Editorial Design Project Process

Initial Request

When an Editor or story Producer from an editorial division [BU Today, in this example] has the budget for an important feature story (or series of stories) and wants a custom user experience to explore to convey the story, they contact Interactive Design through Project Management.

Prioritization

After the initial request, a Project Manager gathers early team members to define the project scope, estimate hours, set priorities, and fit everything into a schedule amid resourcing. The Project Manager, or a Creative Director [whom they reach out to], may either designate or inquire a prospective Lead Designer for a rough time estimate.

Work Begins!

Understanding roles and responsibilities and which team member to involve is crucial.

A typical ID editorial project team consists of:

• Design & Front-End Development [a Lead Designer]
• Project Management & Planning [a PM]
• Creative Direction [as oversight, a CD or ACD]

Once the scope, timeline, and team are set, work starts.

Editorial General Process

Intake Phase

Initial discussions regarding the needs of the story, its objectives, and its requirements (including budget constraints) happen during this time.

• Project Kick-off Meeting with Editorial Publication editor or producer; the client. Designer should note considerations and ask:
  • What’s the article about and who’s featured? 
  • What asides or similar elements, if any, are involved?
  • What publication is the article in and when is the launch date?
  • Gather copy, brief research appropriate of subject or topic, story at hand.

Implementation Phase

Design

• Lead Designer brings together Styleboard options (and mockups — if scoped, and schedule/timing allows).
  • Mockups revised, per feedback.
• Once Approval’s granted: the Lead Designer will coordinate with the Writer, Editor, or Producer Editorial to establish who will implement the written copy into a privately published WordPress post and/or collection [if series] of posts in the bu.edu/bu-article CMS and set a scheduled date for launch.
  • If the post(s) is scheduled for a future date [project deadline], there’s no need for it to be privately posted. [This needs to be confirmed.]
  • Editorial Production is responsible for inputting content. In some cases where support is needed with some visual assets, or a special block arrangement/grouping is needed to match mockup, then a designer would support including copy/images.

Development/Production

The Lead Designer initiates developing the article.

• With a git app [Tower, for example], the Lead Designer clones down id-editorial-articles to their local machine, creating a branch for their article and/or series.
• Enable git-flow, or right-click on the remote develop branch of the id-editorial-articles repository and click “Create A New Branch.” Set it up locally and uncheck the track to this branch option.
• Lead Designer downloads a copy of the r-static-starter, a repository, renaming it to:Year-Article-or-Series-Name.
• While in the new branch: move the newly created Year-Article-or-Series-Name folder into its relevant publication [BU Today, Bostonia, Brink, or other] directory of your local clone of id-editorial-articles.
• Opening that directory in your Code Editor: switch to appropriate Node Version Manager [“nvm”] by typing in nvm use 12 into your code editor or OS terminal and run “npm install” (if unsuccessful: reach out on Slack to either a Dev, Dev Director, or Senior Lead Designer for help in the #interactive-design channel). If you’re not experiencing any issues, type in “grunt” and hit enter for automatic code compiling every time you save an SASS partial. 
• Establish an SFTP connection to the remote server directory of the relevant publication.
• Commit and push code at the end of every asset, coding session, or at end of day [if not already].

Quality Assurance, Proofreading, and Final Client Review

• When every asset has been Dev’d, the Lead Designer then browser-checks and tests the story or series for quality assurance, committing, and making a final push up to the id-editorial-articles repository, opening a Pull Request for code review.
• Lead Designer presents the final, developed article with Editorial Publication client.
  • If approved: the Lead Designer merges the remote branch within id-editorial-articles.
  • If there’s feedback: the Lead Designer adjusts their code as necessary to meet approval with further dev, until approval is met.