This is the 13th in a several-part series of interviews with communicators who have redesigned or updated their Web sites. If you have redesigned your site or have a siteto suggest for these interviews, let us know.
In this edition: Tony Thomas on the Clinical Virology Programs Web site
What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
To bring it in line with the approved U of M templates.
What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
None.
What factors went in to the organization of the site?
We're a small unit, so decisions are made on the fly. Everyone wears several hats, so changes are made ad hoc. Essentially, we just want to keep study participants, potential granters and med students up to date about what our program is doing.
How did you think about the visual design of your site within the context of the University brand?
We're too small of a program to put serious thought and resources into our marketing. I'm given a lot of latitude for making changes on our website. I implemented the U of M templates and then made minor changes after reviewing the site with the principal investigator for our program. The process was very informal.
What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?
We use Wordpress to manage the content of our site, so I had to take the templates as they exist now and make them into a Wordpress "theme." Honestly, it wasn't much of a barrier. It mostly consisted of taking the template stylesheet and hooking it onto the Wordpress HTML elements that exist in the default theme.
How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
Easy to do with a staff of one. ;-)
What tips do you have for other units redesigning their Web sites?
I wish I had advice to give. I think a lot of the decisions are made simply by having templates available and asking units to use them.
How are you evaluating the site's success?
We do use Google Analytics to monitor site traffic, but we don't have a formal review process in place for reasons stated above.
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