Newsletter May 2011 Information Services

Information Services
Newsletter
May 2011
Upgrade to TerminalFour Site Manager 7.0
Improved navigation within web pages
School websites migration project
Unimail project
Miscellaneous IT Services moves to the Bute
Special needs computer room
UniDesk upgrade
University of St Andrews: IT Services + Business Improvements
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May 2011
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Upgrade to TerminalFour Site Manager 7.0
This summer the web team are planning to upgrade the University’s enterprise web content
management system to TerminalFour Site Manager 7.0.
One of the main features of Site Manager 7.0 is a completely new user interface which has
been redesigned to be more intuitive and self-explanatory; this should be of particular help to
people who use Site Manager only occasionally. Another significant addition is the ability to
search for both content and media (images, videos, documents, etc) by name.
The plan is to upgrade the development server first, which will allow us to carry out extensive
testing. Once testing is complete, the web team will invite existing Site Manager users within
the University to log in to the development server, so as to become familiar with the new user
interface while more extensive documentation is written and the upgrade to the live server
is scheduled.
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Improved navigation within web pages
The web team is currently working on a project that will provide an improvement to the
way that users navigate pages intended for internal University audiences – that is, ‘Current
staff’, ‘Current students’ and ‘Current postgraduates’. The ‘Current staff’ section, which
comprises eleven categories (covering academic matters, computer and IT support, library,
money matters, etc) is being restructured first, with the aim of completing the student and
postgraduate sections before the start of the next session.
When the University website was redesigned in 2006–2007, information architecture
consultants Dynamic Diagrams recommended the navigation that we currently have, with
most pages for internal audiences showing a list of categories on the left-hand side of the page.
While these links do allow users to skip easily between different categories, they don’t help
users navigate within a particular category. It is primarily this problem that we are aiming to
address by ‘switching on’ left-hand navigation.
Left-hand navigation will reveal the true hierarchical structure of the webpages within a
particular category, making it much easier to ‘drill down’ to content that is deeper in the
hierarchy. It will also provide better context about any page you are viewing by showing
you its parents, children and siblings. We already take this approach in many other parts of
the website, including pages aimed at external audiences, such as ‘About the University’ or
‘Visiting’.
Two sections of the ‘Current staff’ section (‘Academic Matters’ and ‘The Town and Beyond’)
have already been updated with the new navigation. The rest of ‘Current staff’ is planned to
be completed before the end of July, before we move on to ‘Current students’ and ‘Current
postgraduates’ during the summer vacation.
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School websites migration project
The Website Migration Project Officer, Rich Gordon, joined the web team in October 2010.
Since then considerable progress has been made to move school websites into TerminalFour
Site Manager, the University’s web content management system.
The new School of Chemistry website was completed and launched in February 2011. This
was received well by staff and students. Four schools (Art History; Classics; Computer
Science; Psychology) have now begun the process of migration. A further three (Philosophy,
Anthropology & Film Studies; History; Mathematics & Statistics) are now preparing to begin
the process.
With considerable help from school computing officers and webmasters we have gained a very
practical insight into how best to cater for individual schools. While each project presents its
own unique challenges, it usually follows the same process:
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Define the project: gather requirements and understand the business and priorities
of the school.
Develop site structure: audit and evaluate the current website (structure and
content) making improvements where necessary.
Design visual interface: create the visual design and page layout.
Build: code the design within TerminalFour Site Manager, set up the site structure
and populate with content.
Launch and beyond: hand over the completed website to the school and agree on
maintenance responsibilities.
The programme to migrate all school websites into Site Manager is progressing well. There
are currently seven school websites being managed within Site Manager; by the end of 2011
we hope to bring that total to eleven.
Unimail project
The Unimail project was completed on 28 April 2011, as scheduled. All University staff are
now able to use Unimail to access their mail and calendaring. The Unimail project team would
like to thank everyone for their help and support during the project.
May 2011
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Miscellaneous IT Services moves to the Bute
The IT Services technicians and Media Services have now moved to the Bute building; they
have a workshop and store located on the ground floor, accommodating also the stock of
computer consumables. These are permanent moves.
The Helpdesk has also been relocated to the Bute, on the right if you go in by the main entrance
from Queen’s Terrace. This is a temporary move for the duration of the Library refurbishment,
and the Helpdesk will return to the Library during pre-sessional week.
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‘Special needs’ computer room
The ‘special needs’ computer room, housing assistive technology, has been moved from the
Library to the Garden Seminar Room of Kennedy Hall. This is a temporary location while
the Library is being refurbished; a new permanent location will be announced in due course.
UniDesk upgrade
The UniDesk system is used to manage all calls sent via email or web-forms to the IT Helpdesk.
Calls are received into first-line support and escalated, if required, to second-line support
teams for more specialised attention and subsequent resolution.
UniDesk was upgraded to version 4.3 SP1 on Tuesday 24 May. This upgrade work improved
the system performance on two significant levels:
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All incoming and outgoing emails can now been seen in one place, and ordered by
different criteria, such as chronology.
Header information is retained for incoming emails uploaded into the documents
area.
The IT Helpdesk can be contacted by email to [email protected], or telephone 3333.
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This monthly Newsletter is also available on-line (with search facility) via the ‘Computer and IT Support’
web pages, and is edited by Peter Adamson (telephone 2762, email pga).
The deadline for contributions for the June 2011 issue is Monday 13 June.
Circulation list updates to 2770, [email protected]
Main address:
Butts Wynd, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AL
telephone: 01334 462770
The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland : No SC013532
May 2011
fax: 462759