Buffalo State College

I was there, and here’s what happened

Development of buffalostate.edu was an ongoing responsibility from 2001 to 2008. In that time I was involved with UX, UI, site content, feature development, support—essentially every aspect of the site, in one way or another.

The 2008 refresh required a significant overhaul of our previous (2004) content and CMS architecture. I built three primary XSLT templates for the main site, the News and Events section, and My BuffState. These templates helped buffalostate.edu fulfill outreach to first-time visitors, prospective students and their parents, alumni, and the Buffalo State community.

Slightly more information

All three templates shared common XSLT template pieces for headers and footers. Content switched on or off via schema detection in XSLT or site-specific CSS. Shared code eased site maintenance for all involved.

Assuring the flexibility of the new design to fulfill content needs was a major goal during development. New XML Schemas were developed allowing pages to be changed between one, two, or three column layouts as needed. Highlights, with several different layouts, could be placed at page tops or bottoms. Existing XML schemas were updated with these new features via grep—saving the many hours of work that would be needed to otherwise recreate pages and content.

The 2008 buffalostate.edu featured then-current interactive integration into the homepage and section index pages. The featured news item on the homepage was mirrored across multiple pages within the site, making important information easier to distribute and maintain, especially in emergency situations.

Technical information, &c.

Includes: XHTML, CSS, CMS, XML, XSLT, ASP, JavaScript (scriptaculous, prototype, SWFObject), Microformats
Transform Photoshop comps to working Web pages. Work with Web Designer and the Web Content Editor to modify designs and content as needed.
Development of multiple hand-coded XML schemas and XSLT templates
Development of hand-coded CSS and XHTML
Customization of XML-based CMS back-end
Modifying and/or managing the development of new or existing ASP-driven database content
Partial list of technologies added since 2001: Podcasts, RSS feeds, .ics/iCal events listings, microformats, The Daily HTML e-newsletter, Google Mini-powered search, Ingeniux CMS, dynamic page generation
Award Sampling: Three Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) awards, category of institutional websites (2006 Bronze Award, 2004 Silver Award, 2002 Bronze Award); Winner, 2005 Award of Excellence, from the University and College Designers Association (UCDA).

Buffalo State College Homepage, 2008.

News and Events

The News and Events index page used Buffalo State’s community-focused tools and publications to provide an overview of campus.

Slightly more information

We considered News and Events the heart of buffalostate.edu, cataloging activities across campus with a variety of custom applications. New or significantly revamped features included:

Increased RSS feed visibility

Latest content from podcasts, blogs, and a campus-wide photo gallery included via RSS.

Targeted, content-specific searches for news, events, podcasts, and the HTML email newsletter, powered by Google Mini

Integration of AddThis for social bookmarking/sharing, metric tracking

Headlines from publications produced by College Relations updated via RSS. Collapsible feeds allowed the option of scanning headlines, while minimizing screen real estate.

Technical information, &c.

Includes: XHTML, CSS, CMS, XML, XSLT, ASP, PHP, JavaScript (scriptaculous, Prototype), Movable Type, IP.Board, Gallery

Buffalo State College News and Events index page, circa 2008

My BuffState

Fall 2008. The Web team developed this section to fill community needs ahead of a planned portal launch. Upon revealing the design to a test group of students, they loved it.

Technical information, &c.

Includes: XHTML, CSS, CMS, XML, XSLT, PHP, ASP, JavaScript (scriptaculous/jQuery)
Integration of forum posts from bulletin board systems, via RSS

Buffalo State Bulletin

Award: 2007, CASE District II, gold award (category: “Web site Magazines”)

Summer 2007. Previously a static one page site reporting policy updates and official announcements, Buffalo State’s President wanted the Bulletin to handle a greater role in campus communication. To handle expanded content—such as feature stories, faculty profiles, and achievements—a new site, and a custom PHP/MySQL admin panel to manage creating site content, were developed.

Technical information, &c.

Includes: XHTML, CSS, CMS, XML, XSLT, PHP

Graduate School

Award: 2007 SUNY Council for University Affairs and Development, Best in Category/Student Recruitment Web site

Implemented in 2007. This redesign united separate sites for the Graduate School and Graduate Admissions into the campus-wide CMS. The CMS allowed editors to swap out interactive homepage pieces, highlight text, and featured items. Other niceties: Integration with the Buffalo State events calendar.

Technical information, &c.

Includes: XHTML, CSS, CMS, XML, XSLT, ASP, JavaScript (SWFObject)

Undergraduate Admissions

Award: 2007 Admissions Marketing Report, merit award

Implemented in 2006. A redesign of their formerly XHTML Strict site, and placed into a campus-wide CMS. CSS-only banners allow quick creation of ads for promotions, using pre-loaded photos and user-added text. Other niceties: Integration with the Buffalo State events calendar, and a targeted Admissions-only search feature, powered by Google Mini.

Technical information, &c.

Includes: XHTML, CSS, CMS, XML, XSLT, ASP

Buffalo State Blog Central

Launched in 2005. I spearheaded the college’s blogging initiative using Movable Type (plus some very helpful plug-ins) as the underlying system. This main blog serves as the front end to our campus blogs, pulling posts from the College Relations and Fashion Technology blogs, among others.

Technical information, &c.

Includes: XHTML, CSS, PHP, Movable Type
Blogging for the College Relations Web team
Provided strategic planning for back-end maintenance
Provided training and support for faculty/staff moderators as well as student bloggers