This is the eighth in a several-part series of interviews with communicators who have redesigned orupdated their Web sites. If you have redesigned your site or have a site to suggest for these interviews, let us know.
In this edition: Forum member Chris Coughlan Smith on
the Alumni Association Web site
What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
Some aspects of our old site were not user friendly and the CMS was not able to handle updates and interactive features that Web users have come to expect. Our old look was dated - essentially the same as it had been since 2001 with only minor updates to our CSS when we went through branding.
What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
We had done extensive surveys and focus groups as part of the branding research, and then we did more focus groups with campus constituents and partners. As we refined our site structure we did some quick online navigation testing and then a round of usability testing with the Usability Lab. Both were extremely helpful. I'd highly recommend building in a few weeks to test and revamp your site before launch.
What factors went in to the organization of the site?
We hired a design firm to come up with an information architecture that made sense to an outside user. At the same time we had a number of strong branding personality concepts that we wanted to include. The outside firm helped us refine categories and sort our major areas of information and do the testing.
How did you think about the visual design of your site within the context of the University brand?
Well, we want a maroon and gold site, naturally, but also one distinct from the U, as we are a separate 501.c3 nonprofit. We had our own 'ambassador' theme to incorporate as well as the U's 'Discover' theme, which I love as a navigation element.
What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?
I hate to say it, but internal politics. We just kept talking to stakeholders and constituents again and again to see if we had come to an incorrect conclusion on the direction we wanted to go. But every time we interviewed folks about their experiences and looked at the economics of it, we kept coming back to the same conclusions, which we restated more and more clearly.
After that it was the sheer volume of information to be migrated. We had some 1,500 pages on our old site. While we trashed some of them, we're still moving a last few areas over (like magazine issue archives back to 2001). One of the best pieces of advice I received was to survey your current site and decide what to kill and what to bring forward and where it goes before you start the actual migration. Then I set students and others loose on just moving stuff where it needed to go. We moved more than 800 pages over in the six weeks from having our designs implemented until we launched and are now up to more than 1,300 pages on the site.
How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
This was a challenge! I'm not a project manager and I don't like to delegate, so it was tough. Early on I relied on the design vendor and the software vendor to keep the project design steps on track. We developed an Excel spreadsheet that had weekly focus and goals for the vendors and for us, which was very helpful. Once it got down to the real building, I designated some colleagues I trusted to handle the full build of their areas. In most cases that worked but in a few it ended up being a lot of work as there was duplication and a little lack of following directions. I did have one instance where a colleague volunteered to take on responsibilities and did not follow through, but I had an inkling that would happen and so was prepared. In retrospect, it might have been a good idea to get everyone involved at some level, as now I am having to re-train/re-encourage resistant staff.
What tips do you have for other units redesigning their Web sites?
Develop a project plan that includes goals and objectives for the redesign. Look for something with the potential to meet your needs well into the future (i.e. tools that will be supported and upgraded). Evaluate your software options from start to finish - initial cost is only a small part of it. For example, a cheap or free product might be fine, but if you do not have staff to support and run it, then you will have top rely on a new hire or on costly consultants in the long run, which is very hard to do in this environment. Talk to actual users of the software you are considering to get a realistic perspective on what it takes to make it work. Look at your site architecture from a user's perspective. Don't get caught up in internal terminology or the internal structure of your organization;it probably makes business sense but not Web browsing sense. Evaluate what you have and decide what works and what doesn't. Do some user testing. Create roles and responsibilities within your organization for building and maintaining the site with the expectation that everyone can contribute. Then, give people the freedom and encouragement to do so.
How are you evaluating the redesign's success?
Anecdotal comments and traffic mainly. We're also monitoring use of some of our site features and our social networking pages and groups. We've begun offering services (event registration) through our site to some of our constituent alumni groups - that's goodwill that is hard to measure.
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