One Site, One Framework, One Sustainable Path

In 2007, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln embarked on a path unique in its time for a large institution, and still rare today: it became university policy that all sites of entities under the university brand would be built on one codebase, one framework.

Previously, we’d wrestled with an unsustainable status quo: each department and college was an independent publisher to the web. About half used a set of voluntary templates that we’d developed, but many did not. This meant that, in many cases, everything inside the body tag was unique to that site. Those responsible for ensuring the consistency and effectiveness of institutional communication had little say over what was emerging as history’s most important communication medium. It also meant that those ensuring security, accessibility and public safety, and those developing integrations, could not effectively meet those needs.

12 years in, we’ve successfully deployed four major redesigns, literally shifting the look and feel of all college, unit and department sites in a matter of hours at each transition; we’ve been able to take early advantage of new web technologies such as responsive design and CSS Grid, and we’ve implemented a community and shared governance structure that supports alignment and shared ownership of the web framework and suite of developed public information apps (CMS, calendar of events, media repo, maps, etc.) that support over 800 websites (defined as distinct information architectures) across the university. Along the way, we were awarded the last of eduStyle’s Best Overall Website awards, and we continue to achieve consistently strong marks on accessibility and site performance.

Attendees will learn of the real-world advantages of a community-driven approach to institutional web development, elements of a proposal to try it on their own campus, and hazards to avoid if they should choose a similar path.

Slides