The University of Arkansas offers WordPress sites to students, faculty and staff. These sites are used for classes, lab projects, student groups, academic portfolios, department newsletters, and a host of other use cases. They needed a simple consistent web solution that could meet all of these needs and still offer a high level of support and be managed by a small team.
Services Provided
Web design and development, WordPress MultiSite administration, user support and training.
Project Highlights
I created three separate WordPress MultiSite environments for use by different segments of the campus web community. I audited multiple themes and theme frameworks to find a solution that would meet the specific needs of the users, who varied from computer science and design majors to first time WordPress users. While none were able to meet all of the University’s needs, we found one that came very close, and exceeded in many areas.
To provide for the additional functionality that was needed with our chosen solution, I developed an open source extension to the theme, which I maintain as a personal project.
I created six starter templates, each a prototype of a common site style. Each example is online as a fully functional website. When creating a new website, users are able to view the examples and choose one as a starting point. The additional options that are available are then explained and demonstrated, and links to further documentation are provided. This has made the site creation and management process much simpler for everyone.
