An activity I’ve undertaken this year is to modernize the design and digital strategy of Interlitq, The International Literary Quarterly. We’re approaching the 10th anniversary of Interlitq with the first issue appearing online in November 2007. A lot has changed on the web in the past decade, but the design and technical architecture of the site is showing its age. As I work on this project, I’ll be posting here updates that describe the redesign process. This is not simply a visual redesign but also a technical redesign of the underlying architecture.
Before embarking on the visual redesign, there are several technical steps to be taken:
- Establish a working repository of text files. (All existing content are contained in individual PHP files.)
- Convert files from existing php to a more manageable text file structure, e.g., Markdown.
- Determine information architecture based on content types, desired functionality, and forward compatibility.
- Examine other online literary journals for ideas about redesign, and identify key elements that are desired in the redesign.
- Determine platform for the new site, most likely WordPress though that also requires determining if the platform should be multisite WordPress where each journal issue is a separate WP site. Some online journals have taken this approach.
- Setup a test server.
- Prototype design. Revise as needed.
- Import content into test server.
- Start implementation of new design in a restricted sandbox.
- Fully test new design.
- Import most recent content from current site into new system.
- Migrate design and content from test server to product server.
A lot of steps with many details missing from the above list. Fortunately, I love working on this type of project.
Leave a Reply