Jon Rumsey
An online markdown blog and knowledge repository.
Project maintained by nojronatron
Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham
Web Site CMS Overview Notes
Content Management Services allow customers to create, edit, deploy, manage, and promote their web sites, whether they are commercial, governmental or NGO, or personal.
This page is a selection of notes taken while looking into various available CMSs.
Table of Contents
SquareSpace
SS Getting Started
Creating a new site:
- Pick a specific template for yourself.
- SS will ask questions to select a template for you, however it might not be what you want.
- Templates are just a starting place.
- Template pre-define Style, Layout, Fonts, and Colors, but these can be customized.
Questions:
Is it possible to build a site without a template?
Views:
- Desktop and mobile viewing switcher.
- Build in one view, update in both views to tweak UX.
Search:
- Search tools within other tools exist to find a specific one.
- Use the
/ key to bring-up the search tool at any time.
Fonts:
- There are millions to choose from.
- Ligatures, weight, etc can be customized during design time.
- Font Packs: Contain pairs of "complimentary" fonts.
- Font overlap between SS and Canva, simplifying Canva-to-SS design and deployment.
Template Color Palettes:
- Presets: Contain some reasonable palettes with 6 (or so) shades of "complimentary" colors.
- From Image: Will choose a palette of colors based on an uploaded image.
- Custom Picker: Select your own colors and shades and assign to the palette.
- Other Colors: Modify an existing color and set as a palette color for this site.
Do Color Presets utilize Accessible Design Practices?
Add Page:
- Tied-in to main Navigation.
- Provides templates to choose from.
- Some templates are basic pages, others are more specific (Blog posts, etc), so look through the entire list.
Navigation:
- Nav Bar is automatic and displayed on the page(s) by default.
- Nav Bar drop-downs are allowed, requiring a few extra clicks.
- Home Page can be removed from the navigation tree.
Are there other navigation linking options besides a header-based Nav Bar?
- Use Anchor links to other areas internal (or external) to the site.
- Use buttons with anchor links (although this is discouraged for accessibility reasons).
Asset Library:
- Photos and other assets can be stored here.
- Before uploading images, rename using A11y and SEO best practices.
Page Blocks:
- Contains controls like Buttons, Textbox, etc.
- Select, configure, place WYSIWYG style.
- Buttons can be used to link to URLs including local (using Navigation), or remote (using Anchor elements).
Sections:
- Add, remove, or shift sections on-screen, WYSIWYG.
- Sections can be added using a Template or a blank section element.
- Modification of Section location is possible to widen or shrink Section sizing.
- Section sizing will affect content placement and size restrictions.
Higher Level Features:
- Selling: It is possible to add-on a shopping-cart style section of the site. Fees apply.
- Marketing: Campaigns and newlsetters can be configured, scheduled, and monitored. Fees might apply depending on volume.
- SEO and Analytics: Google Analytics are used to capture visitor behavior, conversion rates, etc.
- Contact: TBD.
- Scheduling Templates: TBD.
- Plug-ins: SS makes some plug-ins available, and allows other plug-in usage.
Note: Newsletters and downloads can be configured in the Marketing Tool. Fees may apply depending on volume.
Note: SquareSpace plug-in config and usage might be easier than other CMS vendors (anecdotal comment).
Resources
Return to ContEd Index.
Return to Root README.