Project Expertise
Content-managed websites
This website houses a large amount of content, from freeform marketing and informational pages to more structured courses, project areas, and locations. Because of the sheer number of pages, there are also many different administrative users making changes to the site at all times. To help with this, we set up a permissions system that allows users the ability to only edit the pages within their department.
Accessibility
As an educational website, Davenport University is required to meet the standards set in Section 508. While we always strive to make our websites and applications accessible, we knew that we needed to pay special attention on this site in order to avoid the legal ramifications of noncompliance.
Project Contributors
Jonathan Chaffer
Lead developer
Haley Troyer
Front end developer
Project Brief
Prior iterations of the Davenport University website attempted to serve the information needs of multiple internal and external audiences, with content ownership distributed widely among many departments. Because of this, the project had multiple goals:
- Create a public-facing site focused on the needs of prospective students and their families (delegating functionality for existing students, faculty and staff to a separate student portal site).
- Implement an all-new website design in the Drupal 10 CMS, with an emphasis on ease of content administration for Davenport’s marketing team.
- Implement design and structure using accessibility best practices, focusing on creating an inclusive experience for people with disabilities. At the same time, optimize for usability on mobile devices and for search engines.
"Having worked with Rapid Development Group in the past, they were at the top of our list for a vendor to help us build our new prospective student web site and academic programs information site. They created both full applications and also augmented the capabilities of our marketing, communications and web development teams. Their solutions are elegant, effective and maintainable. They continue to be a valuable partner for Davenport."
