Looking to create a website? We have a few different tools for you to build a website - anything from a basic blog for a class assignment to a sophisticated department portal.
Resources
Comparisons
Experts & Communities
A dynamic and responsive group of Drupal users world-wide communicate regularly in the Drupal.org community forums.
Web People is a group of web developers, designers and communicators at the University of Minnesota.
Good Practices
Everyone on campus can help make website content accessible to all people on all devices by learning more about accessibility and promoting its importance, even if you are not a website publisher or developer.
Resources
It's important to debrief with your team at the end of the project to find out what went well and where things went wrong, to celebrate great performances, and to document your findings.
This article from copyblogger.com outlines thirteen questions you can use to help you draft your content strategy.
A self-help guide to plan, write, and manage content at the federal level
Clear steps to consider during content strategy audit stage
Ethan Marcotte will explore CSS techniques and design principles, including fluid grids, flexible images, and more
This article from the Buffer.com social media blog reviews the results of the content audit that they conducted on their site. The article provides a number of tips and takeaways on how to conduct a content audit.
To accommodate browser vendors' plans to phase out support for SHA-1 signed certificates, InCommon has now made available certificates signed using the SHA-2 hash family.
Offers a printable sheet about accessibility basics.
This resource shows an inaccessible website and a retrofitted version that illustrates radical redesign is not needed to meet accessibility standards.
Exploring the business reasons for creating a taxonomy
Card sorting helps you to understand how your users think you should organize your content. From this information you can create a site structure that enables your users to find what they are looking for.
Resources for planning, moderating, and assessing results of your own focus group.
This article from MeetContent.com, they have compiled some of the content types commonly encountered in higher ed and some special considerations for managing them effectively.
The Computer Accommodations Program (CAP) works to ensure equitable access for all individuals to Web content, Web applications, digital materials, environments and services associated with administration, courses, pr
A complete guide to Complete Guide to choosing and implementing a content calendar.
Grow your team's knowledge about content strategy with a certificate program designed to take your workflow even farther.
In this video Karen McGrane will discuss why you need to deliver content wherever your customer wants to consume it — and what the risks are when you don’t make content accessible to mobile users.
Overview from Google on how to create Google+ Events, including how to add a Google Video Call (Hangout) to a Google+ Event.
A video to help consider the audience(s) for your content
The Usability Lab is located in the basement of Walter Library, 117 Pleasant Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 on the East Bank of
UMN Drupal Training Opportunities
Drupal Working Labs
Modules are certain add-ons that you can use within your website to extend the functionality of Drupal.
Modules are certain add-ons that you can use within your website to extend the functionality of Drupal.
Drupal Lite sites are automatically backed up on a nightly basis.
We offer a number of courses for those who want to learn more about the Drupal content management system. Training sessions may be requested for groups of 7 or more.
This information pertains to groups that are planning to do custom development within Drupal. Custom development includes:
Information on the Drupal Conference and larger Drupal community
Show the accessibility benefits of plain language with this interactive online exhibit
Focus groups help you generate ideas by listening to your current and prospective users discuss their experiences and expectations with one another. Focus groups can provide:
Use this currated list of resources to find free web asseccibility tools.
This 6-hour LinkedIn Learning course covers how to use Git, the popular open-source version control software, to manage changes to source code and text files.
This chapter of the Git Essentials training covers Branches in Git.
Basic overview of branching and merging in Git.
Git Checkout allows you to move between branches.
In your github fork, you need to keep your master branch clean, by clean I mean without any changes, like that you can create at any time a branch from your master.
Show changes between the working tree and the index or a tree, changes between the index and a tree, changes between two trees, changes between two blob objects, or changes between two files on disk.
Instructions for installing Git for Linux, Mac, and Windows.
This is the manual page for the gitignore command.
A well documented article covering the topic of handling conflicts in Git
This tutorial will teach you how to create two branches (master and develop) and how to merge code from the development stage to production.
The git log command displays committed snapshots. It lets you list the project history, filter it, and search for specific changes.
Join two or more development histories together
This LinkedIn Learning chapter from the Git Essential course covers the concept of merging code branches.
How to resolve merge conflicts in Git
The git status command displays the state of the working directory and the staging area.
