1. UNIFYING THE
USER DESIGN, AD
SYSTEM AND SITE
PUBLISHING TOOLS
WORLDWIDE FOR
CNET NETWORKS
Design Director for CNET Networks
worldwide brands (2000-2003)

2. About CNET
Audience snapshot
Unique Visitors Per Month: 18.5 million
Page Views Per Month: 209 million
Broadband access 95%

3. Why standardize CNET sites?
4Extraordinary CNET growth organic and unplanned
4Numerous site/product acquisitions:
4 Multiple publishing systems
4 Unique platforms
4 Practices institutionalized
in „silo‟ configuration

4. Business-critical issues
4 New ad types not supported
4 Unable to deliver “network buy”
sponsorships
4 Back-end systems complex,
expensive to maintain
4 CNET brand and sub-brands
diluted by lack of standards in
presentation

5. Jonathan Bates: My experience
4 Successfully managed 2001 redesign and integration
of newly acquired ZDNet
4 Standardized design processes across ZDNet
4 ZD standards model successfully ported to CNET
Commerce sites
4 Large team management experience
4 Track record of managing large, business-critical
projects

6. The mandate: my responsibilities
Domestic sites
4 Create uniform template structure
for 13 „core‟ site brands
4 Allow new ad types to deploy
network-wide
4 Develop style guides for all sites
4 Coordinate with Technology Group‟s
rebuild of common back-end
4 6 month timeframe

7. The mandate: my responsibilities
Domestic sites
4 Train all site „owners‟ and production
teams on best practices
4 Develop production toolkits and
common graphic devices
4 Oversee and police daily production
for all sites to ensure compliance
4 Maintain and update online
„repositories‟ for each site‟s style
systems

8. The mandate: my responsibilities
Worldwide sites
4 Educate site owners worldwide on
standardization plans
4 Develop best-practices guides
localized to 10 languages
4 Adapt standards to remove cultural or
linguistic misinterpretations
4 Diplomacy of getting both „O & O‟
properties and licensees to comply

10. Project & Site Design intranet
4 Developed and maintained
CNET‟s first centralized site and
project information repository
4 Resource for project managers
and senior management to
review current work load and
individual project status
4 Improved company efficiency,
resource allocations and
strategic planning

11. Design intranet: Site Detail page
4 Initially used in development
phase of new sites or redesigns
4 When project finished, page
converted to style guide and tool
repository
4 Retention of design iterations used
in post-mortem reviews to define
best practices, locate weaknesses

12. Design intranet: Tools and resources
Materials for site
producers:
4 Key information about site, mission,
audience and production profile
4 Templates in Photoshop, HTML for all
modules and page types
4 Tool kit of logos, bugs, HTML
fragments and graphic treatments
4 “Site emergency” procedures and
contact information

13. Design intranet: Ad specifications
4 Specs on all supported ad types
4 Samples in PSD, PDF and AI format
4 In page HTML samples
4 Production contact information
4 Used by sales and marketing as well
as production groups

14. Design intranet: Process definitions
Design process
guidelines
4 Created process diagrams for
all project or site components
Link display
standards
4 Explained best practices,
redesign process, “How To”
collection
Navigation
& shell standards 4 Included reasoning/rationale
for systems and standards to
encourage „buy-in‟ by
Style & Content
producers
Repository

15. Site standardization: U.S. properties
4 Successfully designed and
managed 10 simultaneous
major property redesigns
4 Designed and produced two
new CNET properties
4 Coordinated and implemented
new standards compliance
process across organization
4 Successfully met deadlines,
including ad system integration
network-wide

16. Site standardization: Worldwide
4 Within 12 month, CNET
Networks sites worldwide were
using common template set
4 Worldwide network able to
present all ad types on virtually
every page of every site
4 Increased revenue booked and
improved brand standing for
CNET Networks properties
4 Measurably improved
coordination between US and
international business units

17. Creative and products in this presentation were
either primarily designed or directly managed by
Jonathan Bates
(612) 578 0222
www.dabunny.com