16 Mar 17 Responsive Redesign Progress Report

We’re closing in on the completion of the retheming of ala.org and all associated microsites, including all the division microsites on ala.org. The responsive nature of the redesign ensures that the sites will resize to display appropriately on cell phones, tablets and desktop computers. It will also bump us up in mobile search results.

ITTS used the retheming as an opportunity to make essential infrastructure upgrades to servers that include new set-ups of development, quality assurance and production web servers. Once the servers are ready, behind the scenes site migrations required to streamline ALA’s information architecture will take place. The changes to the information architecture reduce the number of ALA microsites by about half and will also reduce the time required to make site back-ups and to perform updates.

Retheming of microsites will commence following the site migrations. ITTS expects retheming to happen relatively quickly thanks to information sessions held with site stakeholders and the creation of a webform for them to communicate their final design choices.

We are accommodating units’ preferences for holding off their retheming based on event schedules, but expect to have all sites completed this spring.

Take a look at the paper design mock-ups to get an idea of what the sites will look like. (The global menus will have dropdowns, just like the current site, although an example hasn’t been shown in the mockups.)