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Current Website Redesign

We are redesigning hundreds of sites. Here’s how we’re doing it.

Yes, that says hundreds of sites. Each college, department, and office on campus has its own site. We have a set process for completing this huge migration of content from one platform to another. 

This is going to take time and require evaluating our priorities as a University. Just because your site may not be one of the first to move onto the new platform doesn't mean you can't do some prep work!

If you want to get started on your site migration, the first step is putting together a content audit for your site. 

Start your content audit now

Criteria

The University’s main website was completed first. Next, we will proceed through each of our subsites based on the following criteria:

  1. Relation to admissions and incoming students. The first sites we have to prioritize are those facing our target audience (prospective students). So, sites related to admissions, aid, key student experiences (housing, dining, health, etc.) are currently in the process of site migration. In this first round, we must also include certain subsites (like this one) that are necessary to support all subsites.
  2. The second round of subsite migration will cater to the remaining offices on campus that are used by prospective and current students as well as employees and external audiences. 
  3. Round three is when we will be able to tackle the college and department sites. The order in which we migrate these sites will be determined by the provost and president. The sheer volume of information each college and its departments contain requires colleges to be worked on one at a time. Departments will be addressed as their college is developed and the order of departments will be determined by the college. 

Timeline

The University has an estimated 150-200 subsites connected to our main website. For the redesign phase of the University’s online presence, several sites will be developed simultaneously. Each site will have a designated ambassador to oversee the production, quality, and timeline of the redesign.

The Lead Web Ambassador will partner closely with the Core Team to ensure the site and its content meet the standards and regulations of all University websites. Sites will evolve through the four-stage process indicated below for production. 

Ragin’ CMS training will take place during stage two while the site is being built. Support will be provided throughout the process.

If an ambassador does not participate in the process or fails to communicate sufficiently, the site will be placed back into the redesign rotation with the other sites waiting to be developed.

Process

Stage 1: Blueprint

  • Content audit of current site
  • Develop and finalize site map
  • Develop and finalize homepage wireframe
  • Complete content matrix?

Stage 2: Content & Design

  • Content development
  • Workshop sessions
  • Training
  • Content migration
  • Multimedia development

Stage 3: Quality Assurance

  • Content review
  • User testing
  • Final audit
  • Approval from owner & Core Team

Stage 4: Launch

  • Back up old site
  • Redirects and aliases
  • Publication
  • Bugs and errors
  • Update related links
  • Update Web Ambassador permissions