Problem statement: The Department of Personnel & Administration (DPA) has 11 web properties hosted in Drupal 7 by the third-party: Statewide Internet Portal Authority (SIPA). SIPA is transitioning from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 and is providing the theme for State and local agencies. 

When I was hired to DPA there were no content audits done for any of the web properties. How could I migrate these websites without knowing what I had? A good web migration starts with a good content audit. 

I spent about a year to carefully document URLs and information architecture for all sites into spreadsheets. I created a competitive analysis for each website, and researched Google Analytics and search results pages. I held meetings with unit leads to discover pain points with their web sections. I created user persona lists based on interviews done with stakeholders.

Working with key stakeholders for each team, we planned to either migrate their website with minimal changes, or with major navigational structure changes. Please see the before and after home page comparisons below. This is a summary of a 2.5 year project.

CSEAP: I met with the stakeholder to build a new website with similar navigation and a bit more iconography. We were careful about equity, diversity, and inclusion when we designed this website because every state employee could potentially visit this site. 

Administrative Courts: This was a major navigation change to bring a once deep and hidden navigation more to the forefront. 

Capitol: Because our new jumbotron area is narrower than the previous slider, I created a new carousel at a square aspect ratio and moved it lower on the page, next to a new Facebook feed. I chose green for the top navigation color to echo the fact that the Colorado State Capitol building is the only state capitol to have LEED Gold certification. 

DPA: The Department of Personnel & Administration had recently performed an employee listening tour and was focusing strongly on becoming an employer of choice. The DPA core values plus the mission/vision statement had never been on the home page before, and I suggested this design to allow the core values more of the spotlight. Our internal graphic designer Nicole Brinn did this iconography for the values. 

Careers: The careers website is new as of Fall of 2020. Our Division of Human Resources (DHR) stakeholders requested to split the DHR website, which used to house a single careers page, into two websites. This move to a non-DHR-branded dedicated careers site meet a wildly important goal (WIG) for the division. I requested the careers specialists to provide me with the copy and I designed and built the website. We launched with a phase I version of the website.

SPB: This was the first migration I performed. I restructured the navigation quite a bit and worked on the accessibility of the PDF files uploaded to the site. 

DHR: Here is the redesigned Division of Human Resources home page. I brought their tagline to the forefront by adding it to the jumbotron. The top navigation is very different from the original website; it is much more audience-based than unit-based now. 

When each new website was built and ready to launch, I also created the comprehensive 1:1 URL redirect list as well so that existing print assets would not have to be changed. 

Thanks for taking a look! I strive for quality products and smooth transitions from one platform to another. I also created documentation for all content managers who will be doing maintenance on these sites.