OCA gives update on their website's upcoming facelift

Allow me to put on a hat I seldom use for this blog; the techno-chapeau. Since Orthodoxy's web presence is built along jurisdictional lines (leaving SCOBA/EA to the side as I think most of us would), it is rather easy to rank these sites. If I were to do so I'd put the ACROD website at the top and the current OCA website somewhere toward the middle - propriety precludes my mentioning some of the more wanting diocesan websites I've come across.

Here is my wish-list for the new OCA website, and all future jurisdictional websites:

• Standards compliance. No, please don't fall asleep on me at the first bullet point. Standards matter. I usually design websites to exacting XHTML 1.0 Strict / CSS 2 standards, but for out-of-the-box sites like Blogger, I try to remain at least browser neutral. I haven't used Windows since Clinton was president, and run from IE-centric websites like they herald the coming of a zombie invasion.
• RSS feeds. Some Orthodox jurisdictional (ACROD) and academic (St. Vlad's and St. Tikhon's) websites do a fabulous job of pushing updates to people. Some do so spottily (AOCANA and GOARCH). Others don't do it at all or implement a broken feed system.
• Photos from this century. I mean solid, high-quality photos posted in a timely manner. Reposting old photos and having to constantly crop photos ever smaller to get rid of old text, photos that were the product of a camera without focus capability, and very small photos are all the stuff of bloggers' nightmares. Gimmicky attempts to "protect" images by making them impossible to select do little beyond making inadvertent right clicks bothersome. If I hit three keys I've screen captured your image and no web voodoo will stop me.
• Printer friendliness. There is no reason 4 paragraphs should be 4 pages of printing. Nor should I print a page that is 50% left-aligned navigation bar and 30% partially cut-off content. A "print this page" option is often the easiest solution and native to content management solutions.
• Sharable links. Nothing makes sharing more difficult than when "copy this link" is always the main page's URL or when the link is 3 lines long and invariably gets broken when sent in email.
• Work with bloggers and not against them. If the idea is to get the word out, putting up copyright material or requesting bloggers take down content for reposting "without permission" is going to have the opposite effect. Either don't publish material that shouldn't be reused or put up a fair usage policy (require attribution, no changing of content, etc.) bloggers can live with.
• Have mature multilingual support if you're going to be multilingual. If you want to have English and Russian versions of a site fine, but feeds should be separate, content should be distributed in both languages as close to simultaneously as possible, and the website mark-up should know what language it's using (use UTF or declare the text language properly).
• Emails should go somewhere. There is nothing more annoying than trying to tell the webmaster that there is a broken link and never getting a response. Also, if the news story is about a retreat, new book, or other such event then put someone to contact at the top or bottom of the document. Additionally, don't sit on the retreat information and then post three days beforehand.
• Tell me it's a PDF. Older computers tumble down the stairs and lay motionless for many minutes when confronted with a PDF link. If warned properly, people can at least throw a pillow down at the foot of the stairs (close other applications in advance) or get a cup of coffee while Adobe Acrobat whirs into readiness.
• Put in a real search tool. If I know the name of the priest who put out an article sometime in the last three years, but can't remember exactly when, I am often left to keep hitting the back button trying to find the document. Google does a fine job of indexing most pages, but people shouldn't have to navigate away from the site to get back to it.
• Use a database. Don't make huge pages broken up by anchors separated by the alphabet. If I hit "R" up at the top and it takes me to the middle of a 300 page web page, something is wrong. Don't manually update pages with database-like content and expect to update all the things that link to it. You simply won't find them all.
• JavaScript and other pop-up pages are an artifact of a page design fad that should have long since died. Much like capri pants, we continue to let people get away with having them, but no one wants to see them. They are impossible to share, often distract from the flow of the website, and are a pain to pull content from.
• Make use of video that can be embedded, enlarged, and shared easily. If you don't fewer people will see them or people will fetch copies for themselves and then repost on YouTube. 
• Lastly: Grammar and spell checking are a must. I can think of no time when something from a jurisdictional website could not have waited 15 minutes for some solid editorial oversight. Two/to/too, their/there/they're, cannon/canon, unnecessary gender neutralization, apostrophes gone mad, and constant font changes are all too common.

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SYOSSET, NY (OCA) - The announcement of a completely redesigned web site for the Orthodox Church in America, first made at the 15th All-American Council in late 2008, will reach its fulfillment in the coming weeks as the OCA's web team puts the "finishing touches" on this major project.

Recently, Ginny Nieuwsma and Ryan Platte, who are spearheading the redesign, shared their enthusiasm for the new site and anticipation for its launch in a few weeks.

OCA.org: We’ve been hearing about a new OCA website for quite some time. How long has the team been working on this?

