Submit your Requirement or Idea for the New Website & Services
Please add your ideas and requirements as comments to this post, which will be used to update the table below. Alternatively, you can email them to adrian.lobo@iat.ac.ae. The aim is to have all key requirements listed and prioritised here by the 3rd of March, so that solution analysis & recommendation can take place.
Types of Requirements
The table below is for capturing "high-level" requirements - things the new website & online services need to be able to do or support. More detailed requirements & suggestions (e.g. regarding the information to be available on the new website) are being added to a separate table, but feel free to send in either type.
Notes on Table
1. Any examples are generally listed in order from least sophisticated to most sophisticated.
2. "Requestor" is listed only if unique to a specific person/area.
3. "Difficulty" refers to the complexity of development.
4. "Analyst Recommendation" indicates the suggested approach by the Project Consultant (Adrian).
High-level Requirements for the New Website & Online Services
| Requirement / Idea | Examples | Requestor | Priority | Diffic. | Analyst Recom. | Approved Outcome |
| Design & Presentation | | | | | | |
| Modern & attractive design, interface and appearance for brand new IAT site | Ex 1: NYU Ex 2: Appal Ex 3: Curtin | High | Medium | Develop | ||
| Flexible, easily modified and customized layouts for different parts of site | High | Medium | Develop | |||
| Site should facilitate content being easily re-used & shared between web & print media | Medium | Medium | Develop | |||
| | | | | | | |
| Structure & Framework | | | | | | |
| Single, integrated, consistent site structure covering all parts of IAT's activities | | | High | Low | Develop | |
| Any second-level sites (e.g. VEDC) or ones for associated initiatives (e.g. Emirates Skills) are to be associated in a consistent way | High | Low | Support both integrated and associated sites | |||
| Separation of content from presentation to allow simple, flexible & consistent presentation control | | | High | Low | Develop | |
| Dynamic content generation available by default for most site aspects. E.g. News, directories, events, FAQs. | | | High | Low | Develop | |
| | | | | | | |
| Interface & Usability | | | | | | |
| Simple, unified and effective navigation system | | | High | Low | Develop | |
| Ability to present main types of site users with separate "windows" (portals) into content | | | Medium | Low | Develop | |
| Enable dynamic auto-generation of portal spaces for separate areas of the site. E.g. Schools vs Projects | | | Medium | Low | Develop | |
| Highly effective simple and advanced search capability | | | High | Low | Develop | |
| Print friendly views of all main content areas and support for saving pages or auto-generated PDFs | | | Medium | Low | Develop | |
| Automatic sitemap generation to allow users an efficient alternative to navigate the site | | | Medium | Low | Develop | |
| Automatic "breadcrumb" pathways generated on each page (show exactly where one is and allow simple backtracking) | | | Medium | Low | Develop | |
| Quick Links dropdown navigation to most popular areas always visible on site | High | Low | Develop | |||
| | | | | | | |
| Content Management | | | | | | |
| Majority of site content to be able to be created or modified "live" using the web browser | | | Medium | Low | Develop | |
| Enable lay end-users to create quality content without requiring knowledge of web languages | | | High | Low | Develop | |
| Allows the same source content to be re-used and customized (in layout, presentation, etc) for different audiences or purposes | | | Medium | Low | Develop | |
| Enables live website users (students, staff, partners) to be able to submit certain types of content | | | Medium | Low | Develop | |
| Readily supports publishing all standard types of multimedia content - inc text, data, graphics, audio, animation and video | High | Low | Develop | |||
| All types of content can be subject to content approval and editorial processes | Medium | Low | Develop | |||
| Can schedule content to display only during certain periods or for defined timeframes | Low | Low | Develop | |||
| Content archiving including automated expiration | Low | Low | Develop | |||
| Advanced content creation possible through full "source" editing in browser (i.e. HTML, Javascript, etc) | | | High | Low | Develop | |
| Content aggregation possible through integratable web services or syndication feeds | Low | Low | Develop | |||
| | | | | | | |
| Online Services | | | | | | |
| News & stories database that can be used to provide magazine-style publishing for different audiences | | | High | Low | Develop | |
| Site to readily incorporate advanced, automated map & location capability | | | Medium | Medium | Develop | |
| Easily organised and accessed media galleries for picture and video content | High | Low | Develop | |||
| Flexible, dynamic events calendar that can be used for distinct client groups (important dates, student activities, projects, etc) | Medium | Medium | Develop | |||
| Searchable directory listings for staff, students, projects, etc. | High | Medium | Develop | |||
| Readily supports multiple languages being used for site content | 1. Mixed on site 2. Specific pages with translations 3. Different sites 4. Fully integrated language translation function | | High | Medium | Example 4 | |
| Allow prospective students (or their parents) to register interest in schools/programs | High | Low | Develop | |||
| Ability to accept student applications online through an electronic form | | | High | Medium | Develop | |
| Capacity to easily process online applications by feeding forms into student database | | | Low | High | Need to establish student database | |
| Permission-based Downloads section for making available any type of downloadable content. E.g. forms, media, project files | High | Low | Develop | |||
| Student testimonials & profiles database that can be dynamically used on site | Medium | Low | Develop | |||
| FAQ database that allows easy creation & management of FAQs for site users, especially students | Medium | Low | Develop | |||
