Interview: Center for Genome Engineering Web site redesign

This is the 19^th 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 site to suggest for these interviews, let us know.

In this edition: Liz Fedie on the Center for Genome Engineering Web site

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
We had recently changed the name of our center and wanted to update our image, so we wanted our website to reflect that with a more modern appearance.

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
We didn't do any research or testing, but I imagine our design team did, the campus group ByDesign, which I understand has lost its funding.

What factors went in to the organization of the site?
We wanted a modern, clean look, but with something a little different, an edge.

How did you think about the visual design of your site within the context of the University brand?
We found the University brand to be somewhat restrictive to the designs we had in mind, but ByDesign was able to bring it all together wonderfully.

What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?
Probably the biggest challenge was incorporating the design with the University brand. Again, ByDesign was able to handle the issue seamlessly.

How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
ByDesign provided us with an excellent timeline and defined steps to move us forward.

What tips do you have for other units redesigning their Web sites?
I think it's important to have a web designer to keep the project on target and to incorporate important elements that the average person may overlook.

How are you evaluating the redesign's success?
From user's feedback and the general adaptability of the site to our changing needs. So far it has been a great success!

Conference preview: Dennis Cass

The 2010 Communicators Forum conference, Back to Our Roots, is coming up on May 13. We asked some session presenters about their favorite Twin Cities features.

Dennis Cass is our keynote speaker.

Your claim to fame: Someday I will come to you and tell you that you must drop whatever it is you're doing because I have done something truly astounding. Today is not that day.

Favorite local outdoor activity: Walking the Lakes with my wife or playing at the "green park" with my son.

Favorite local indoor activity: Books, television, and video games are all viable options.

Favorite local hangout: Sea Salt in the summer time, CC Club in the winter.

Favorite local band: Not so much a band as a performance group but PowderKeg Live! makes me smile.

Briefly, what will attendees learn at your session? You will learn a variety of metacognitive strategies for overcoming creative block. But try not to worry about it too much.

Interview: U of M-Crookston Web site redesign

This is the 18^th 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 site to suggest for these interviews, let us know.

In this edition: Amber Bailey on the University of Minnesota, Crookston Web site

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
We are in the process of moving all of our sites to UMContent, and our Admissions site was one of the first major sites to be moved into the system. Our old Admissions site was designed in the summer of 2006, so the age of it was also another driving factor.

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
We looked at our current web statistics to determine what our users looked at the most. We also researched other University Admissions sites to see how they were structuring their sites and to see what new features they were using. We also looked at some research that Cappex did on "What High School Counselors Want from College Admissions". Overall, it was many factors that helped us determine how to redesign/re-structure the site.

How did you think about the visual design of your site within the
context of the University brand?
On all of our new Crookston sites, we are using the University approved header (with some slight modifications for our campus) and footer. The body of the page will differ from site to site, but will always have a larger banner on the homepage of the site and a smaller (modified) banner on all the subpages. Our campus really likes the flexibility of the 960 grid system.

What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?
Our biggest challenge was how to narrow our main navigation down to as few links as possible (even though the list is still a bit long). We worked and reworked the navigation several times - and came up with categories of links.

How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
We kept setting mini-goals. First goal - initial meeting; second goal - research; third goal - site map/structure; fourth goal - design; fifth goal - content creation/refreshment; sixth goal - putting the site together (design/content) in UMContent; seventh goal - training admissions staff to keep the site updated. On each of these goals we set deadlines - it helped keep us on track.

What tips do you have for other units redesigning their Web sites?
I have done many re-designs of websites, and since we are a University and have many different groups/people we need to talk with, it's easy to forget who you said what to and what you decided on. I feel that taking really good notes (with dates attached), keeping a folder with the all the information for a particular site, and writing out "to-do" lists for everyone involved (so they have it in writing) has seemed to make the process of redesign a lot smoother. "Patience" is also a very good thing to have ...things come up during the process that might change things or get them off track... so setting and being able to "reset" those mini-goals is very important.

How are you evaluating the redesign's success?
We continue to look at the website statistics and get verbal and written feedback.

Interview: Minnesota Supercomputing Institute Web site

This is the 17^th 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 site to suggest for these interviews, let us know.

In this edition: Tracey Bartlett on the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute Web site

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
The old site was dated and we suspected that our users and potential users weren't readily able to find the information they needed. We also needed to redesign the site to meet the U's new standards. And most of us hated the way the old one looked, anyway. :-)

We had not had a full-time webmaster since early 2002, and had relied on part-time students to handle web updates until late 2007, when the Institute's senior management realized that our users expected more from our website and that we needed to put more of our administrative activities online. We hired a full-time web developer in 2008.

