…
A Website is essentially content – within a container constructed to present that content. The new Website presents Brooklyn College in a consistent and user-friendly way, allowing our users to engage with us in a variety of ways. Through an examination of the site, templates and content types, we will begin to see how the various types of content fit together, what is required to create content elements properly, and the various opportunities we have to showcase this created content.
Site Organization
The site is organized in a hierarchy, with four main levels or organization, with actual content placed lower into the site in its appropriate area. The four levels can be thought of as:
Most authors will only encounter the lowest two levels. Their job is the content - the vast majority of the site, and the most important aspect of the site - clear, well organized content.
Content Management System
The Brooklyn College Website uses the OpenText CMS, which leverages a library of templates and a hierarchical structure to present College information. Each department, organization and office has their own location, logical in its placement within the site.
Some Naming Conventions
Some simple terms that are used within this information:
- CMS - OpenText CMS, the tool that we use for managing the Brooklyn College website.
- SmartTree - The CMS's administrator environment used to manage site pages, content and overall structure.
- SmartEdit - The CMS's author environment used to manage site pages and content.
- RedDots - The actual controls used to manage site pages and content elements within SmartEdit.
- Right Click Menu - Additional functionality within a dialog that can be accessed with the right mouse button.
- Content Classes - Templates that are used to create pages.
- Filename - a page's filename, which is part of the page's URL that uniquely identifies a particular page.
What This Training is For (And What it Isn't)
This site helps an author or an administrator better understand the web site tools that Brooklyn College has in place. It does not attempt to explain why you would do something in most cases, only how you do something.
Contact Us
Office of Communications and Marketing
2118 Boylan
Phone: 718.951.5882
communications@brooklyn.cuny.edu