Learn how to use Git by reviewing the basic concepts of Git version control. Try out this introductory course that was created with GitHub.
This LinkedIn Learning video covers how to tell Git which files to ignore.
Version control is a system that records changes to a file or set of files over time so that you can recall specific versions later.
GitHub Flow is a lightweight, branch-based workflow that supports teams and projects where deployments are made regularly. This guide explains how and why GitHub Flow works.
Adding other users to your GitHub organization. The other users must have logged in to GitHub before you can add them.
You can create a new organization by either setting up a new organization or converting an existing personal account into an organization.
More detailed instructions for creating an organization in GitHub.
Instructions for generating SSH keys on your computer and then adding the public key to your GitHub account.
Pulling code from GitHub (aka syncing)
Pushing code to your GitHub
Blog for Google Analytics users
University of Minnesota branded templates are available for several Google apps.
Find support information for Google Currents on Google's help site.
Google Currents brand pages offer ways for organizations to reach out to followers, fans, and customers on Google.
Google Help Center for Google Sites
You can prevent a page from appearing in Google Search by including a noindex meta tag in the page's HTML code.
A robots.txt file is a file at the root of your site that indicates those parts of your site you don’t want accessed by search engine crawlers.
Search Managers
Designing Your Front End
Limiting Search Results
Using Advanced URL Patterns
Our current Search Appliance license allows us to index 3 million documents. We would quickly reach this limit if we did not exclude problematic Web pages from the index.
Get more information about higher educational institutions that have faced liability for inaccessible web content and technologies.
This article offers a great explanation of how disabilities can affect use of the web.
This article from uxmastery.com review the process of conducting a content audit including what to include and where to begin.
In this article from Buffer.com Social Media blog, Kevan Lee review the process they take to write their blog posts. They present a good process that others can follow.
While many would describe web accessibility differently, from a coding perspective, the goal is to code a POUR website or web application.
This article from Moz.com illustrates the "long tail" of search demands. This helps people decide what to keep, what to expand on, and stuff that doesn't belong online.
Purchasing Teams
You’re purchasing something that needs to be easy for the whole University community to use. We can:
This guide is based on Fugu version 1.2.
You can download Fugu here.
You are now ready to transfer files from your computer to your University of Minnesota server space.
By performing the following steps you will ensure that all future files to be transferred to your web-docs will automatically have the permissions you specify.By performing the following steps you will ensure that all
When you are connected to your file space, locate the web-docs folder in the remote directory, and enter it. If you are already located in the web-docs folder, then proceed to step 2.
This short 6-minute video provides an overview of how Drupal manages content.
Once you have connected to Fugu, you will see the main window. The left half of the main window shows the local filesystem on your computer.
Members of the University of Minnesota community who use Drupal Lite may request enhancements or changes to the Drupal Lite platform, base theme, modules, support site documentation, or communications
This site, maintained by University Relations (URelations), provides requirements and guidelines surrounding the use of color and type/typography at the University of Minnesota.
University Relation's website on University of Minnesota brand standards for web and print.
This site, maintained by University Relations (URelations), provides downloadable files containing offical University of Minnesota logos, wordmarks ("Driven to Discover"), seals, and other official branding elements s
University Relation's web page on University of Minnesota web standards, and usability and accessibility related to the Univesity of Minnesota web templates.
This site, maintained by University Relations (URelations), provides downloadable images for social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+; as well as common icons for RSS feeds and
Learn about United States laws that require that State and local governments (including the University) give people with disabilities an equal opportunity to benefit from all of their programs, services, and act
A template for creating page tables.
A github resource produced by University Relations that provides a working online page table for developing and reviewing site content. Requires a UMN login.
Personas help you get out of your own head when you are writing content and designing your product. Personas are:
Determining answers to questions of purpose, users, content, scope, and resources when planning your taxonomy project
Create an interdisciplinary team with the right mix of roles and responsibilities.
Use this RACI chart template for your project
Rapid prototyping is a helpful approach when you want feedback on an early design. At this stage, the design can be on paper or screen.
A stash of headline formulas, social media updates, and more to help organize your team's content on realtime media.
