Content management system
In 2021, Hannon Hill’s Cascade was selected as sait.ca’s content management system through SAIT’s RFP process.
Hannon Hill offers technical support and customer service through an unlimited ticket submission process. If answers to questions, processes or support cannot be found in the Knowledge Base, a ticket should be submitted by a member of the Marketing and Communications Systems team.
Any content contributors outside of Marketing experiencing difficulties with the platform should first contact site.feedback@sait.ca for troubleshooting.
Servers and site hosting
To help with the site's speed and reliability, sait.ca is hosted on cloud-based servers through Microsoft Azure.
Maintenance and error troubleshooting for the cloud-based servers will be overseen by the Digital Experience (Marketing) and Azure (ITS) teams.
The Digital Experience team has members dedicated to monitoring and improving system performance. If you suspect the website is experiencing performance issues, please contact site.feedback@sait.ca for troubleshooting assistance.
Vendors
Stakeholders working with agencies, external vendors or variations where the work and/or product will impact sait.ca content, information architecture or require possible integration capabilities, should first consult with the Associate Vice President, Marketing, and the Associate Director, Marketing and Communications Systems.
If project work is approved by the Associate Director, vendors will be briefed by the Marketing and Communications Systems division. During this period, an introduction to processes and a backend functionality (if required) will be disclosed.
Legal requirements
Privacy policy
- SAIT is legally mandated to comply with Alberta's Access to Information Act (ATIA) and the Protection of Privacy Act (POPA) as it relates to visitor information.
- SAIT complies with Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).
- Visitor information, via the use of cookies, is collected on an aggregate basis and is not personally identifiable to your individual use or our site.
- Visit privacy policies for more information.
Web technology
Capabilities and integrations
Integrations, (often referred to as plug-ins) are additions that can be made to a website’s code base to help send or receive information from external applications, systems, or websites.
All integrations for the website will be approved by the Associate Director, Marketing and Communications Systems, Manager of Digital Experience or Digital Strategy. Integration projects should first start with a business case considering the following criteria:
- Does the integration significantly streamline an internal process or improve user experience?
- Is it achievable with the current content management system?
- What is the scale of work? Will it involve front/backend development?
- Timelines
- Does the plugin align with existing coding language guidelines to help maintain a clean code environment?
- Does the plugin require a quality assurance phase?
- Are there maintenance considerations?
- What is the life span of the implementation?
- Does the integration affect site performance and speed?
- Does the plug-in conflict with other parts of the site?
- Is there a Plan B or alternate options if issues are insurmountable?
- Does the plugin’s user experience clash with the established UX of sait.ca?
- Updates to the code base should avoid JavaScript integrations.
- Updates to the code base should especially avoid jQuery plugins.
Integrations will depend on the type of project and may be completed by resources other than our teams.
Current integrations:
- SAIT Datalake - DigArc – Curriculog catalog is connected to all credit programs to pass real-time curriculum updates and information to the live site.
- LLL API – LifeLong Learning is connected to sait.ca/continuing-education courses and certificates, providing shopping cart functionality on the front-facing website.
Site structure
The site structure (often referred to as information architecture) of sait.ca is determined by the Digital Strategy team in collaboration with the Digital Experience team, informed by current data and research, and organized based on the following best practices:
- Audience – what target audience is the section or content designed for? How do they think, and what are they trying to achieve?
- User Experience (UX) – how will the target user likely navigate the site? Are we using language that they will instinctively understand? How many clicks will it take for them to access that information? What visual differences should we use to indicate to the user where they are in the site map?
- Context – at what point in the user journey will that target be? Discovery? Decision? What related information would they also require or find valuable?
The site tree is flexible and scalable to allow changes or opportunities for expansion. Content that does not naturally fit within the set structure will be relocated based on its content and target audience to enhance the user experience.
The site structure is not based on the internal organizational structure of SAIT, nor are sections always named based on internal terminologies.
User experience
Website improvements for user experience are identified through best practices, research, and ongoing performance and user-based testing. Testing includes but is not limited to:
- Desktop/mobile testing
- Browser testing
- Accessibility audits and testing
- Automation testing
- Google Console reporting and review
- Site speed analysis tools
- Algolia (sait.ca’s search tool) analytics
Improvements are prioritized based on the impact of day-to-day site activity.
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Algolia
Sait.ca’s internal search engine is run through Algolia, and its daily functionality is managed by the Digital Experience team. It offers reporting capabilities, structured search data, and unique filtering capabilities to give users the best search experience while on the site.
In addition to daily operation, a Search Committee comprised of stakeholders from different groups meets regularly to look at search performance and opportunities.
If you notice opportunities for search to work better for your content, contact site.feedback@sait.ca.
Oki, Âba wathtech, Danit'ada, Tawnshi, Hello.
SAIT is located on the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and the people of Treaty 7 which includes the Siksika, the Piikani, the Kainai, the Tsuut’ina and the Îyârhe Nakoda of Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney.
We are situated in an area the Blackfoot tribes traditionally called Moh’kinsstis, where the Bow River meets the Elbow River. We now call it the city of Calgary, which is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta.