Preparing for launch

How to prepare for launch

• HUIT requires 3 weeks of lead time to launch your site. Site launches only happen on Tuesdays.
• Once you have decided on a scheduled day to go live, contact HUIT at ithelp@harvard.edu. 

Step 1: Decide on user roles

1. Determine who will be the site owner and primary contact for support.
2. Define a workflow for content production, for example, who will create and maintain content? Who will approve content before publishing?
3. Determine who will be website users.
4. Align roles with users (see Roles and Permissions and Roles & Permissions Table for details about tasks available to different roles).

Step 2: Verify and maintain user accounts

1. Verify that you can log in to your site.
2. Review user accounts listed under People and make sure the list is up-to-date (see Managing Users for details about how to add and manage user accounts).
3. Based on your workflow, make sure assigned roles are appropriate for user accounts.
4. Regularly review your site’s user accounts listed under People and remove any user accounts that are no longer needed.
5. Set a primary site contact for your site.

Step 3: Review navigation and wayfinding

1. Make sure menu link labels are short and clear (see Managing menus for guidance on working with site menus).
2. Limit top-level site navigation links to no more than seven (7) items.
3. Include a section navigation menu on pages in sections that have sub-pages (see Adding content to menus for details about adding menus to pages).
4. Make sure site navigation link labels are descriptive and match section navigation link labels.
5. Include your department name or logo in the site header.
6. Include contact information and navigation links in the site footer.

Step 4: Review pages and page content

1. Make sure page names are short and clear.
2. Make sure all pages in the site are reachable through site and section navigation menus and page content (e.g., calls to action, cards, components).
3. Make sure landing pages for each section have content as well as links to subpages.
4. Delete any test pages or unnecessary pages.
5. Check all pages (landing pages and subpages) for consistent layout and component background color patterns.
6. Make sure all content is up-to-date and accurate.
7. Make sure headings are provided using the correct heading level (Heading 2, Heading 3, etc.).
8. Review links and make sure they work as expected.
9. Rewrite any vague or generic link text like “click here” or “read more” so that it’s more descriptive.

Step 5: Review media and files

1. Replace low-quality images with high-resolution images, for example, for headshots and hero images (see Image Sizes for guidance on optimizing images for different contexts).
2. Make sure all images have a text alternative (see When to add alt text for guidance).
3. Review hero components and make sure images are positioned correctly, and that the primary image content is not covered by text.
4. Review embedded elements such as videos and forms and make sure they display and work correctly.
5. Confirm all embedded videos have accurate captions.
6. Make sure links to downloadable files such as PDFs are working correctly, and that the documents are accessible.

Step 6: Perform quality checks

1. Browse the site on different browsers and devices to make sure everything looks OK.
2. Use an automated tool like Siteimprove to regularly check accessibility and quality assurance issues such as missing alt text, misspellings, and broken links, and monitor progress over time. 
3. Use the Accessibility Checker when editing a page, and review any errors or suggestions flagged.