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
We worked with the Usability Lab to do a card sort, which helped us figure out the kinds of terms that our users understand and expect. We also tracked the questions we get on our help line and the kinds of questions our User Support and Admin staff get when they work with users and potential users.

What factors went in to the organization of the site?
We wanted to make sure that it was easy for our users and potential users to find the forms and information they need. We also wanted to use the website to aid our nascent public-relations efforts.

How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
We set up a web-development team to discuss issues and ideas. The team is headed by the web developer and includes representatives from the three divisions in the Institute (User Support, Systems, Administration). The web developer set a timeline for rollout of the new site and kept the team informed of progress. Team members kept the staffs in their divisions up-to-date with the process and encouraged their review and input as new parts were implemented. Any issues are brought to the team for resolution.

The new website is still very much a work in progress. The next major milestone is that we are going online with our access-request system. We are also implementing a CMS; it's still in beta, but staff are encouraged to use it and submit bug reports.

Senior management involvement was necessary to keeping the timeline on track. All the senior managers and our director have been kept informed of the timeline and when pieces of the new design are planned to be released.

How are you evaluating the redesign's success?
We're monitoring user comments on the help line and in our interactions with the users. We also have feedback links on the site. We're also encouraging staff members to bring up issues to the web team.

Interview: MCDB&G Web site redesign

This is the 16^th 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 site to suggest for these interviews, let us know.

In this edition: Tami Jauert on the Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology and Genetics Web site

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
A big factor was that the previous site was almost 15 years old and looked it. The site had changed hands at least three times and had been pieced together by each person. It was hard to navigate through and worse yet, it was not updated on a regular basis - which unfortunately meant some pages hadn't been touched in years.

Another factor was that the program structure had changed dramatically since the site originated. The site needed to reflect those changes to help avoid student confusion.

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
There was a committee that was there to help make decisions about content and structure. The committee had a hard time agreeing, so we narrowed down the target audience and asked them.

We decided the site was mostly directed to students who were already in the program. Incoming students would be directed to another site for application materials etc... So we asked about 10 students to help. We tried to get students who were at different levels of the program and came from different backgrounds. We met with each student individually, giving them index cards with different words and phrases on (things the committee thought should be on the site). The students were asked to decide which things should be "headers" and which things should fall under each "header". They were also given a few blank cards that they could write on - if they felt there was anything missing. In addition, students were allowed to cut items they didn't think needed to be there or felt they would go to another site for.

We tracked the results for each student. Also asking questions about what kinds of visuals were appealing etc...  Most of the students categorized things similarly and in most cases cut the same items. This made it easy for the committee to make decisions about the final site structure.

What was your biggest challenge and how did you get past it?
The biggest challenge was "design by committee." However, it was easy to get past once they agreed the target audience should have some input. Some committee members were skeptical about this process - not sure how the student research was going to help... but when the results came back, there was very little left to discuss.

How are you evaluating the redesign's success?
We are seeing a large increase to the number of return viewers to our site. But the biggest thing, is that we no longer receive the almost daily complaints about the site not working and the information being outdated or incorrect.

Interview: Office of Student Health Benefits Web site redesign

This is the 15^th 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 site
to suggest for these interviews, let us know.

In this edition: Britt Bakke on the Office of Student Health Benefits Web site

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?

• improve clarity of information on the web
• establish the Office of Student Health Benefits as a stand alone website (separate from the Boynton Health Service website)
• visually tie the Office of Student Health Benefits to the University of Minnesota

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
We logged feedback from department, staff, and students who visited the site.

What factors went in to the organization of the site?

• content heavy - wanted information easy for students to find
• several plans on several campuses - navigation needed to be organized in such a way that a student could easily identify the page that applies to them

How did you think about the visual design of your site within the context of the University brand?
This site needed to go up relatively quickly. We basically used a University template as is. Not very many changes to the design. The design is very simple. This website is information focused.

What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?
Fitting all of our content into each page, keeping it well organized and easy to read. Got past this with lots of editing. And still working on it. :)

How did you manage the project and keep it on track?

• Worked closely with Office of Student Health Benefits staff and web master.
• Started with a rough outline of the architecture and a timeline and consulted those as needed throughout the project.

What tips do you have for other units redesigning their Web sites? What did you learn from the project?

• The templates are easy to use
• CSS rocks

How are you evaluating the site's success?
We continually monitor feedback from departments and current/prospective plan members and make changes as needed.

Interview: BioTechnology Institute Web site redesign

This is the 14^th 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 site to suggest for these interviews, let us know.

In this edition: Tim Montgomery on the BioTechnology Institute Web site

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
The department/unit site for the BioTechnology Institute needed to be updated to conform to University design standards, and we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to upgrade to a 960 pixel format, conform the look and link navigation between component websites of the Institute (primarily the Biocatalysis Initiative, the Biotechnology Resource Center, the Biotechnology Training Grant, and the Microbial Engineering graduate program), and incorporate a video element and several other features.

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
We had several meetings of a marketing/promotions committee and solicited input from users via our Office/Administrative Specialist, who presented examples of websites and website features that she and other users liked to compare and contrast with what the committee members perceived was needed.

What factors went into the organization of the site?
We needed to work within University templates. We wanted universal BioTechnology Institute navigation throughout the different component sites. We wanted special graphic treatment of all home pages including a video element. And, in the end, we ended up carrying through most of the previous navigation structure and content.

How did you think about the visual design of your site within the context of the University brand?
We fully utilized University templates with headers and footers (and modified style sheets) and dropped the BioTechnology Institute logo (though we retained the type element within a secondary graphic 'header'). I had also designed and put together interactive Flash-type graphics for each home page within the site using javascript and image-mapped rollovers to mimic the effect of Flash designs using action scripting on the University home page and others (you can use the Photoshop ImageReady extension to help in creating some elements), but this was dropped in favor of the simpler slideshow next to a secondary navigation element (I'm still working on stylesheet scripting to graphically spruce this up).

What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?
Getting people to think about overall site structure and functionality beyond the home page design. We're still working on this as I try to incorporate other features.

How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
We set up an overall deadline for the department/unit website to be updated by January 1, 2010, and I worked with the BioTechnology Institute director and key office personnel to get decisions and approvals made on a timetable to meet that deadline (the main site update went live on Dec. 31st). Updates on all secondary elements of the site were completed by the middle of February (though, as mentioned before, I'm still working out some kinks and working on updates for new website features).

What tips do you have for other units redesigning their Web sites?
Be sure that beyond committee discussions, you have some authority or a working relationship with those in positions of authority to make decisions necessary to get the project done in a timely manner.

How are you evaluating the redesign's success?
We're continuing to take input and to work out small problems that have cropped up while also working on longer-range feature updates. A meeting of the marketing/promotion committee will be scheduled soon to review and discuss feedback on the current state of the site and ongoing updates.

Interview: Clinical Virology Programs Web site redesign

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 site
to 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.

Conference preview: Tom Masterman

The 2010 Communicators Forum conference, Back to Our Roots, is coming up on May 13. We asked some session presenters about their favorite Twin Cities features.

Tom Masterman will be presenting Dialogue Earth: Mining Social Media.

Claim to fame: Largest collection of never-worn Boston sports team championship tee shirts in Minnesota (thanks to his mother, who continually mails them to him)

Favorite local outdoor activity: Walking the charming streets of St. Paul. I love my neighborhood.

Favorite local indoor activity: Visiting the Cities' many unique local coffee shops

Favorite local hangout: Common Roots on Lyndale

Favorite local blog: MinnPost.com

What will attendees learn at your session? I'm going to show you some of the tools you can use to better understand how people are talking about your brand, and the topics related to your industry, in the social media.

Interview: MICaB Web site redesign

This is the twelfth 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 site to suggest for these interviews, let us know.

In this edition: Tim Leonard on the Microbiology Immunology and Cancer Biology Graduate Program Web site

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?

• The Web site was old and although used a lot it was inefficient and required more clicks than necessary to reach the desired information.
• The University is requiring compliance with the new format.

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?

• After designing test pages I presented it to the director and Louise [Shand].
• Currently we are accepting requests for alterations from users.

What factors went in to the organization of the site?
Ease of getting to important and often used data like: our weekly seminars, application data for prospective students and course information for students during the course

How did you think about the visual design of your site within the context of the University brand?
I took the University templates and decided how to fit our content and make use of the multi panel layout.

What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?

• Creating pull-down menus to incorporate immediately accessible links that most users need
• Learning to use the CSS
• Both issues required a lot of study and trial and error.

How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
There was no time frame other than the end-of-2010 U of M deadline. I was the only one working on the project until I put it online.

What did you learn from the process?
Learning CSS is challenging but doable. For us it was best to have one person do the study and the design. For other units there may be more needs and comments than we have so the challenges will differ.

How are you evaluating the site's success?
It will all be based on comments from students, faculty, and a new director of graduate studies when that person takes over.

Interview: Center for Austrian Studies Web site redesign

This is the eleventh 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 site to suggest for these interviews, let us know.

In this edition: Daniel Pinkerton on the 2006 Center for Austrian Studies Web site redesign

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
We had two reasons: First, the Center for Austrian Studies hadn't changed the appearance or the organization of the site since it was first designed and implemented in 1996. That's TEN years. Second, CLA-OIT wanted to design new websites for everyone that would have some features in common with other CLA websites. We were one of the first units to get help from them, because we are so small and our website is relatively simple.

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
None.

