Client Responsibilities

Project Roles

Clients should identify the team that will be working on the project, what their roles are and any anticipated deadlines for completion. Sharing that information with University Marketing & Communications will help us establish a project timeline as well as your place in the project queue.

Roles that should be considered include:

Designated Website Owner*

Acts as main point of content for the client. Responsible for communicating decisions on behalf of key stakeholders as well as oversight over the content entry and editing.

Key Stakeholders

Responsible for providing and reviewing content. Should include marketing and communications staff as well as senior-level management (deans, vice presidents, directors etc).

Third Party Vendors

May provide design or consultation services. It is important that UMAC is aware of all vendors involved in a requested web project. It is recommended that UMAC and IT be involved in the RFP process to ensure the project is accurately scoped prior to engagement.

Site Editors

Enter content including page copy, images, and documents. All content editors must attend training before CMS accounts will be created. UMAC will work with Website Owners to determine account types and access.

Training Schedule

Provide a Sitemap

The client team should do an initial audit that outlines the content hierarchy of their website and their proposed navigational structure.

When developing your sitemap it is important to design for your audience. Most visitors do not know your office structure and therefore “Org chart” models of navigation are seldom effective.

Please submit your proposed sitemap to UMAC: websupport@drexel.edu

Sitemap outlines do not need to include page organization greater than three levels deep but must include indications for top-level sections as well as second-level section pages

UMAC will review your submission and reply with suggested changes, or if necessary, schedule a meeting to discuss issues or questions regarding the organization of your content. All finalized sitemap documents must be approved by University Marketing & Communications.

Sitemap and Information Architecture Resources

The following resources are provided by digital.gov, the leading resource for user experience (UX) best practices and guidelines.

• Building a Content Strategy 
• Usability Testing
• Information Architecture Basics

Provide Design Mock-Ups or Prototypes

All Drexel websites fall within one of three models: academic, administrative, or alternative. Each has it's own graphic design standards and requirements that should be reviewed, in addition to global design elements that apply to all websites.

A comprehensive design proposal must be submitted to UMAC for review and approval and should include:

• Mock-up/Prototypes of the following: homepage, section/landing page and basic content page.
• Descriptions or working prototypes of intended behavior for all design elements (mouseover/hover actions, revealed content, animations etc)

Designs must be mobile friendly and show the intended mobile layout for each of the major page types.