| Simple and flexible Contact Us/Feedback forms to be able to be used for different purposes. | High | Low | Develop | |||
| Flexible staff recruitment capability allowing for advertising positions, taking applications and managing process | | | High | Medium | Develop | |
| Fully-customizable online poll/survey tools incorporating creation, deployment, management & results | Medium | Medium | Develop | |||
| Advanced links directory with efficient browsing, search and management | Medium | Low | Develop | |||
| Highly-usable discussion forums providing for various types of virtual communities. E.g. For new & current students or staff. | Low | Low | Determine need? | |||
| Generic, flexible newsletter capability. | Low | Medium | Determine need? | |||
| Searchable, online program catalogue that can provide all course details & functions required for prospective & current students | | | Medium | Medium | Develop | |
| Able to dynamically manage visual spaces for promotions or marketing | High | Low | Develop | |||
| Live Chat tool enabling interactive communication. E.g. Can be used to provide real-time services | Low | Medium | Unlikely to be used | |||
| Online "bookshop" for selling relevant curriculum or resources | Low | High | Not yet | |||
| Login-based alumni services. E.g. Further study options, employment links, alumni forums | Low | Medium | Depends on org support | |||
| Can syndicate content easily for usage on other sites | | | Low | Low | Develop | |
| Dynamic, visual pathway tool to allow charting of study pathways | | | Low | Medium | ? | |
| Other Functionality & Capability | | | | | | |
| Fully-customizable tool allowing creation of either standardized or ad-hoc online forms or templates. | | | Medium | Medium | Develop | |
| Ability to create promotional templates for site pages that can be re-used continuously. E.g. See country or agent advertising | | | High | Low | Develop | |
| Supports multiple, definable user groups with login access to relevant parts of site (content or function) | High | Low | Develop | |||
| Users (internal or external) to be able to login and be delivered targeted info/services and obtain personalized experience | High | Low | Develop | |||
| Login-based extranet capability - e.g. for corporate partners or clients; government. | | | Medium | Low | Develop | |
| Administration & Usage | | | | | | |
| Entire site and applications to be able to be easily configured and administered | | | High | Low | Develop | |
| Simple deployment of customization & extensions | | | Medium | Low | Develop | |
| Site to contain effective Help section for users | | | Medium | Medium | Develop | |
| Can enable notifications for various types of content or administration operations (e.g. application submission, content approval, new user registration) | High | Low | Develop | |||
| Application is well-documented and has end-user support | High | Medium | Develop | |||
| Well established knowledge base and support community | High | Low | Develop | |||
| Automated, refined statistics and reporting on site usage and traffic | Medium | Low | Develop | |||
| Accessibility & Standards | ||||||
| Compliant with contemporary Web Standards as defined by W3C | | | Medium | Medium | Develop | |
| Designed to support Web Accessibility Guidelines | Medium | Medium | Develop | |||
| Supports all W3C-compliant browsers (including IE, Firefox, Safari and Opera) on Windows, Mac or other common platforms | High | Medium | Develop | |||
| | | | | | | |
| Performance, Reliability & Security | | | | | | |
| Site uptime to be over 99% with no recurrent access problems | High | Low | Develop | |||
| Site pages and content to load fast even with high traffic | High | Low | Develop | |||
| Enables efficient backing up and restoration of site content | | | High | Low | Develop | |
| Audit trails available for content creation or site modification | Low | Low | Develop | |||
| Compliant with all relevant legal & statutory requirements & guidelines. | High | Low | Develop | |||
| Core & extension application development is sustainable and not overly dependent on a particular developer | | | High | Medium | Develop | |
| Application technology is modern, scalable and robust (platform, web server, application framework, CMS, databases, API) | High | Low | Develop | |||
| Web Presence | ||||||
| Site pages able to be easily found on the internet through search engines | High | Low | Develop | |||
| New site linked to all partners and sites of relevance in most appropriate way (e.g. sub-section or specific page) | Medium | Low | Develop | |||
| | | | | | | |
1 comment:
I think we need more and better info on the curriculum so that it shows how different and unique IAT is. The thing is we need to have someone to be responsible for putting in all the updates and new events info, student success/projects with pictures and brief demo....because this requires continuous monitoring, evaluating and inputs/updates all the time.
It would also be good to have pictures of each Campus as we are really proud of having such great facilities. Pictures of classrooms, workshops and exteriors with the textual info that is appealing to people who access the web site for the first time.
And how about more links - with organisations associated with IAT -Ministry of Edu, Industries, ADEC, accrediting bodies (with brief info on who they are and what they do) British Council for example, NAPO, some community reps from each Emirate, big industries and businesses (our students might work there soon after graduation), list of educational institutions in UAE, etc. In a nutshell - to show that we are an important part of UAE. This would need to be determined by our MD and Deputy Directors who have knowledge about who to contact and where.
A culture site would be an advantage - with input from our Emirati Colleagues about Emirates' history or experiences that witnessed the development of the Emirates.
How about a site with all the nationalities employed by IAT - "the countries our employees come from are:....we promote inclusive teamwork etc..." This would be so good - rarely do we have such information on the web sites.
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