What factors went in to the organization of the site?
Gary Cohen, CAS director, myself, and CLA-OIT Web Development's Paul Coroneos and Karen Bencke (now Swoverland) had a series of meetings to talk about what everyone wanted in a design and the best organization for the material we needed to put on the web. Paul, in particular, had great design sense and was very good at translating our ideas into a clean, attractive, user-friendly design. Karen was a facilitator and also made sure that the necessary visual and verbal material was included --- wordmarks, EO wording, what have you. Gary and I worked on the content, though I have training and experience as a designer, so I was also a part of that process. And Gary had to keep an eye out for the Center's image and its worldwide constituency.

How did you think about the visual design of your site within the context of the University brand?
To be frank, our concern was to make sure the necessary university branding did not interfere with an attractive and usable website. CLA-OIT's concern, of course, was to make sure that the branding was prominent enough to accomplish its purpose. This didn't make for an adversarial relationship, but rather two parties with different priorities keeping each other honest and finding ways to compromise.

What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?
The biggest challenge was the sheer volume of content that even a small website needs, and the editorial process. Everything had to be either completely rewritten or seriously updated. The new organization required new content for new pages. Every link had to be checked again, and so many (particularly in East Europe) were no longer working that we had to find new links so that we would have representative links to scholarly, educational, and general interest websites in all of the Central and Eastern European countries that are the provenance of the center. And everything had to be proofed twice.

Even today, the constant maintenance of the website --- removing outdated information, posting new or updated information --- is quite a chore for a small unit, despite the superb assistance we get from Karen, Dan Kunitz, and the CLA-OIT web development team.

How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
Many hands make light work. Paul and Karen did the real project management; Gary and I made sure that we produced our material on time and gave timely critiques to the designs that Paul produced, and tested the site as parts of it went online internally. Also, we were very clear about having June 1 to September 1 to design, build, and implement it. We did NOT want to be working on this when the fall semester started. Most everything was handled via e-mail. We had remarkably few meetings once we were doing the work, and I think that's a good thing. You can't work and meet at the same time.

What tips do you have for other units redesigning their Web sites?
Be very clear about your wants and needs, both in design and content. Tell the designer very clearly the impression you want users to have when they visit your site. Look at other websites around the university and show your designer three or four that you especially like. Let your designer know the relationship between the areas of your content as well as your content priorities. Don't be afraid to say you don't like a design. You have to live with it! Don't be afraid to insist on a unique design. Branding and university design guidelines need not result in identical, factory-built websites.

At the same time, be aware that your designer is a talented and experienced individual who will bring ideas to the process that will not have occurred to you. Be flexible. Be prepared to be surprised and excited by unforeseen possibilities. Play well with others and be respectful, even when you are disagreeing. Especially when you are disagreeing.

How are you evaluating the redesign's success?
People did comment very positively. For the first two years, we really did get a handful of comments telling us how clean and attractive and user-friendly the site was. Other than that, we're doing nothing formal (no surprise if you look at the answer to question 2). I suppose we'll have to redesign it by 2016 at the latest. We have a new CAS logo, and I wouldn't mind putting that on the website somewhere, but right now we are still happy with the current design.

Interview: CEHD Web site redesign

This is the tenth 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 site to suggest for these interviews, let us know.

In this edition: Susan Andre and Nuria Sheehan on the College of Education and Human Development Web site redesign

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
It really had been pretty clear that the site was overdue for a redesign. The last redesign had been in 2001 and since that time not only had Web standards evolved, but CEHD also drastically changed, becoming a new college.

The primary goal in redesigning the site was to create a straightforward, intuitive structure and design for our audiences. A secondary goal was to be able to implement not only the actual site, but also an internal overall process that could be flexible and agile in order adapt to new types of content or update easily with changing Web standards. An important part of this flexibility involved creating content dynamically driven by our blogs or other applications.

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
User testing was very important to us in this process and we did testing on terminology, homepage concepts, and overall wireframe usability. Because we identified the primary purpose of the site as a tool for recruiting and retaining students, most of the testing focused on student content.

We first completed the terminology testing with the Usability Lab last summer. Then, when students were back on campus, we did the homepage concept testing at the CEHD block party. We surveyed students, faculty, and staff on three distinct concepts for the homepage splash module: academic departments (focusing on the disciplines within each department), people (highlighting CEHD students, faculty, and alumni), and history (which showed the historic advances at the U in the areas of education and human development alongside current innovations). From this survey we received over 130 responses with the "people" concept getting the most votes.

When we had completed wireframes, we did the usability testing with the Usability Lab. From that testing we found that the overall structure was working well and which specific areas needed to be reworked.

What factors went in to the organization of the site?
The most important factor in organizing the site was that it be audience-focused rather than representing internal silos. The entire redesign process, and particularly in terms of coming up with top-level categories and a structure, was very collaborative with a redesign group made up of members from across the college.

