* Launch both together;
* Improve design to reflect UMBC's energy and quality;
* Use more campus photos, similar to the new About UMBC;
* Make myUMBC a more prominent homepage link;
* Consider vertical scrolling layout;
* Study peers and competitors;
* Tighten programming to adhere to contemporary web standards.
So, we’re stepping back and will launch a new UMBC web presence in Summer 2006—homepage and all. We’ve turned off comments to the original "sneak peak" post, but if you’d like to learn what we plan to do (and offer new comments) use the form below. Future updates will appear on this blog and be linked to “About This Site” on the current homepage.]]>
To prepare for the entire site redesign, a collaborative web team known as “Emedia” (consisting of staff from the Offices of Institutional Advancement and Information Technology) will reflect on comments about the new homepage “sneak peek,” including follow up emails to those who offered comments (and are willing to talk to us some more).
We had also planned to do the following, but will announce and report on them in this blog during the 2005-06 academic year:
* Re-convene a campus web advisory group consisting of students, faculty, staff, alumni and other campus stakeholders;
* Share results of needs analysis interviews with selected campus groups from 2004-2005 as well as future web usability interviews;
* Conduct peer and competitor site benchmarking studies, similar to those done for the 1998 and 2000 homepage redesigns (more info);
* Conduct search engine and site traffic analyses to see what users are searching for and the sites they frequent the most;
* Develop an accessible and standards-compliant web site.
In retrospect, a lot has changed since UMBC launched an entirely new site in 1998. Our site is bigger, our users are more web savvy and web technologies have grown in complexity and are still maturing. As a result, our process for redesigning UMBC’s web presence needs to change as well. While we have listened to feedback in the past, we need to listen some more and then do our best to provide a site that meets the original goals for the site:
* Focus on information needs of all users;
* Improve ease of use and navigation;
* Improve and maintain a consistent UMBC identity throughout the site.
Okay, let us know what you think, and if you’d like to participate in the various user research activities described above. You can use the comment form below or send email to webteam@umbc.edu.]]>
UMBC's enrollment goals play an important role in the homepage design. In order to attract prospective undergraduate and graduate students, it will be important to use the homepage as a marketing tool, promoting campus life and student success stories, for example. Site users and prospective students said that information on both the old homepage and portal was hard to find and the homepage did not give a sense of the campus or what it is like to attend UMBC.
The new design by Jim Lord '99, OIA's associate director of creative services, features an upgraded navigational scheme that highlights audience-specific resources (prospective students, parents, alumni, etc.), a collage of campus photos and more room for events and feature stories. The new homepage and portal will also highlight our 40th anniversary and upcoming capital campaign.
The new myUMBC was designed by UMBC's new campus portal architect B. Collier Jones in OIT. The redesign changes the look and feel of the campus’ internal site, which provides access to tools and utilities faculty, staff and students need to do their work and live on campus. For now, most of those functions remain the same; the presentation, however, has changed.
For the fall 2006 launch, the new portal is particularly focused on the needs of students and will be a one-stop shop for news about what's happening on campus. The Start Page features announcements, information about upcoming events and news of interest to undergraduate and graduate students, such as student government, information about registration and commencement, residential life, arts and athletics.
In the next year, faculty and staff will have their own Start Pages, but the new portal currently features a front-page "dashboard" with access to most popular applications for faculty, staff and students—blackboard, e-mail and Oracle Calendar (for faculty and staff).
Additional Homepage & Portal Features
Both the redesigned Web site and myUMBC now feature an A-Z site index of departments and areas of interest. The index features a form that allows users to submit listings they want to see included in the index.
The university-wide calendar has also changed. The link for "calendar" now points to a calendar feature that is part of the software used throughout campus for scheduling events and locations. Any events that have been scheduled on campus will appear on the calendar, and the calendar link on the homepage will go to a "Hot Events" page. While the UMBC portal will focus on promoting events for students, faculty and staff, "Hot Events" will focus on events of interest to our external audiences and will give prospective undergraduate and graduate students a sense of life on campus.
Students who have events they would like listed on the calendar should continue to go through the Office of Student Life's event advising process. For more information, call 410-455-3462.
The new calendar will function better than the old one, whose vendor no longer supports it, and soon, it will look better, too. It's scheduled to receive a new look within the next few months.
What Happens Next
This facelift is just the beginning of plans to improve UMBC's Internet presence. The OIA and OIT Web team, collectively known as "Emedia," calls it "a down payment" on the future sites. In addition to Jones and Lord, the team includes John Fritz, director of instructional technology and new media and Jackie Ward, campus Web architect from OIT and Eleanor Lewis, associate director of internal and digital communications from OIA.
Over time, the Emedia team will redesign secondary and interior pages to match the new look and feel, create templates for departments to use on their sites and create a new style manual and guides for Web developers.
The future also holds much more for myUMBC. The start page will become more customizable so users can add the functions they use most. Also, an "Alerts" system will let students know, for example, when their bills are overdue, if the campus is closed due to inclement weather, or if they are eligible to join an honor society.
Throughout the next year, the Emedia team will evaluate the response to this initial phase, making changes where they're needed and continuing to build on the improvements. To make it work, your feedback is welcome. Please send your comments and suggestions to helpdesk@umbc.edu. You can also monitor plans and developments as they evolve through the Emedia Webteam blog.]]>