Design option #2 was #1 with most of those that commented, but was also number one with the University Administration. The Chancellor’s Cabinet today selected design #2 see here.
The new site is scheduled to launch on August 18, 2008. Watch for a beta version to be available starting July 21.
So is this the end of this blog? No, there will be further information posted here and further requests for feedback, so please keep coming back.
The Web Redesign Working Group has come up with two redesign options (see below). These two design options have been presented to the University officers for final selection. Feedback from the campus community is desired by the officers as they make their final decision.
To provide feedback, you may add a comment to this blog post or you can email University Webmaster Paula Ganyard at ganyardp@uwgb.edu. In addition, you may also provide feedback by attending the Tech Forum on May 1 from 8:30-9:30 or 10:00 – 11:00 in MAC 137.
(click on thumbnail for full image)
Option 1
Option 2
In order to design a site you need to know what you what to accomplish. These are the goals that we came up with for the UW-Green Bay web site.
• The web site (main and secondary pages) will be designed for the external audiences
• The web site will answer the question “What should they know about UWGB?”
• The web site will “sell” the university to these external audiences.
To those ends we will have the following sections on the main page:
It is important that each time you redesign a site that you improve upon it, that you don’t redesign just to redesign. So I thought it would be fun to look at the evolution of the uwgb.edu web site. I was able to get screen shots of each of the different designs since 1997 with the exception of the design where the two or three students were standing out in the field with the university buildings behind them. Does anyone remember that one? Does anyone have a copy of it for some odd reason? If so, let me know it would be nice to have a complete collection. In any case enjoy the trip down memory lane…
1997
In 1997 we had a page that sort of resembled the original Yahoo site design.
1999
In 1999 we got a bit more graphical with a wide photo of the campus. Links were listed below the photo and we had gotten rid of a number of them.
2000
In 2000 we changed things up a bit and switched from the boxy look to design with curves. This is also when we started rotating the photos on the main page. We also got rid of the audience links.
2002
In 2002 we launched the first version of what we have today. We decided that it was important to once again have audience specific pages and started to add new headlines.
2008
Here we are today. Since 2002 the site has changed with minor modifications. In about 2004 we started using stylesheets and were able to reduce the number of images that reduce loading times, something that is still valued today by those on dial-up.
So where will we go next? Stay tuned and help us decide.
click on thumbnails for larger images
Q: Is there a page on the uwgb.edu site that could benefit from student/user-generated content (video, copy, photos…)?
A: Yes.
Q: What pages could benefit?
A: Any page.
Q: Sounds crazy, do you really think it could work?
A: I don’t know, maybe we should ask Princeton.
“The Office of Communications is accepting submissions of video, audio and slideshows produced by Princeton students, faculty and/or staff. Submitted multimedia will be considered for presentation on the University home page, the Multimedia pages, in news stories or in other University publications.”(from Princeton’s site)
Q: Princeton and UWGB are very different institutions, what makes you think it could work on our campus?
A: I know we have the student talent, so that’s not a problem. I do think the biggest hurdle is getting that talent to participate. Using a contest format will sometimes increase participation (and sometimes not). My guess is that the thought of having your content featured on the Univerisity’s home page (or the Future and Current Students pages) is a pretty big carrot to put out there, and it should help spawn some good student-generated stuff.
Q: Do you have time for one more question?
A: Sorry, I’ve got to run. But please feel free to continue the conversation by posting a comment.
A number of people have asked me why are we redesigning the site? There are a number of reasons, but the first is that the current UW-Green Bay web site is nearly 6 years old and between 2002 and 2008 the Internet has changed a great deal. In a new design we would like to have flexibility to offer new technologies like video, RSS (news feeds), blogs, etc. Changes in technologies have also led to faster Internet connections with broadband, computers are faster, monitor sizes are bigger, and there is an increase in the number of visitors using our site with some kind of mobile technology.
Users have changed over 6 years as well. We have more traffic today on our site then we did a year ago, let alone 6 years ago. These users have more expectations on what the site should contain, how it is organized, and how they can interact with the University. Finally, we have to be concerned about making that great first impression. The web site is the first impression we give and it should be a good one. We need to make sure that anyone that visits our site for the first time can find what they are looking for and want to return.
The goals of the redesign are to identify what is good on the site and improve it; to identify what isn’t working and fix it; and to make the site simple to navigate, user friendly, and graphically appealing.
A working group has been formed to redesign the University’s Web site. Over the next 8 months, 19 people from across campus will help to shape what the next version of the University’s Web site will look like and how it will function. The group will be lead by Paula Ganyard, University Webmaster.
Project Sponsors:
Working Group Members include:
Project Timeline:
Throughout the entire process the University community will be kept up-to-date on the project. You will be given updates throughout the process here on this blog and at specific stages you will be asked to provide the group with your feedback. I also encourage you to contact any of the group members or myself with any comments, suggestions, or outrages that you may have. The next UW-Green Bay Web site will be ultimately designed by YOU the user.