From these group meetings, it was clear that a consistent navigation in addition to complex menus for specific areas was needed, so we decided to represent the structure with a prominent top navigation along with area-specific left navigation.

How did you think about the visual design of your site within the context of the University brand?
With the new design we continued to follow University recommendations by implementing the latest version of branding standards. The brand is carried through in the use of the Neutra font along the main navigation and colors that work well with maroon and gold.

What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?
At early stages in the process there hadn't been key contact identified for all areas. Without those contacts it was challenging to move forward on certain areas, but we found that by continuing to ask directors or others in positions of leadership, that we did eventually ended up with a working group of very engaged participants from all areas.

How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
We created a timeline which included a combination of very firm and some more flexible dates. Having some firm dates early in process (for example, wireframe usability testing), helped keep things on track. Once we were at the stage to start gathering content, we created an inventory of all the pages and descriptions of content needed. In order to pull this together, individuals responsible for delivering source content were identified and given deadlines.

We also had frequent meetings with either the large redesign or smaller groups to be able to adapt either process or content as needed.

What did you learn from the process?
Emphasizing a site redesign as an ongoing process more than a final product helped us take a more flexible and long-term view of the effort. It also useful in getting buy-in from stakeholders; they knew that there would continue to be opportunities for change if certain things weren't working. This outlook helped all of us have an openness to try new things.

How are you evaluating the redesign's success?
We feel like the site has just moved on to the next redesign phase: a continuous and iterative redesign so that hopefully we can easily make improvements as our content and audience expectations change. So we're working with students to get feedback and do more informal usability testing and are using custom reports in Google Analytics.

Interview: Giving to the U of M Web site redesign

This is the ninth 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 site to suggest for these interviews, let us know.

In this edition: A team effort! Glen Beltt, Christina Morgan, Mike Peluso, Todd Proctor, and Karl Raschke on the Giving to the U of M Web site

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
Our team had a few main goals. Above all, we needed to more effectively highlight the terrific multimedia features being created within the Foundation that show donors what their gifts are helping to achieve. To do that, we included a jQuery content rotator that's working pretty well so far. Incidentally, we'd love to share our multimedia content with other units around the U through Media Mill or whatever other means is most convenient to use as appropriate within their own sites .

In addition, we wanted to update the Giving site in various ways: to strengthen our continuity with the University by using the new templates, to modernize the visual look of the site, and to update the code to make it more semantic and accessible using tableless CSS and clean HTML. Those changes have made the site easier to maintain as well. Also, we implemented Dreamweaver templating for the first time.

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
Mostly we ended up relying on the "Rule of Common Sense." Because we overhauled our site in phases, and had to work in the redesign between a lot of other projects, we're doing our research and testing more after the fact, primarily through informal feedback and review of our Google Analytics stats, which we use extensively. We've recently learned about some interesting usability tools that we're beginning to test out.

What factors went in to the organization of the site?
Aside from the need to highlight multimedia content, we took a lot of our cues from the University templates. Our navigation and other aspects of our information architecture were already pretty well settled and appeared to be working well. One challenge, to which we're still refining our response, is how to best take advantage of the wider view port. We were optimized for 800x600 before, but now we're up to 960 wide. We've added a narrow right column to most pages, and we're gradually developing ideas for how to use the extra space. The 960 width provides some nice multimedia options, too.


How did you think about the visual design of your site within the
context of the University brand?
The Foundation is a separate
entity from the University, but our mission is totally in support of the
University's broad mission so we want our site to reflect that. Still,
we wanted to add features that makes us distinctive while still staying
within the University's web policies and templates. Hopefully, we struck
a good balance.

What was the biggest challenge, and how did you
get past it?
Probably just finding the time to get things done
amidst other demands. With our move to tableless CSS, we had the typical
problems to overcome with browser compatibility issues. We also
experimented with different approaches to featuring multimedia to see
what would work best, but we just kept plugging away until we found
something we were happy with and that worked well across all browsers.
Mobile devices are an ongoing challenge.
 
How did you manage the
project and keep it on track?
All of us contributed in different
ways. We didn't have a hard deadline other than "as soon as possible,"
but it became more and more exciting as we saw how things were coming
together. In the end, we did a phased launch where we pushed out a new
home page before we updated the rest of the site. That's not ideal, but
it helped motivate us to get the rest of it done quickly. The feedback
on the new home page was so positive that we knew that we didn't want
the rest of the site to lag behind for very long!