Generate a Certificate Signing Request
Before completing the Drupal Site Request Form for a Drupal Enterprise 7 (DE7) site, please think through the following considerations. If you have any questions regarding these considerations, contact a
University of Minnesota departments and colleges may use the University's Drupal Lite content management platform to publish and maintain web content related to conducting official University business.
A collection of resources about the various aspects of responsive web design.
Section 504 bars any entity that receives federal funding from discriminating against individuals with disabilities based on their disability status.
WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind) provides standards excerpted from Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. It can help you understand how to apply the law in a web content setting.
Section 508 is important because it established the first web accessibility standard.
When you use WinSCP to transfer files, by default they are not accessible by / viewable on the web.
The following websites were created using Drupal Lite as part of a pilot testing period and offer a glimpse at the tool’s capabilities.
This article explains how the Web affects the lives of people with disabilities.
A definition of what "soft launch" entails.
Task-based Usability Evaluations are useful when your design is getting close to being fully functional but you still have some ability to change the interface or content.
In academia, we’re notorious for using older, “fancy”, ten-dollar words, when plain language would be clearer and more effective.
Check the effectiveness of your content in a couple minutes.
Find the gaps in your content and prioritize them based on feasibility.
Research on how different tones of voice on a website have measurable impacts on users’ perceptions of a brand’s friendliness, trustworthiness, and desirability.
The launch of a new blog is an event that shouldn’t go to waste.
Themes make Drupal websites beautiful – and Themes are the bridge between the science of code and the art of design.
Tree testing helps you to learn if your proposed site structure is going to make sense to your users, before you start designing your interface.
Instructions and downloads that enable you to use University branding when creating a site on the new version of Google Sites.
Create standards-compliant websites and applications at the University.
Developers create the systems for publishing web pages. These systems could be a server and file structure or a content management system. They may also set up the basic template to be used with each page.
"User research focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies." This article from usability.gov reviews the variou
Examples of simple, precise words and phrases you might substitute in your writing
Share your thoughts and experiences with the world using Google Blogger.
An overview of using keymatches in the google search appliance, including instructions for how to implement them.
Check links and anchors in Web pages or full Web sites
Developed by WebAIM.org, this tool provides visual feedback about the accessibility of your web content by injecting icons and indicators into your page.
If you are a website designer. this simple checklist is a great reference that's worth posting in your workspace.
Your content is the most important part of your site.
Utah State University's Center for Persons with Disabilities' WebAIM Program provides an impressive slate of accessibility tools.
This checklist is a simplified version of the full Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 for the layperson.
There are a number of factors to consider when deciding what technologies to use to build a website. Use your answers to the questions listed below to find the best tool for your website needs.
A scrolldeck.js presentation by Chicago Web Developer John Polacek.
Anyone on the Internet may search for University Web pages using Web search.
Often times it can be easy to get ahead of yourself and jump in to a full fledged hard launch.
Part of a research-based guide that covers writing actionable content
Self-Help Guides
Content is one of the main components of a great user experience. This self-help guide walks you through the process of planning the right content to meet your website's goals.
Content is one of the main components of a great user experience. This self-help guide walks you through the process of planning the right content to meet your website's goals.
This self help guide is designed to assist developers that are creating sites using the University of Minnesota's Drupal Enterprise platform.
This is the self-help guide for contributing content to a University of Minnesota Enterprise Drupal site.
Learn how to build a site in Drupal Enterprise 7. Drupal Enterprise is the official web content management system of the University of Minnesota; Drupal Enterprise 7 will reach end-of-life by July 2020.
Build and manage a Drupal Lite website using the advanced tools associated with the Administrator role: Content Types, Taxonomy & Views.
This self-help guide is for building a site in Drupal Lite 7, including requesting and configuring your site, adding content to your site, and managing your site.
This self-help guide is for building a site in Drupal Lite 8, including requesting and configuring your site, adding content to your site, and managing your site.
This Self-Help Guide is intended to assist developers that are going to develop within the University of Minnesota Drupal environment.
This Self-Help Guide is intended to assist developers that are going to develop within the University of Minnesota Drupal environment.
This guide is for configuring and using Google Custom Search Engine with University websites. Frequently Asked Questions about the transition to Goog
Learn how Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificates identify and encrypt digital communication. You can request SSL Certificates to protect data entered into your applications.