OVERVIEW
QuickPages is a web-based tool that lets anyone make a professional-looking website quickly.
Web-based: Sites are created and edited with a web browser. QuickPages lives on an IS&T server.
Anyone: It will be available to the MIT community
Professional looking: Sites are made with built-in templates and stylesheets. This gives you a baseline decent-looking website. You may customize the HTML further as your inclinations and technical skill allow.
Quickly: QuickPages helps you lay out your site with a site creation wizard. The edit tool lets you easily add pages and navigation menu items.
AUDIENCE
This will be of interest to users and sites who:
* want a good-looking site but don't have web designers on staff
* want to update their sites themselves
* need a tool that's simpler than Dreamweaver
* want a simple, straightforward publishing tool that doesn't require a lot of training
* publish mostly static html content
MAILING LIST
If you'd like to receive announcements or discuss QuickPages, you may subscribe to the mailing list, IST-QuickPages-info
. The link includes a signup form.
TIMEFRAME
There will be a two-phase pilot, followed by launch.
First pilot phase: Spring 2008 (Q3FY08)
Goals: Install software on our servers and make it work with the MIT environment (e.g. MIT web certificates). Give Usability Lab and ATIC access for a full test drive, and collect their feedback. Continue to get community feedback with demos. Continue template development with PSB. Create the QuickPages project page using QuickPages so we have a firsthand understanding of the customer's experience.
Second pilot phase: Summer 2008 (Q4FY08 and Q1FY09)
Goals: Identify a few beta customers who represent a cross-section of the MIT community. Request and roll out changes from the first pilot phase. Refine the tool and service policies. Continue working with DCAD, PSB, help desk, and training to make the service easy for customers to use. Complete service readiness requirements.
Go live: Fall 2008 (Q2FY09)