CAIS Study
Website Case Study
website: www.irishstudies.ca
Business Overview:
The Canadian Association of Irish Studies is a group lead by my sister. It seeks to foster and encourage the study of Irish culture in Canada. It also works to encourage young scholars and develop the next generation of Irish studies enthusiasts as well as support discussion of current issues in Irish studies and culture through conferences, publications, and online resources.
I built a website for them a long while back (in 2003 I think), and it was starting to show it’s age. Plus it was quirky and the back-end system didn’t work well with my sister’s Mac (bad me, I should’a know better). So, as my sister is getting ready to hand over the reigns to a new lead, I wanted to give the site a face lift and re-work the back-end so it is easier to manage, update and maintain.
This is a case study in pure speed.
Project Overview:
The goal here was simple. Upgrade and move to WordPress. The old site had content, that had been added to over the years, and the old site didn’t give the group a very easy way to do that (again, bad me), so they ended up doing what most would do in their position; cram everything onto a home page. Sort of like the Career Centre’s Bulletin Board; new stuff just got pinned to the top somehow without much thought. This is totally the fault of the application and the implementation, not the users.
It shows that the mechanics matter.
If it’s not easy to add/update, people will fall into what they can do quickly, and pass over the extra work needed to produce something that looks good. This is especially true for the infrequent author. Under the direction of a professional blogger or author, quirks and oddities can sometimes be forgiven, because they simply remember what needs to be done every day. The infrequent author simply forgets.
Technologies / Components:
Key aspects of the site include:
- WordPress installation
- Mimbo theme, modifed with a child theme
Time Taken = 4 hours. (this blog post? 10 minutes… I’m on a roll!)
