This is the seventh in a several-partseries of interviews with communicators who have redesigned or
updated their Web sites with the University templates. If you have
redesigned your site or have a site to suggest for these interviews, let us know.
In this edition: Forum member Paula Beck on the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Web site
What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
A dated look, out of date information, difficult to navigate, and a lack of branding compliance.
- The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering values the University of Minnesota brand and desires to be associated with the messages it carries. Our university brand delivers messages of a worldwide respected leader in research, a quality educational experience, and an organization that values and respects diversity.
- The department's communications function became centralized with the creation of a communications coordinator position. We are now able to assure a Web site with continuous, up-to-date content maintenance and user-friendly, clean design.
- Viewed a number of University of Minnesota sites as well as sites from other major universities with Electrical and Communications departments.
- Asked staff, faculty and students for suggestions.
- Tested site with OIT staff, identified outside communications professionals, students, staff and faculty before the site went live.
- Six months after the site was built, we surveyed users for feedback.
- We wanted to do a usability testing; however the bid we received was well beyond our budget.
What factors went in to the organization of the site?
- Identified our goals
- Identified our key audiences. Designed site and wrote copy to meet their needs.
- Built a site map and shared with staff, faculty, students and OIT staff asking for their suggestions.
- Simplified site from previous site
- Built new site to be user-friend. Our old site was quite dense and difficult to use.
- Deleted redundancy and duplication of information. Rather than carry pages and pages of information available on other University sites, we linked directly those sites.
Goal was to assure we looked like University of Minnesota. We complied with all brand standards: header footer templates, the fonts, the linking styles, etc. We chose UMContent because of the vast support provided from OIT and its ease of use.
What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?
The biggest challenge was the actual coding to build the site. We hired a member of the OIT team to do the XHTML coding and design aspects in our pages. (Not all communications professionals are computer coders as well.) OIT provided bids which fit into our budget and provided professional work in a timely fashion with quality work. With complete confidence, I recommend them. (Contact Michael Dunham for a bid.)
Initially, I took some of the University's programming classes but realized it would take me too long to accomplish the immediate goal of creating a new web site as soon as we could. I was not an accomplished coder and the University had professionals to provide that skill.
How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
I worked with OIT and we developed a timeline. They developed pages and I worked on content. I loaded content on UMContent. OIT would test and then loaded the site to a non-public version for staff and faculty to test. Then we went live. The project was done on time within our timeline.
How are you evaluating the site's success?
Google Analytics - It's great for showing trends and what pages are accessed most often. The demographics are helpful as well. The reports are easy to use. Drill-down details are available. We also survey users.
What did you learn from the process?
It's great to have professionals on our team like OIT staff.
It's great to have collaborative department colleagues ready and willing to help.
It's great to have a supportive supervisor who understands the department's needs.
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