Launch
- Style Guide
- Launch
- Maintenance
Style Guide
As the site gets ready to go production, it is important to document the style guide. A style guide consists of the following elements:
- Visual Design Standards - logos, colors, typography (to keep the site on brand)
- Naming Conventions - for files, directories, css, images, titles
- Site Structure - document the site diagram and indicate how the structure is built to handle growth
- Templates - provide the (X)HTML templates and CSS indicating layout, typography, size, color, navigation, menus
Examples of Style Guides:
- UT Web Standards Guidelines
- Stanford's School of Medicine's Web Style Guide
- Carnegie Mellon Web Style Guide
Launch the Site
Plan the best date to go live. Consider your current web site traffic patterns and attempt to launch in a way that minimizes downtime. Make sure that everyone on the team is on call for any challenges that might occur during launch. If possible, consider a soft launch (a quiet beta launch that allows you to confirm everything is up and running before the official launch date).
Conduct one final stage of quality assurance testing on the live site after it is fully in production to make sure everything is running smoothly.
Take a moment to celebrate and then get some sleep!
Prepare for last minute surprises by scheduling time to fine tune or solve any unexected challenges during the first few days or weeks of the site debut.
Maintenance Plan
Implement the maintenance plan* that was developed in the first stage of this process. Emphasize the importance of keeping a site
- Complete
- Current
- Coherent
- Searchable
- Accessible
- Attractive
- Robust
- Secure
- Cost Effective
- Aligned with the spirit and goals of the project
