With these tips, your association's site can stay ahead of the curve and be at its best. Get the tips here.
Thoughts from Blend Interactive
One of Blend’s core values is a dedication to advocacy and progress — to expand upon and give back to the community that fuels us. This is where those thoughts live.
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So ... What Is Discovery?
Building a website is like building a house — each decision is built upon the decisions that came before. Just as an architect doesn’t just throw a number at you and begin working on blueprints, we don’t begin working on a project until we fully understand the scope. We do that through our discovery process.
Chapter 18: Select an Integration Partner Off-site link
In many projects, you will engage with a services firm to install, configure, and customize a CMS to deliver the website you need.
Chapter 16: Select a Content Management System Off-site link
Selecting a content management system (CMS) is a combination of research and vendor engagement. You need to identify prospective systems, investigate their capabilities, engage with the vendors for demonstrations or questions, and finally distill and synthesize all that information and come to a decision.
Chapter 15: Determine System Requirements Off-site link
At this stage, you have enough information to draw up requirements for what you need in a content management system (CMS).
Chapter 7: Know Your Content Off-site link
One of the challenges in rebuilding any website is figuring out what to do with the existing content. But before you can make any decisions, you simply need to know what it all is. And once it’s unearthed and exposed, then you need to decide what information is relevant and worth recording, determine a method to store this information, and decide how (or if ) you want to keep it updated over time.
Chapter 6: Identify Outcomes and Expectations Off-site link
Your content and message – and your audiences – live on dozens of paths and hundreds of combinations. Understanding what they’re looking for when they access your project will have a large impact on the steps that follow.
Chapter 5: Identify Your Audiences Off-site link
We build websites to prompt an action or convey information to humans. Who are your humans? What are their motivations?
Chapter 4: Create a Project Plan Off-site link
Determine the true time scope of your project. When does it start (hint: right now, perhaps) and how will you choose someone to help through to the very end?
Chapter 3: Form Your Project Team Off-site link
Web projects are shaped by the people involved in decision-making. You can help prevent latestage rework by making sure the right people are in the room from the beginning.
Chapter 2: Set Your Expectations Off-site link
What does it mean to get started on this project? Let’s set a scope for what this project will include, as well as give some thought to what “success” means – and your realistic chances of achieving it.
Beyond Blend.
Blend doesn’t just write here: we also write books, create videos, and dive deep into our individual disciplines. Check out some of our external sources of knowledge.
The Web Project Guide
A phase-by-phase look at the web design and development process, providing context to each step.
Coding with Bob
A YouTube series by our director of development, focusing on .NET coding and Optimizely development.
Eating Elephant
A blog about content strategy, information architecture, and understanding user needs.