PSALA.org Web Development Blog

ALA Headquarters approves the new PSALA site!!

2008-04-14T11:13:00.000-07:00

Sunday, April 13th at 10:12AM I received official approval from John Michalik, Executive Director for ALA!!

WOO HOO!

We can expect a rollout any day now! Keep your eyes open for the upcoming announcements!

The Time Line Gets Shorter!!

2008-04-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

Well, we're almost there! Phase one of the rollout should be in the next few days. We've sent the temporary site to ALA Headquarters for approval and now we just wait.... and wait.... and even though we just sent it yesterday... we wait.

The web committee is so excited. On Friday, April 4, we were under the impression from the developer that we had some issues that might take a couple WEEKS to resolve. We were shocked and quite sad. However, I guess he worked all weekend on the issues and I believe we have a site that is FANTASTIC! But, I'm a bit bias!

Stay tuned!

"Population Party!"

2008-03-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read the title correctly. On March 28th several members of the web committee attended our "population party". The plan was the any members of the committee who could attend were welcome to come to Summit Law Group to participate, share ideas, and inquire about their assigned pages anytime between 11AM and 3PM. The members of the committee as a whole put in 21 hours of work populating the various pages for this exciting project.

Train the Trainer

2008-03-18T19:59:00.000-07:00

Today, we spent two hours with Bryan from ProMotion Arts learning how to add content through the Content Management System. This was quite intense for many members of our web committee members since many had never been website editors before.

Angela Brochman walked away from the training session having been inspired apparently. Within just a few days she had populated much of the Membership content! WAY ahead of the rest of us.

Mockups - Round 3

2008-03-04T16:33:00.001-08:00

This first image is very similar to Mockup - Round 2 except with our new correct menus listed and coloring of the banner.

All images below are of the same "page", but with different test background images.

Required Features

2008-02-29T19:45:00.000-08:00

Here's a list of required features given to our developer ProMotion Arts.

Comprehensive calendaring system, allowing list view and calendar view
Beautiful, up-to-date layouts and images

Clean layout
Elegant natural colors
As few "menus" as possible (while still being able to navigate easily)
Light text on each page (too much text causes lots of scrolling, clicking is more fun)
Page layouts, fonts, layouts should all compliment and flow from one page to the next

Members Only section where members will have access to:

Membership Directory
Access to Soundings archives
Document Library (ability to share non-copyrighted documents, usually firm forms and chapter forms)

Goal of "Three Clicks or Less" to find what you need
USEFUL Search feature
Job Bank (formerly known as Employment page)
Ability to pay for meetings and membership renewals online
User friendly Photo Gallery
Ability for Section leaders to post and edit their own sections of the website
Finding information should be obvious
Auto updating site map (when pages move, are deleted or are changed the site map automatically updates to reflect changes)

Other Features (Bells & Whistles)

2008-02-29T19:35:00.000-08:00

Here's a list of possible additional features discussed with the developer ProMotion Arts

Blogging (similar to an online publication with articles where readers can post comments)
Podcasting (audio and/or video recordings of meetings)
Ability to email HTML based messages from the website (a la "electronic newsletter")
RSS Feeds (subscribe to content, get notifications of updates to particular sections of the site)
Live Streaming Video (possible to have sponsor video special meetings to broadcast live videocast online)

(This list will continue to grow)

Mockups - Round 2

2008-02-29T19:30:00.001-08:00

Timeline of PSALA.org Development

2008-02-21T07:55:00.000-08:00

February 25, 2008 - Web Committee delivers first Outline with narratives to ProMotion Arts
February 7, 2008 - Mock-up Image #2 presented to PSALA Board
February 7, 2008 - Mock-up Image #2 presented to Web Committee by ProMotion Arts and posted at PSALA Picasa Mock-ups
February 5, 2008 - Web Committee meets with ProMotion Arts to see Mock-up Image #1
January 3, 2008 - Web Committee Announces to ProMotion Arts that they have been selected as the developer by PSALA Board per Web Committee recommendations
January 3, 2008 - Web Committee asks for Board vote to decide between the four prospective developers (with estimates from each developer) to PSALA Board for consideration
December 17, 2007 - ProMotion Arts is asked for references based on Board questions
December 6, 2007 - Web Committee presents four potential web developers for consideration. The Web Committee made its recommendations. Board asks for references and due diligence.
August to November 2007 - Bidding process begins
July 2007 - Confirmation that the committee would investigate options
June 2007 - Initial idea discussed
(To be continued)