The campus Web turns a new page
After eight months of research, analysis, design, testing and feedback, UC Davis' new home site is finally here.
For the top 50-plus pages, we've improved the navigation, content and the structure of the information and brought it into compliance with federal disability guidelines.
So many people, when told of the redesign project, have asked if it's mainly a matter of updating the appearance of the site. And it's true, the first thing that most users will likely notice is that the new site looks very different. But we think the most important change is that Web users can finally find what they are looking for.
When we surveyed the campus last summer, nearly 5,000 Web users told us the top three reasons they visit our site are for information on departments and professors, jobs, and news about the campus.
As a result, the site boasts a new directory of faculty, organized by department, school or college, and a new "Jobs" button at the top that offers information for current and prospective staff, students and faculty.
And Web users will find more engaging news about the campus. Each week, the home page will tell two to three stories about what makes UC Davis special and feature the distinctive voices of our students, faculty and staff. On other pages readers will find more news about members of the UC Davis community who are making a difference through learning, discovery and engagement. As an added feature throughout the site, we are emphasizing visual story telling with slideshows and videos.
Decisions about this site were made by a 17-member Web strategy committee, based on the survey results, a broad study of the best practices of other university Web sites and extensive consultation with campus Web content managers. What we learned guided our selection of headings and the decision to offer navigation by both audience and topic.
Four main pages — "Future Students," "Business Community," "Academics" and "Sports & Recreation" — are completely new to the home site. The first two address important users of the campus Web. A much expanded Academics page folds in content formerly found in both "Teaching" and "Schools & Colleges." The last page recognizes the importance of athletics to the campus community.
The home site is now fully compliant with federal guidelines on access for people with disabilities. The site should work well for all users. All the pages now expand to fit your browser window, and the fonts are easily scaled to match your viewing preferences. Windows Internet Explorer users can select a new text size from the "View" menu; Mac users can scale their fonts up or down by pressing "command + plus" or "command + minus," respectively.
Even the pages remaining from the old site offer completely reorganized information and improved navigation. All pages below the home page provide access to all other top-level pages via navigation bars near the top of each page. Also, each page lists the main categories of information for that section in an "In this section" menu in the gold sidebar on the left, just under the page's title.
A notable addition to the home site is the search form at the top of every page. From this form, the user can search for either Web pages or people on campus.
The quick-links menu that pops down on the old home page has been replaced by a shorter list that is always visible. Many of the second-level pages have their own quick-links list appropriate to the particular audience or subject area. Look for these in the left column, just under the "In this section" menu.
Other new features:
- A "Campus Currents" page that provides information on campus issues, activities, values and vision;
- A section on the home page that highlights upcoming events and links to a reorganized calendar page; and
- An updated "About UC Davis" page with a new video with Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef that welcomes newcomers and a slide show highlighting campus strengths.
Many have offered feedback on the redesign, either via comments at the redesign project blog or through more traditional channels. While it wasn't possible to take every suggestion, even those not taken made us stop and think about why we were doing something. Our site will continue to evolve. For example, a new and improved online campus map will follow shortly.
We'd like to share what we've learned with other campus communicators and Web developers who are interested in updating their sites. Our office is expecting to roll out templates that can be adapted by departments later this year.
This final stretch has been especially crazy, filled as it was with a seemingly impossible number of details, each clamoring for attention. Inevitably, we will have forgotten something, or missed a link or misspelled a word. But the Web is a very malleable medium, so if you spot something and we'll fix it.
Special thanks to Debbie Aldridge, Alex Alfieri, Jennifer Barber, Victoria Bencken, Mitchel Benson, Caroline Bledsoe, Kristin Burns, Debra Cleveland, Jan Conroy, Tom Hansen, Matthew Hargrove, John Harris, Rick Hill, Tom Hinds, Virginia Hinshaw, Kathleen Holder, Sue Jones, Jenny Kucich, Lisa Lapin, Jay Leek, Kevin Liu, Darren Marks, Alexis Raymond, Babette Schmitt, Kathryn Sylva, Sharie Sprague, Julie Yang, Karen Westphalen and to anyone who touched this endeavor in some way. And thanks to the entire campus community for their input and feedback during this process. Keep in touch.
Okay, now we can get some sleep.