Ginny: People have been working on the new site to some degree for nearly a year! The OCA had been promised a new website, and in the summer of 2010 steps were taken to make it a reality. I had just finished leading the team that launched the Saint Vladimir’s Seminary web site, and Father Eric Tosi, OCA Secretary, contacted me to see if I could help plan OCA.org’s remodel. We conducted a survey and Fr. Eric presented the results to last September’s. Synod and Metropolitan Council meetings. Their united decision was to hire a managing editor and a technical manager to start work in 2011. As our first task, we were asked to build a new site!

Ryan: We’re thrilled to be helping the OCA focus on the web. OCA.org is a very important face of the Church. It’s one of the very top most-trafficked English-language Orthodox websites in the world. There are 141 distinct features in the new site map and many thousands of pages on the site. We’ve really swung for the fences, attempting to fit a site reorganization, complete design overhaul, rethinking of content strategy, security improvements, and hosting service changes -- not to mention a complete rewrite of all of the site’s programming -- all into a fixed budget. I think to a large extent we are succeeding.

OCA.org: This sounds like it’s been a big undertaking. Who has been working on this with you?

Ginny: The two of us and Father John Schroedel, our developer, are the core team, and the folks at Simple Focus in Memphis are providing design and HTML. But we’re only the legs -- we’ve needed and received lots of information and help from throughout the OCA. It helped that we were given a good foundation through the work of Archdeacon Kirill Sokolov, the site’s former webmaster. The team we’ve put together is superb: Father Tosi is leading our efforts, Senior Editor Father John Matusiak is running the news and Q & A sections, and invaluable assistance is offered by Jessica Linke and Greg Sulich at the Chancery. Metropolitan Jonah, OCA Treasurer Melanie Ringa, and Protodeacon Joseph Matusiak have all given us valuable help and guidance. Everyone we've dealt with has been very supportive -- department heads, clergy, and laity.

OCA.org: How will the new site differ from the existing one?

Ginny: One of my main tasks has been to create the new site map, which involved completely restructuring the site’s architecture. The existing home page gives visitors too many choices, making it very hard to find anything at all! As we explored this, we realized the site could be divided into four distinct areas -- “subsites” if you will. All the content of OCA.org falls into one of these categories: About the OCA, The Orthodox Faith, Dioceses & Parishes, and The Work of the Church. Each of those areas have gold mines of great content we can feature. In the months following the site’s launch, I’ll be focusing on editing pages in the new structure in order to bring forward the many resources of the OCA.

It’ll be a work in progress as we continue to update all department and diocese pages and Father Joseph Frawley completes our highly popular Feasts & Saints section. We also plan to supplement our Feasts & Saints section with Spanish translations provided by Father Antonio Perdomo.

Ryan: Fr. Schroedel is building the site with the ExpressionEngine content management system, which is a great fit for our needs. It is much, much easier to use for those who are editing the site. It also allows us to make the resources of the OCA much more accessible to our readers. We’ll have better URLs, and several other aspects of the site will help us be found more easily in search engines. In some ways it will be very much the same site, but in many ways the new site will be a dramatic improvement.

OCA.org: What will be different about the new design?

Ryan: The new design will have a very different approach. The site had been updated with new features and some design changes, but hasn’t been really refreshed since its inception in 1996. J.D. Graffam and John Mears at Simple Focus have done some remarkable work for us. They are brilliant designers who led us through the hundreds of big and small decisions to find a design that has wonderful utility and looks and feels beautiful.

One among many extras I’m excited about is that they have applied a new technique called “responsive design.” To put it in very simple terms, our new site is optimized for not one or two but nearly all screen sizes. Users of iPhones, iPads, other mobile devices, and of course desktop computers will all see a presentation that is tuned for their device, all from a single design. My jaw dropped when I saw how well it works. This is the best such design I’ve encountered, and I’m tickled to be working with designers with such skill.

Ginny: Simple Focus managed to create a clean, functional design that is up-to-date while simultaneously capturing the Orthodox “essence/flavor.” The homepage banner allows for a seasonal hero image of Christ, a saint, or an interior shot of an OCA temple, and the liturgical resources are front and center for easy access. While the news is prominently displayed, thumbnail images and text lead to “soft” news stories as well. A new media landing page gives our users a one-click way to find our photo galleries, books by OCA authors, newly released videos, and all OCA-related media.

Ryan: Another bit of design that we’ve received with this project is a subtle but beautiful facelift to the OCA logo. John Burns, a parishioner of the OCA’s Saint Juvenaly Mission, is a brand identity designer and calligrapher who has worked on several very well-known brands. He totally redrew both the domes and lettering for us and provided important guidance on how to use our logo.

OCA.org: When will we get our first look at the new website?

Ginny: We plan to unveil the first version of the new site on Pentecost weekend. We look forward to all the great things we can add afterward.