By Daisy Perper — Feb 8, 2022 11:00 AM
St. Cloud State University (SCSU), a long-time Cascade CMS customer, recently tapped our Professional Services team to complete a redesign implementation project for their existing website. Partnering with BVK, the agency responsible for design creation, the redesign implementation was completed in two phases with overall goals of updating the SCSU website without losing existing data as well as developing new templates which allow for added flexibility to utilize across multiple page types.
Phase One - Template Reskinning
To kick-off the two-part project, our Professional Services team worked to utilize BVK’s design, and create an efficient solution that allowed for an easy and immediate freshening of the templates without losing any functionality of the old setup.
With the phase one template reskinning, all data definitions that were currently available in St. Cloud’s Cascade CMS environment remained the same. This was very important to all teams as it allowed for a quick and easy roll out of the redesign to the many SCSU sites. The Hannon Hill team worked to set it up so that all that was needed to rollout the new design was add a new output to their configurations. Another solution to maintain an efficient rollout was that the SCSU team was able to use this new output to review the new design in Cascade CMS on all their existing pages for testing purposes until ready for publishing.
Standard Page
The first template that was reskinned for updated functionality and look was the standard page. With multiple components that remained the same as the existing page, these were given an updated look with again not losing any features or functionality. These components include Top level buttons, Banner, Banner callouts, WYSIWYG, Block option, Left column – Buttons, Left column – Links, Left column – Images, Left column – Additional content (blocks and WYSIWYG), Left column – Social media, and Three column content.
Program, Toggle and Contact Pages
The Program, Toggle, and Contact pages contain all the components from the Standard Page, plus the addition of a necessary page specific component.
Phase Two - Implementation: Fresh & New Content Types
Phase two of the redesign implementation project consisted of the implementation of a new core template with two new content types.
The core template includes 13 flexible-use components which are the same and shared across both content types. Flexible-use components can be placed in any order and repeated any number of times to allow for endless variations of page layouts. As a result of the maximum flexibility for content reuse, the SCSU team now has the ability to slowly update existing pages to incorporate new designs from BVK.
With the new core template, our Professional Services team worked to ensure implementation included the latest and greatest functionality as it relates to their new data definitions by utilizing smart fields and shared fields. This allows for greater efficiency for content contributors.
Design examples of both content type are displayed below including a snapshot of components while the full list includes: Accordions, Accreditation/Award, Contact Form, Full Width Call to Action, Image Call to Action, Image Carousel, Image Grid, Quote, Related Content, Spotlight, Stats, Three Column Feature Grid, and Two Column Text.
Content Page
The design example outlines the fields that were implemented on the new Content Page. All components except the Banner have the ability to be rearranged on the page.
Secondary Landing Page
The design example outlines the fields that were implemented on the Secondary Landing Page. All components except the Banner have the ability to be rearranged on the page.
Wrap Up
Breaking the Redesign Implementation into two parts allowed for the SCSU team to have an immediate solution with the template reskinning as well as a more long-term solution with the new core template and content components. SCSU now has all the tools needed to utilize their own timeline to update existing pages that incorporate the new, flexible designs from BVK. It was a pleasure to work with both the SCSU team as well as BKV, and look forward to extending the partnership in future projects.
