Case study
By early 2004, The Badger Herald’s website had grown tired and fallen into disrepair. Internally, the web was a low priority and The Herald’s existing content technologies made working with the site hard. It was time for a change.
Beginning April 2004, ZEMU built a new website for The Herald. We started from scratch, examining the very essence of what a newspaper website must do. Audience research taught us what our users wanted, and discussion with Herald staff solidified our goals. The site should be good looking, easy to update, fast loading and flexible.
We began with a clean, modern design that delivers content with uncompromised effectiveness. We developed strategy that embraces readers with features like open commenting and full-text RSS feeds. We customized MovableType to accommodate a barrage of content, including 20 stories a day and a 10,000-article archive.
Finally, we immersed ourselves in The Herald, refocusing staff and developing efficient processes for maintaining and expanding the site. Our team began to work with editorial staff, managing web content and nightly builds of the site.
ZEMU also developed an internal web application (view screenshots) that serves as a central repository for every story The Herald publishes. Editors and designers provide the headline, byline, excerpt, images and any notes – and the web staff uses an overview of the day’s content as a guide for updating the site.
The application is simple enough for casual users, but contains advanced functionality to enable maximum effectiveness for the people who use it every day. Missteps are caught reliably and friendly feedback helps users get back on their feet immediately.
At The Badger Herald, people are now thinking about the web. And it shows. The site began as a simple mirror of the newspaper, but has grown already to include weblogs, calendars, and web-only content.
Personnel:
- John Zeratsky – project management, strategy, design, MovableType configuration, staff training and workflow development
- Charles Parsons – strategy, design, development
- Taylor Hughes – programming
- Nick Mueller – programming
- Nick Olejniczak – strategy, design, and back-end development