Thursday, December 9, 2010

Web Redesign - Homepage & Top Level Pages

We have many good things to share with you about the web redesign. Much has been happening over the last few weeks, and it's all coming together.

First, we have a new test server that mirrors the software and platform of our production web server. This will help make the transition from development to production a smooth process. This means the link to the new page design has been moved to (http://etsuw2dev.etsu.edu/etsuhome) , so be sure to update your bookmarks. Please note that since this is only a test server, it cannot be viewed from off campus. Sorry!

Second, we have continued to work on the homepage. OIT wrote a new campus alert system, and we have incorporated that. When there is a major alert, like a school closing, you will see a red box just above the highlights section. Please note, any alerts you see on these test pages are NOT ACTUAL ALERTS, these are TEST ALERTS ONLY. The alerts will function just like they have in the past: each alert will be represented by a color coded box that sits in the top gold bar on the page.

Hovering over that box will give you the title of the alert, clicking that box will take you to a detailed explanation of the alert.

As promised, we have also implemented the slider for the homepage highlights area. This will allow university relations to put up videos and graphics highlighting great things on campus.

Finally, many of the second level pages are linked up and have information on them. These pages are a work in progress, so we are still updating links and some information. By design, these pages have links that are organized in easy to find categories. Each link also has a set of keywords to help you understand what information is at that link location.

The content of these pages is a result of countless hours that the web steering sub-committee spent working on headings and links for each second level page. Thanks again to everyone who devoted so much time to that. We hope you will like the ability to get to detailed information more quickly.

The major navigation that is visible on the homepage, is also available on each second level page. Therefore, if a user clicks into the "Faculty/Staff" page, then wants to reach student organizations he/she can click the "Campus Life" link directly, without having to go back to the homepage.

As always, thanks for your input and support as we move closer to launching the new site!
http://etsuw2dev.etsu.edu/etsuhome