Contact Us
Refresh Software Corp.
313 Speen Street
Natick, MA 01760
U.S.A.
Tel: + 1-508-318-4480
Fax: + 1-508-318-4481
Information Architecture Consulting
A well done IA is critical to not only building and maintaining your web sites but also all you web centric applications as well.
Refresh has a team of principal-level engineers in our Professional Services Group who are experts in analyzing and defining the Information Architecture (IA) of web entities. This capability is crucial as a well done IA is critical to not only building and maintaining your websites but also all of your web-centric applications as well. Refresh as a company has participated in a large array of web based projects that cover the spectrum from mid market companies to the fortune 500.
One of the first things we do when we put in one of our systems is we make sure all the in-house process and procedures make sense. We basically take the time to study and discuss with the in-house team exactly what you do as every day practices and then we take and overlay them against our model for managing content. Usually we find that we can save time and steps in many processes which result in helping get things done a lot faster.
We also take the time to identify all the common pieces of content that you have on your site(s). One way to make content management very easy for all concerned is to step back and identify all the discrete pieces and different kinds of content that actually exist among the various web entities. These can be product and service documents, press releases and FAQ's, job descriptions, executive bio's the list goes on and on. Once we identify all these 'content assets' we can then do two things. First define what they are and how they are made up (the different parts and attributes of each content asset). Second, what is the best way to put them through a process for approval and publishing (define the appropriate workflow steps).
The result of identifying, analyzing and understanding the organizational steps that a content asset will go through right up to publishing approval is called the Information Architecture. Once the Information Architecture is understood then we have a map for implementing our Component Content Management System (SR2). Without getting too technical all this means is that instead of managing a whole page (like most other systems) we mange the pieces (components) that make up a page.
The reason we do this is that the eventual goal is to turn the identified content assets and all the associated pieces into an input form. This input form is the interface into the CMS and this form is a very powerful piece of technology. It allows the content creator and the administrators the ability to not only to create, edit and manage, but also add lots of information and descriptions (metadata) about the content that can be very useful for repurposing and reusing this content in many different ways across your web properties and the enterprise.
In summary we can analyze your web entities, produce the IA map and the associated reported recommendations, and then implement our products using this newly created foundation to build upon - which will essentially be your IA map and the functional specification.
Information Architecture Analysis and Functional Specification
Refresh Software will evaluate the existing site graphical design and layout, code, user-journey, site map, security models, application architecture and database structure (if applicable). From there, Refresh will derive a functional specification which will include layout specification and component specification. From layout and component specification, user-journey, sitemap, provided or derived taxonomy, and other information, CMS implementation specifications will be created. The CMS implementation specifications will include:
Information Architecture
Refresh Software will examine the corporate site to analyze methods for repurposing and reusable information across properties. Refresh will construct a map of your IA.
Workflow Analysis
Refresh will evaluate the users, roles and workflows required to update content for the website. This will include an analysis of any special cases that require custom workflow actions to be developed. Refresh will provide workflow design documentation.
Web Application Analysis and Design
Refresh will review the existing application framework and provide an analysis and recommendations to achieve project goals. This will include code review, application framework review, HTML, JavaScript, .NET or .CSS and other technology review and recommendations. From this analysis, a technical design document will be created for the web application.
Web Architecture Analysis and Design
Web Content Management is about change management. In order to manage change properly - for all aspects of the environment including data model change, code and design changes and content changes, the proper environment should be in place.
Refresh will evaluate the current change management environments and provide recommendations. In standard enterprise change management configurations, there is a development, staging, and production instance of SR2 .
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