Post-CMS training
March 15th, 2007 by cuhlAll good developers using the CMSMS know how flexible it is and easy it is to develop a good website with solid design and good functionality. One caveat of the dilligent work we put into making websites is that 9 times out of 10 the client wants to take a stab at making the changes themselves. This is a major selling point for people, many of then used to phoning up a web company, only to request a few changes, wait forever for the work to be done to the right standard, meanwhile their own deadlines are shifting and bosses giving hassle wanting to know what is going on. Eventually when an invoice comes in the door in exchange for the hassle, they will only jump at the chance to take this painstaiking process out of their work day.
The important part to know about developing a site with the CMSMS is that the site isn’t done on launch day. The training element is crucial to the successful website. Many days spent on validation and good code can be wrecked by someone in the client’s company copy and pasting from Front Page, or Word, or some other horror that has been imposed on us all. This can invalidate the good put into the site and in the end affects your own reputation as a developer.
It is a good idea to think of the CMSMS not from your own familiar point of view of it, but from the client’s noobie look at the back-end. Simple things like restricting their access to the really important (and dangerous) items such as custom content blocks, templates, stylesheets, php code etc can save alot of grief and questions in the long run. The more comfortable a client is with non-technical areas of the site and the less bewildered they are at the total package, the more eager they will be to make an effort at making changes without worrying about ‘breaking’ something.
Compliant standard editors (we use x-standard as a default) are helpful to clean up bad code inserted from the above mentioned offenders of bad code. But added to this, a small user manual is often helpful. Take the main important sections of the site that a client will be using and put the process clearly down on paper. Numbered lists of what to do in a step-by-step basis, along with screenshots helps guide them through editing or adding pages and images. This gets rid of the fear factor often seen by clients facing an imposing admin panel.
Taking the time go sit with them and go over the manual helps build your relationship with the client, adds to their own assurances that they will not ‘break’ the site and incur the wrath of their respective bosses, and lets them know they haven’t been left on their own to fend for themselves. In our own experience as much as a client wants to ‘do it all all by themselves’, when the time comes to make the leap, they tend to hesitate on actually pushing the ’submit’ button. A little hand-holding in the way of training goes a long long way to the future success of the website.
March 15th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Maybe we could all collaborate and write a manual in the wiki…?? Then we could just reuse the same thing for all our clients.
March 16th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Yeah. The worst thing is that some hesitate to do almost ANYTHING on the computer without help, and forgetting the steps easily.
But the admin panel is quite intuitive and informative – inexperienced read the menu in the centre of the screen, while experienced use the hover menu. But maybe they’ll be missing that nice X button…
March 19th, 2007 at 3:51 am
One of the things I love about CMS is that when you disable a feature it completely disappears. That makes for a much easier to use and less cluttered interface. I wrote a simple guide, much like you describe, for my clients. It’s available at http://www.zenology.co.uk/articles/cms-made-simple-guide/ It’s CC licensed so if anyone wants to extend/update it I’d be happy to provide the original document.
April 3rd, 2007 at 9:03 am
I incorporate training on CMSMS into my project bids. I believe that it is the client’s right to know how to do basic updates to their site. I have found that if my client has the knowledge that if they can edit a word doc they can update their website, it gives them peace of mind. They are somewhat in control. The big downfall is there is not currently (that I know of) a user’s manual for the average joe. We work closely with my buds at http://www.impact-x.com and this has often been a point of discussion between us. We are very tempted to make our own user manual for the everyday person. The program is easy enough to use, people just need to learn that. I would be highly in favor of a community based user’s manual. It is a must.
April 7th, 2007 at 9:23 am
We have created a very visual user-manual in German – it is more like “read & click” and works perfectly for all of our clients. It started out about 3 years ago and has been refined ever since. However I was always thinking about creating something more flexible (it is PowerPoint based), but I am not sure what format I should use then. However I think that creating a user centric manual and by customizing CMSMS to meet the users needs the whole system will become more efficient.
April 8th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
How about a highly simplified admin menus when you log in using specific username and password. I have a client that only needs to be able to add/edit news stories and anything else seems to confuse them!
April 22nd, 2007 at 1:29 pm
To Tim: Tamlyn Rhodes have already posted you can simplify admin menus; or do you mean straight access to News?
June 12th, 2008 at 11:34 am
This is a very, very good point. I have made the mistake of ASSUMING my clients would just “figure out” how to use a CMS before, because it was so easy for ME, and I was using the WHOLE interface, and just wanted them to learn the basics! No way! Here is another way in which undervaluing (and under-valuating!) my knowledge has cost me. The client ended up with a surprise extra task they hadn’t bargained for, a learning curve–in their newbie world.
Perhaps some of these should just never have been encouraged to do it themselves. Maybe I should always have the client go into a test system and try things out for a while, using REAL WORLD content–not just dummy content. Maybe I should query them on their level of technical expertise. What is their competency in Word? Have they ever used an online system? Etc.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
[...] Site Maintenance. If you don’t want to have a stale site, you’re going to have to designate someone–at least once in a while–to update the site content. Will this be you, one of your employees, or your web design company? If it’s you, you’ll likely be using a content management system, or CMS. Are you trained in using these systems? Is training included in your plans and budget? Let’s be realistic: Even the easiest-to-use systems need to managed by someone, and mistakes can be made. Therefore, they will be made, unless some system is put in place to prevent this. (See Post-CMS Training.) [...]