What tips do
you have for other units redesigning their Web sites?
We talked about this, and our thoughts
included: "Don't be afraid to try new things and ideas" and "If you need
additional resources, don't be afraid to borrow from elsewhere." I'd
add that if you're doing this as a team as we did, it's really important
to be open to everyone's contributions and work to develop a unified
vision of what you're trying to achieve together and how you're going to
get there. It's also good to not try to do too many things at once.
Whether it's because of how fast the online world changes or something
else, it seems like sometimes solutions to difficult problems just
surface over time if you keep working at it and pace yourself in making
changes.

How are you evaluating the redesign's success?
Google
Analytics is our most important tool right now. We can see that we've
been able to generate much more traffic to our multimedia content
especially, which is the result of a variety of additional tactics
including e-mail campaigns, syndication efforts, and some social media
support -- from YouTube and iTunesU, for example. The continuing growth
in online giving and informal feedback that we've receiving from our
audiences, which has been overwhelmingly positive, also are encouraging.

Interview: Alumni Association Web site redesign

This is the eighth 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 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.

Interview: Electrical and Computer Engineering Web site

This is the seventh in a several-part
series 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.

1. 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.
2. 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.

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?

1. Viewed a number of University of Minnesota sites as well as sites from other major universities with Electrical and Communications departments.
2. Asked staff, faculty and students for suggestions.
3. Tested site with OIT staff, identified outside communications professionals, students, staff and faculty before the site went live.
4. Six months after the site was built, we surveyed users for feedback.
5. 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?

1. Identified our goals
2. Identified our key audiences. Designed site and wrote copy to meet their needs.
3. Built a site map and shared with staff, faculty, students and OIT staff asking for their suggestions.
4. 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.

How did you think about the visual design of your site within the context of the University brand?
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.

Interview: Humphrey Institute Web site redesign

This is the sixth in a several-part series 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: Julie Lund on the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs Web site

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
The University's branding policy calling for all sites on the umn.edu domain meet specific visual guidelines coincided with our desire to significantly upgrade the look and feel of the Humphrey Institute's website. Due to the hiring pause, we had one-time money that we used to conduct qualitative research and help with information architecture and graphic design.

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
Using Google Analytics, we determined that the vast majority of our website traffic was admissions-related. We supplemented that quantitative information with focus group interviews with prospective students. We also wanted to improve the utility of our site for practitioners and those who might be interested in our revenue-generating professional development programs, so we conducted interviews with representatives of those audiences, as well.

What factors went in to the organization of the site?
The feedback that we received from prospective students was that our existing site was fine at proving "just the facts, Ma'am." What we learned was that students want to be inspired to aspire to something great. They really do want to change the world and they want us to call them forth to realize that goal. We made our language more personal and more passionate and have included a lot of videos on the new site of students and alumni talking about their dreams and accomplishments to literally speak to what students want to hear.

How did you think about the visual design of your site within the context of the University brand?
We used the University's brand framework as the base for a simple, clean design. Our new website has much more white space, less text (and that text is more direct), and bigger, bolder images. Since launching the new website last August (2009), we have begun to redesign all of our printed materials, like our newsletter and recruitment pieces, to make them part of a new design family.

What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?
It is an ongoing challenge to work with the many units that make up even our small college. Because our central staff is so small, we expect about two dozen people across the Institute to create and update content. So many authors makes consistency hard to attain. It also is challenging to help staff communicate effectively with target audiences . . . to eliminate jargon and acronyms or to organize content in a way that is intuitive to users rather than reflective of internal politics or org charts. They are expects in the content but they have to trust that we are experts in communicating it.

How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
The site redesign was a team effort among the communications staff (of two), our IT director, and our web coordinator. We met (and continue to meet) weekly to keep the project on track. Our initial timeline was much too ambitious, so the site launch was four months later than intended (although still in time for the fall recruiting season).

What did you learn from the process?
Having valid research to rely upon is very helpful. On the old site, we had pages that were pet projects of staff members. It was much easier to convince people to take down or reorganize the information when Google Analytics revealed that the pages were never accessed. Having research helps to make decision making rational . . . I am not rewriting your web page because I don't like it (or you). I am rewriting it because prospective students found it unclear.

How are you evaluating the redesign's success?
At this point, our evidence is mainly anecdotal. We have very good feedback from prospective students, who actively compare our site with competitor schools' as they investigate their options. Alumni and current student also appreciate being included on the site in videos and profiles. And, just today I learned that our professional development programs recently received five inquiries from new clients, all of whom learned of our services through the website.

Interview: Rec Sports Web site redesign

This is the fifth in a several-part
series 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: Brad Hunt on the Department of Recreational Sports Web site redesign

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
We had several reasons. First we wanted to redesign the site so we could get our department aligned with the new University standards as quickly as possible. Being a department of our size, we felt that being a good steward toward the University of Minnesota is our main priority.

