Web Redesign - Approved!!

Well, it has been some time since the last post. We apologize for the delay, but the silence does not mean work has ceased. On the contrary, we have great news. The new ETSU website project has been approved by the university web steering and ITCG committees! We have a new graphic design and many pages of new content and links. This content was based off of feedback from YOU, the user and we appreciate your help. We realize that change is always difficult, but we hope you will work with us in transitioning to the new pages and that you will like the new organization.

The center piece for the new homepage will be a dynamic rotating graphic/video area where important ETSU news, events and accomplishments can be highlighted. Here is what this piece will look like:




There will be 4-7 items that rotate automatically when the home page is loaded. Each item will be clickable, for more information and some items may contain video content. You will be able to jump directly to an item by clicking one of the numbers, and you can pause the rotation or go back and forth between items.

There will also be a second graphical section to hold additional announcements and items of interest:



To make it easy for users to have items considered for display on the homepage, this section will be setup to automatically pull approved events from PlanIt ETSU.

As the unit responsible for all public information related to ETSU, the office of university relations will be governing the content for these sections on the homepage.

The web team is busy working to get the approved pages coded into html/css and scripting. We will post more detailed information in the coming weeks, so please stay tuned!

Web Redesign - Tell Us Your Important Links

We need your help! Please take a moment to provide links that you use on the ETSU web. We are looking for:
- links that you use every day
- links that are important, but only used a few times a year.

We know a few of the important "high profile" links, like
Goldlink
Goldmail
D2L
PlanIt ETSU
Webmail

But please provide links (other than those listed above) that are important to you.
Click here to participate.

Web Redesign - Second Level Pages

While we are finishing up labels and links for the audience based navigation, we have compiled a sketch of the layout for the second level pages. Again, this is a wireframe, to focus on layout and not be distracted by colors or graphics. (click the image to view full size)


We appreciate your help and patience in this design process. Let us know what you think by posting here.

Web Redesign - Organization & Sketch

The organization of information in web sites is a major factor in determining success. We spent a large chunk of time researching and determining which organizational schemes should be used on the homepage, and what labels should be applied for each of those schemes. The result of all this becomes the primary navigation or sets of links on the site.

Because there is so much information that needs to be organized on the homepage of a university as large as ETSU, we opted to use multiple organization schemes:
- Exact (this will be the A-Z index)
- Audience Specific (links targeted to specific groups of people like "current students", "faculty/staff")
- Task Specific (these will be in the form of dropdown "quicklinks" for things like D2L and Goldmail)
- Topical (major categories of interest, such as "Academics" and "Campus Life")

these navigation systems are grouped together in different sections of the page to provide easy access to the information users need. we worked hard to come up with labels for these links that would be easy to understand and send users in the appropriate direction for information. We also planned for a block with a large rotating graphic to highlight activities and achievements at ETSU. There will be segments for news and 3 smaller blocks for highlighted events that are pulled from "PlanIt ETSU". The people/etsu search functionality will remain, with added links for social media. all this information is organized into what's called a wireframe, so that navigation and layout issues can be resolved without being distracted by design issues like colors and graphics. take a look at the sketch of the homepage layout so far (click the image to view full size):

each audience based tab will be clickable (prospective students, etc), and each main category tab will be clickable (About ETSU, Admissions, etc). We'll be posting more details about the second level pages and links for each of these pages soon.

Web Redesign

We are VERY excited about working on some brand new designs for the ETSU web. There will be a new homepage design and a new look for top level pages. When we say "top level" pages, we are talking about pages that open when you click a major link directly off the home page. The Academic Technology web team is working with a committee composed of representatives from faculty, staff and students to generate designs that will give consistency to our web presence, provide adequate space to highlight the many wonderful activities and achievements at ETSU, and organize links and resources in a way that will make it easy for users to navigate and find what they are looking for. The homepage will focus on the needs of current and prospective students.

The new designs will look much different from the current version. But the user testing we have done suggests that it is a pleasing design, and easy to navigate.

This process has been going on for some time now...you may recall the survey and card sort links that were on the homepage last Spring. We want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who participated in those activities. The information has been invaluable to this process. Also, huge THANKS to the committee for all their hard work and support. Many hours have already been logged in determining mission statements, target audience, user profiles, organization schemes, etc.

Be sure to check this blog from time to time for updates on the ETSU website redesign process. We will be posting screen shots and previews of the designs here. If you have comments or suggestions, please post them here.