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Hi Ann There was one Institute (like a faculty) which already had an externally-produced visual design, plus some project-based sites with their own design. We have dropped some domain names and are trying to bring most sites under the one umbrella site (this should help with administration, consistency, quality control, accessibility and site functions like search). The new, merged College has officially only one parent brand now, with a "family of brands" planned. Discussions I'm aware of have centred on a transition, rather than a quick break, from the previous designs to the new "family". As far as I know, there will be a consistency of shapes, typography and imagery (for example, we'll be using photographs of local people, students and staff), although colours may differ. We don't have full guidelines yet, and if there has been consultation on these, I'm not involved. I think some Institute directors were consulted, but not all were in post. We got a brand presentation when academic staff came back; a lot of it was under wraps and that was the first time they saw it. I've found during discussions with staff that if you stress the positive web parts (higher search rankings for being part of one website, consistency of terminology, for example) and explain the reasons behind the family of brands (including reducing confusion, of which there's a great potential), then staff have been quite happy to have their web sections made part of the umbrella site, as long as there's not too many clicks to get to it from the homepage. Fairness is another issue you may have to tackle, in case one section seems to be more heavily promoted than others (although in some cases this is because some groups produce more promotional material). We also have had past experience of reproduction of printed materials been seen as a fairly haphazard process with many different (including obsolete) styles and formats, which are difficult to repurpose and give a confusing and less than satisfactory corporate image to students. Many staff remember this, and we use that as a example of the state of affairs we're trying to prevent. Tavis Reddick [log in to unmask] www.adamsmithcollege.ac.uk -----Original Message----- From: Ann Neilson [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tue 2005-09-27 15:09 To: Tavis Reddick Subject: Re: Integrating distributed websites Thanks Tavis - that's helpful. How did you go about deciding which department was allocated which style? Did depts have an input into the look and feel of their pages or were they presented with a fait accompli? It seems that all the advice I've had regarding technical issues posed less problems than those of politics and personnel... I'd welcome any advice on how you tackled the "human element" of going about your merger, if you were involved in the decision making process at all. Cheers and thanks again An Ann Neilson Web & Database Administrator UHI Millennium Institute, Executive Office, Ness Walk, Inverness IV3 5SQ Institiųd OGE nam Mėle Bliadhna, Oifis-Stiųiridh, Slighe Nis, Inbhir Nis IV3 5SQ D: +44 (0) 1463 279220 F: +44 (0) 1463 279001 www.uhi.ac.uk Creating the University of the Highlands and Islands A' Cruthachadh Oilthigh na Gaidhealtachd's nan Eilean ************************************************************* A limited company registered in Scotland No 148203. Recognised Scottish Charity No SC022228 Registered office: Executive Office, 12b Ness Walk, Inverness IV3 5SQn >>> Tavis Reddick <[log in to unmask]> 26/09/2005 21:29:18 >>> We recently had to deal with integration of various websites during a college merger, and one of the issues we tackled was that of style. Our approach was to develop a system of CSS style sheets. Each site's pages had a link to a site stylesheet, that defined body characteristics and imported a set of generic style sheets (shared by one or more sites) and specific style sheets (for that particular site); and in addition each site's pages linked to a single, generic print stylesheet. The generic stylesheets were for text, forms, images, tables etc., setting out the default size, padding, spacing and so forth. We found it useful to define default colours (we made them greyscale) to make developing overrides simpler. The specific stylesheets were for layout, links, custom colours and conditional styles. By conditional, I mean that we sometimes had generic or dynamic content that we could assign custom CSS classes to, so that if the same content was served to different (faculty) pages, it would display differently (for example all logos could be served, but some hidden by setting display: none on the (faculty-based) conditional stylesheet). I'd give the original link to the style guide but the pre-merger site has now been deactivated. You should be able to see the successor system in action on our new site. Tavis Reddick [log in to unmask] www.adamsmithcollege.ac.uk -----Original Message----- From: Managing an institutional web site on behalf of Ann Neilson Sent: Fri 2005-09-23 12:45 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [WEBSITE-INFO-MGT] Integrating distributed websites Dear all Does anyone have any experience of integrating distributed websites? Our organisation consists of 15 independent partners and each has its own website. We'd like to look at pulling sites together to have a consistent corporate identity throughout, without necessarily detracting from individual site identities. If anyone is able to help us by telling us about their experience, we'd be happy to hear from you. Any advice welcome. Thanks Ann Neilson Web & Database Administrator UHI Millennium Institute The information contained within this e-mail is confidential and may be privileged. It is intended for the addressee only. If you have received this e-mail in error please inform the sender and delete this e-mail and any attachments immediately. The contents of this e-mail must not be disclosed or copied without the sender's consent. The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the author's employer (the College). The College does not take any responsibility for the views of the author.