We also wanted to make our site more navigable. We built our site two years ago to limit the amount of clicks a person had to make to three. Although this was a huge success, we also kept a close eye on how people navigated through the site. We found that by having our primary links on the left navigation and the secondary links on the right side of the navigation, this created delays in our current and prospective members getting the information they needed in the timeliest manner. Therefore, we chose to redesign our site so that all of the information could be found either vertically (along the left navigation) or horizontally (along the top navigation).

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
We sent the site to our professional staff and students of the department and gathered their feedback for where they felt the site was strong vs. where there needed to be improvements. We also gathered statistical data from our Google Analytics page which showed where our patrons were visiting, what site pathways were strong, and what pathways could be improved.

We are also in an ongoing process of making sure that our site can be easily read in various graphic and non-graphical browsers, text to speech readers, etc. Although we believe that the site is very well constructed for all browsers and readers, we understand that we need to continually be testing the site to ensure that there are no issues.


What factors went in to the organization of the site?

• Simplicity
• Uniqueness and unexpectedness
• Compliance with graphic standards
• Credibility
• Emotional -- telling the stories of the people that make Rec Sports the strong department that it is

How did you think about the visual design of your site within the context of the University brand?
We were initially concerned about it, but after putting our heads together in the marketing team, we felt that it was our job to find a way to make the maroon and gold header flow with the new site. The last thing we wanted to do was create a completely maroon and gold website, so we worked to determine what color palettes would flow well with the maroon and gold header. We were able to create some pretty strong complementary colors that allowed our viewers to appreciate the maroon and gold header rather than perceiving it as an eyesore.

What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?
Our biggest challenge was skepticism. Redesigning a website was only one part of a huge rebranding process that our department has gone through as a result of these new standards. I have had to dedicate significant time and resources into our rebranding efforts. We were somewhat skeptical at first to move forward with our rebranding because we have seen graphic standards change many times over the years. Just three years ago, we were approved by University Relations to create a new departmental logo, and now we were being required to rebrand again? This initially made us frustrated because we would now have to dedicate the same amount of time and resources for another project.

Quite simply, we were able to get past this challenge by swallowing our pride and looking at the bigger picture. University Relations is not here to make our lives harder (sometimes that is a difficult pill to swallow). The more we talked about the rebranding process, the less cynical we became. It makes sense to create a strong, university-wide brand. This helps to create a consistent message on the Twin Cities campus, and it establishes a stronger sense of community between campus departments rather than individualism. We just hope that this new branding remains consistent for 5-10 years so we can continue to develop our own brand within the University.

Now it is fun to see what departments are doing to create their new brand. Although a lot of the unit/wordmark combinations look the same when placed next to each other, it is nevertheless important to remember that the general public won't notice this. When I attend conferences around the country, our new brand provides for an even stronger conversation starter. The block M and wordmark are now in plain sight rather than placed on the back/side of our apparel.

How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
The entire rebranding process lasted from May-August 2009. I gave all of my interns specific tasks to handle such as on/off campus research, design theory, web template research, presentation preparation, interviews and focus groups, etc. We kept the process on track by creating hard deadlines for everyone to meet.

We also had a management team at Rec Sports that remained involved from day one. They were great with providing feedback to us regarding what they thought and how we needed to continue to think "big picture." By presenting to the management team, we gained their trust and it in turn gave us more confidence that this project had meaning. We wanted to have the site ready for a soft launch by August 1 so we could continue to test it for a couple of weeks for any small bugs, usability issues, networking adjustments, etc. We were able to launch the site by mid August - just in time for our students/faculty/staff to see the fresh, new look of Rec Sports before the start of the academic year.

What tips do you have for other units redesigning their Web sites?

• Create a strong site map that has capability for growth
• Get more than one set of eyes to look at the site -- sometimes what the web designer thinks works best isn't going to work for the end user
• Test the site often to ensure that it can be read in various browsers, screen readers, etc.

How are you evaluating the site's success?

• Google Analytics
• Emails to the Rec Sports account
• Incoming requests for new pages from Rec Sports programs
• General feedback from the Rec Sports staff and members
  

Interview: Center for Cognitive Sciences Web site redesign

This is the fourth in a several-part series 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: Roger Dumas on the Center for Cognitive Sciences Web site

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
Our old design was based on tables and I wanted to move to CSS and server-side includes to make the site look better and make my life easier.

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
I asked co-workers, friends and family to look at the design on different platforms and browsers.

What factors went in to the organization of the site?
I wanted quick loading, which meant creating style sheets, writing re-usable HTML (includes) and using fewer graphics.

How did you think about the visual design of your site within the context of the University brand?
This was a hard one, mostly because I was limited to a few colors and no logos.

What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?
Learning how to properly use server-side includes was a big challenge. The site works at this point, but my pages are all at the same level for technical reasons. Gotta figure how to make their graphics appear after I put them in folders. Also, scrapping the idea of a logo for the department put a wrench in the works. Instead, I used a watermark and an interesting font.

