Frequently Asked Questions About Cascade
1. New top-level pages for Feinberg School of Medicine, and Cascade – what is it all about?
In a process involving stakeholders across the campus and the university, the Office of Communications gathered requirements, defined the overall strategy for improving the Feinberg online presence, and selected Hannon Hill Cascade Server content management system. Our main objective is to develop a family of online properties that meet specific objectives for specific audiences, and work together in a coordinated way, under the Feinberg brand umbrella.
Our Phase 1 migration went live in August 2011: we have launched several new sites thus far, including the Office of Diversity site. In the coming months, the new design and templates will be applied to a number of Feinberg web sites. We are also developing new training offerings and updating policies to support the new environment, including new web and social media guidelines.
See more information about the benefits of standardizing and using a web content management system.
2. What web services are available to me?
Web Publishing * Web Training * Web Hosting * Web marketing consultation and Internet Strategy development
In addition to working closely with you to develop an overall internet strategy for your organization and helping you build your site in Cascade, we provide guidance on content organization and presentation, online marketing (organic search) and site analytics, as well as social media and best industry practices. We also provide web training and support for those groups whose sites have already been moved to Cascade. See our project request form if you are interested in working with our team.
3. When can my site be moved into Cascade?
Our goal is to help as many sites as possible migrate into Cascade as quickly as possible, but we need to set some expectations along the way. Site redesigns (e.g. revising content strategy, page layout, look & feel, etc.) generally take longer than a “true move” (transferring your current site content and navigation into our updated templates and re-building the same pages in Cascade). To speed up this campus-wide initiative, we are giving a priority to units that are already using the Feinberg branded templates and have worked closely with our office in the past.
Some sites will need to wait, as we focus on the redesign of the Feinberg top-level pages and migrate sites that are the highest priority for multiple target audiences. Our production schedule is full until next fall (2012). Contact Daniela Petrovska, Web Communications Manager, if you would like to have your existing site added to the list and scheduled for migration.
4. How can I prepare for the transition?
There are several things you can do in advance to prepare:
- Content: Begin with a review of your site – take a look at your site content with a critical eye. Which pages need to be updated? Is there any outdated information that should be removed? Is there anything missing that should be included?
- Navigation: Organize the site in such a way that the top navigation is not overflown and the site has no more than 4 levels of content organization. Review the navigation labels, determine if you can make them shorter – to give you a better idea of the character limit and how many main navigation items we could fit in the new templates, take a look at these new sites: Global Health and Scientific Careers Research & Development Group. Each of your site folders should have an “index” page. If you have any folders with only one page, move that page to another section in the site structure.
- Event calendar: Use Plan-It-Purple for posting and promoting your events.
- Faculty Profiles: if you have faculty information on your site, link to the FSM faculty profiles.
- Site planning: compile “user requirements” (stakeholders’ “wish list”) to prepare for the move and site improvements.
5. What can I expect when it's time to migrate?
The Communications web team will help you develop a roadmap to plan your migration to Cascade. We will partner with your office to guide you through this process, but be prepared that the transition will require a significant time commitment and hard work on your end. Plan to assign a project lead, committed to working with us towards building a more effective, unified web presence. You will need to consider updating your site’s navigation, purging old content, and writing new content. We will provide tools and guidance to help with this process, but the majority of the work is on your end.
6. Can I use the new templates to update the current site?
To ensure the consistency and integrity of the new designs, the updated branded templates are exclusively offered for sites built in Cascade. We have developed a design gallery and you will be able to select a template once your site is scheduled for the migration.
If you are managing your Feinberg unit site externally, but you are interested in updating your site branding and working within the Feinberg web guidelines, contact Daniela Petrovska for more information.
7. When and how will I be trained?
Clients are generally trained when their unit site is moved into Cascade, towards the end of the transition process or soon after the site launch. We are in the process of developing user documentation and setting up a Cascade work-group on the Chicago campus.
8. Where can I find more information about Cascade?
This page last updated Feb 23, 2012