Teaching Yourself the Skills to Get the Job Done

Case Study:

University of Minnesota Research Center Website Relaunch

When I came onboard as communications lead at the University of Minnesota’s $14 million terrestrial invasive species research center, my first major task was to overhaul its digital presence.

As a Center without a true physical location, its website would serve as a “virtual” front of business for stakeholders and legislators of wide-ranging backgrounds. I planned an end product that would embrace University of Minnesota common brand standards while differentiating a unique Center brand and providing a fresh, digital-forward look. Differentiating features included page architecture and interactive features that encouraged exploration of the 20+ research projects and invasive pest topics funded by the Center, as well as written web copy that translated unedited journal articles, abstracts and technical proposals of the previous site into lay summaries for a wider audience.

Still, in these six months from project kick-off to launch (and my first few months on the job), I encountered major obstacles to troubleshoot.

SITE PRIOR TO RELAUNCH:

Problem: Coming in with no training on the University’s preferred content management system, Drupal.

The University of Minnesota uses Drupal, an advanced open-source content management system (CMS). At the time of my hire, the University was also in process of conducting a major switch from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 but had not yet moved to support 8 with instruction guides or ready-to-go themes. I was not familiar with the University IT system, Git command-line entry, CSS coding or Drupal 7/8, but I knew how to use Wordpress and believed I could learn the bits of information I needed at each step to make it work.

Solution: Flexibility, savvy and ambition – and knowing where to look for help

I learned how to use Drupal to the extent that I needed to know it, and I accomplished my goal. It’s important to recognize when you’ve learned exactly enough to complete your task. There’s also power in understanding both your capabilities – your ability to improvise and problem-solve – and your limits – the point at which you should move on or find an expert.

Here, I knew I needed to find something that would allow me to visually build pages without advanced coding expertise. I scaled my ideas to the tool that I found and asked questions as they arose in support forums, calls to IT and meetings with colleagues.

I learned basic CSS coding, Git command-line entry, Drupal 8 management and use of Google Chrome DevTools by the project’s end, and I’m proud of what I was able to accomplish on such a tight timeline.

You can visit the full, relaunched site here.

SITE AFTER RELAUNCH:

Site fully re-designed and relaunched on Drupal 8