How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
Since I'm the entire team, I only had to manage my own time (on top of my research and three other sites.)

What did you learn from the process?
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and server-side includes are not too difficult to learn and implement, plus they are saving me tons of time making the inevitable changes. I weaned myself from total reliance on Dreamweaver templates and am very glad I took the time to do it.

How are you evaluating the redesign's success?
I'm continuing to make adjustments to account for IE6's idiosyncrasies as people tell me about them.

Interview: CFANS Web site redesign

This is the third in a several-part
series 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 Rachel Lam
on the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) Web site

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
Our old website had grown quite a bit since we created it several years earlier. Information was often buried and hard to find. In addition, we needed to move our site out of our old CMS and into UMContent. This was a great opportunity for us to reexamine our structure and content and to freshen up the general look of the site.

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
We did some informal surveys and focus groups to discover what info people were looking for and what they had trouble finding. We used that to create a demo of the new site and then did usability testing with the Usability Lab to see whether our new structure and design were easier to use.

What factors went in to the organization of the site?
We looked at our stats to see what pages people were visiting (or searching for) most often and then tried to make them easier to get to. For example, "Majors & Minors" was one of our most popular pages, but it took 5 clicks to get to it. Now it's just 2 clicks from the home page.

How did you think about the visual design of your site within the context of the University brand?
We used the University's new templates as the basis for our site structure and design and picked a color scheme that harmonized with maroon and gold.

What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?
I think our biggest challenge was going through all of our content and asking: Do we need it? Is it up to date? Where should it go?

How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
Honey VanderVenter did a great job with organizing regular meetings and checking in with people to make sure content revision and uploading was still on track. I focused more on helping with organization issues, accessibility, and developing templates for the site.

What did you learn from the process?
The usability testing was really eye-opening. Sometimes we discovered that people were looking for information in a part of the site we hadn't expected (like wanting to find "Majors & Minors" under "About CFANS", rather than "Undergraduate Students"). We also learned that some of our terminology didn't make sense to the users, so we spent quite a bit of time trying to find more appropriate words.

How are you evaluating the redesign's success?
I think the biggest sign of our success is that people have been telling us how much easier it is to use the new site. We don't get nearly as many "I couldn't find ____ on your website" emails as we did in the past.

Interview: OFYP Web site redesign

This is the second in a several-part series 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 Bill O'Connor on the Office of First Year Programs (OFYP) Web site

What were your reasons for redesigning the site?
The OFYP site was last redesigned in 2006 by Kris Layon, so with the introduction of new U of M Web standards we decided the time was right. We also recognized that each year we were printing less and turning more to eCommunication. We realized that this was a great opportunity to streamline and improve our communication efforts.

What kind of user research or user testing did you do?
Every fall we host focus groups from the freshmen, transfer students, and parents that attended our summer programs. From that we were able to figure out what our users valued about the site, as well as what aspects we needed to change. We also talked with current students about their preferred Web tools and technology. Once the new site was created we went through usability testing through Usability Services.

What factors went in to the organization of the site?
We identified our various audiences and tried to create intuitive paths for every subject. As with every communication item we create, it always comes back to the question "where would you expect to find this information?" Sometimes it results in some creative duplication, but for the most part it works. We also had our content providers meet with Kristin Cleveland from University Relations to make sure that our content was appropriate for Web.

How did you think about the visual design of your site within the context of the University brand?
I like the idea of consistency and connection, especially when it benefits the end user. So we thought of the U branding as a frame that would connect OFYP to all people and resources throughout the U of M. For the past few years we have tried to connect the OFYP brand to our print communications by visual consistencies like color, images, etc.

What was the biggest challenge, and how did you get past it?
Our previous site was built and managed using Dreamweaver templates, but we wanted to move towards utilizing a content management system. We settled on a CMS called Joomla, which had a steep learning curve. Before switching to a content management system, we were managing multiple versions of the site for our seasonal content cycles.

How did you manage the project and keep it on track?
We were very specific with roles and expectations. I was the project manager; my intern Micah Spieler designed the layout, managed graphics and color, and made content updates; our technical specialist Josh Huston was responsible for programming, browser testing, Joomla training, etc.; and each of our program coordinators was responsible for creating and updating their content. We set a lengthy timeline, and built in enough flexibility to allow for changes.

What tips do you have for other units redesigning their Web sites?
Define your audience and what they need to know, get their input throughout the entire process, and build your site so that it is flexible and can be changed easily.

How are you evaluating the site's success?
We look at email and call volume, and with every question received we examine our communication (Web, email, print) to see how easy it is to find the answer. We constantly encourage feedback, and will host focus groups after the summer programming.