The Need
NCR Pub. Co. wanted to provide all the online content in one website - to migrate into ncronline.org (on Drupal 5) much of the content of ncrcafe.org (on Drupal 4.7) before discontinuing the Cafe site. Additionally, NCR Pub. Co. wanted to improve the performance and efficiency in the process but preserve most of the current design. NCR Pub. Co. was seeking a service provider with experience and knowledge of both Drupal and PHP programming that would: include them in the decision-making process of site development; train and empower the staff for daily maintenance of a large quantity of fast changing content and advertisements; and be a reliable source of support on issues for which the staff needs assistance. That service provider needed to understand the cost-conscious approach of the company and work with the company accordingly.

The Plan
BOLD recommended an upgrade of ncronline.org to Drupal 6, which has a more robust core functionality and some improved "plug-in" modules to update some of the key features in use on the NCR site. The plan was to clone (make a copy on which to develop) the existing ncronline.org site and upgrade that site to Drupal 6 - then restructure the content into more clearly delineated content types that would allow increased functionality and control over presentation of the content. Scripts were then created to migrate content from the ncrcafe.org site into the newly upgraded ncronline.org. And then the really creative, fun work began.

BOLD recommended introducing use of an Editions module, which allowed for construction of the ever changing home page behind the scenes, and scheduling the effective date for it to display, allowing for seamless transitioning of home page content. Archived editions of the home page content would also be available using this tool, allowing staff to look back at what was on their home page on a certain day. And perhaps the single largest benefit of this design change would be a change in site navigation - constructing the primary navigation out of "channels" to present topical areas for the online newspaper content, much like a physical newspaper (like the Business and Sports sections of your local paper) where a visitor could find all news articles related to a topic area. BOLD then suggested that business links, which made up the previous primary navigation, be subjugated to a secondary navigation bar, but still quite accessible off the home page. Page tools would be updated with new look and functionality, and the left sidebar would be streamlined to bring focus to the columnists, which were so popular in the ncrcafe.org site. A page devoted to each columnist, integrating the columnist profile along with access to the columns in descending date order was suggested as another enhancement to the user experience. As a result more options would be available to tailor advertisements (already an important resource for the online newspaper) to specific columnists or topic areas.

The Result
The newly developed site was then launched as the live site four-and-a-half weeks later, on February 23rd, 2009. There will always be a certain amount of people who don't like change and thought the site was perfectly fine the way it was ("So why did you change it?!") But the majority of visitor feedback is positive and appreciative of the more open look, the improved navigation and convenient channels for topical information. The site has an updated look and loads much more quickly. And due to improved efficiencies, the staff are able to update the rapidly changing content in less time with more "automatic layout assistance". Check the site out yourself at ncronline.org.