ncsu.edu redesign blog

More News

2007-08-10T22:50:00.000-04:00

We are extremely excited to announce that the first two members of NC State's first Department of Web Communications have joined our Public Affairs team. As discussed previously, the team will be integrated with the News Services and Creative Services team and will include a director, web content manager, designer and developer. Our only regret is that these folks will be joining us after the August 15 launch. How's that for planning?

Tim Jones will join NC State at the Director of Web Communications after nearly six years at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., a city known best for its endless supply of tri-cornered hats and miles of pancake houses. There he worked in University Relations as a writer, editor, photographer, news marketer, occasional producer, Webmaster, and most recently as the director of Web communications. Tim has spent the past year helping engineer and launch the university-wide Web redesign project now under way at William & Mary. Prior to entering the glorious world of Higher Education, but after abandoning his dream of becoming a commercial brewmaster, Tim worked as a reporter for a small southeastern Virginia newspaper.

Tim is married to his college sweetheart, Verena. The couple’s 16-month-old daughter, Maia, loves being outside, even in sweltering heat and suffocating humidity. When inside, she enjoys not sleeping and stealing her daddy’s iPod.

Dave Pond comes to NC State with a wealth of Web, magazine and newspaper writing and editing experience. Dave will hold down the Web writer position. Most recently, Dave was the Web producer and team writer for CarolinaHurricanes.com during the team's run to the Stanley Cup championship (and has the ring to prove it). He's also served as a communications specialist for Wake County government, has written for a number of regional and national publications on a freelance basis and is a past North Carolina Press Association award-winning reporter. Dave is married and lives in Clayton with his wife Heather - whom he somehow talked into marrying him - their daughter Mallory (3) and their dog, Boz.

We hope we'll announce the rest of our new team shortly.

A Change Will Do Us Good.

2007-08-09T23:37:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: To see the new design go to www-new.ncsu.edu.

What's life without surprises, right? As we are a less than a week away from our official launch we offer this curve ball ... we have redesigned the Flash area on the home page. We did say "beta."

After going through some user testing and feedback over the last month as well as the process of developing and updating content on the site, we decided to make some changes to this area. As you'll see, we have removed the background image that sat behind the feature story. People were having a really hard time reading the white type on the complicated background images (really the biggest complaint of hardly any complaints received). The background colors are now a random rotation of four solid colors built within the site color palette that has been established.

We have also removed the content categories from the strip at the top of the Flash area. What seemed like a good idea was cumbersome. We had great content buried a layer down. On top of that we had up to five stories in each of those categories that we had spent a lot of time developing. That depth just was not being seen by site visitors.

Instead, we have developed the series of thumbnails at the bottom of the Flash area. The area will always have seven stories on the home page and people can see the story content without moving off the home page. Our plan is to update home page features in this area three times a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) with at least one new video feature per week. The news.ncsu.edu feature (which populates at the bottom part of the home page) will continue to be updated on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Finally, you'll see that we have added a "Dig Deeper" section that is really going to be popular. Basically this will be a quick way to get more information related to a feature story. So, for example, you'll see that with the DARPA story we are linking to you can jump directly to cool YouTUBE footage of the DARPA car at the Virginia raceway.

We hope this will be a big improvement in the user experience.

Here's a jpg of the new home page and within the next day or so you'll see (and be able to interact) with the new design on "beta" site.

Next week will be here fast.

Q&A With Ripple Effects Interactive

2007-08-09T23:28:00.000-04:00

As we prepare for the site launch next Wednesday, August 15, we thought some people who had been following the blog might like to hear from the interactive agency partner we have had throughout this process. Ripple Effects Interactive has been a vital partner throughout this re-design. We hired them because of their talent and proven ability. They were experienced in higher ed but we felt we would not get just another university Web site. They have lived up to our expectations. And I think we have been good partners.

What follows is a Q&A with Kate Tomlinson, Client Services Director, that was done to go along with some other launch stories for next week.

Your firm has worked with other universities. What made NC State's redesign unique?

The amount of support and involvement from the NC State community at all levels was extremely unique. Jason Simon and others at NC State made sure there were many voices heard during the process, from our initial discovery meetings with faculty, staff, admissions, students, alumni, and other groups, through the design and development processes.

What sort of challenges did Ripple face?

NC State was determined to have deep input and support for the direction of the web site, which has been and will continue to be critical in its successful launch. That input, the articulation of the NC State brand, took time and meant a very iterative process. We kept working together until we found the design solution everyone felt great about. But we've all persevered to a great end result.

Was there anything about NC State that made such a laborious process easier?

For one, it's a great school with great people! The professionals we worked with at NC State understood how intricate the redesign process is, took ownership and paid amazing attention to detail. Clients who don't grasp the complexity or really think about what they want during the design process aren't as satisfied with the end product. NC State took the time to figure out their vision and set up an organization and processes to support the site during the production process and to be able to continually evolve it over time.

Was there anything about NC State that made it stand out when compared with other clients, especially other universities?

I think all of the things I mentioned above. The support at all levels of the NC State community for this initiative was extremely unique. Especially in a university of this size. The diligence and time put into making this site what they school wanted it to be is another.

Is Ripple going to stay involved with NC State, or is the relationship over once the hard launch occurs?

We hope so! We'd like to continue to help guide the evolution of the site and other web initiatives and have a long list of ideas. The web is the single most important medium to prospective college students. We hope it will not just make a lasting impression that helps students decide to attend NC State, but becomes an integral part of the experience for students, faculty, staff, and alumni. We hope it's a site in which everyone feels pride and ownership.

Is there anything else you'd like to add about working with NC State during this process?

We hope everyone enjoys the site!

New Site in "Beta" Launch

2007-07-17T17:24:00.000-04:00

We're sure there's at least one person avidly following this blog. So, for you, here's a preview of the new site before it's launched to the rest of our campus on our current home page tomorrow (July 18). Send your feedback to website_feedback@ncsu.edu or post your comments here.

Hardly the end of this project. This is really just a step forward into what we hope the site becomes.

www.ncsu.edu/newsite

Getting Close.

2007-07-11T17:44:00.000-04:00

The new NC State website, www.ncsu.edu, will launch in a "beta" or soft launch phase the week of July 16. At that point, the site will have most of the content and multimedia features. Some technical issues and other final elements will be tweaked throughout the month prior to a hard launch the week of Aug. 13.

Here is an article about the soft launch.

The hard work continues.

Showtime!

2007-05-17T20:25:00.000-04:00

Throughout the focus groups and discovery sessions in developing the new NC State website we heard a common comment, "show us don't just tell us." And from current students and future students it was use video, use video, use video. So, it's showtime.

As mentioned previously, the main "feature" area on the home page has been developed in Flash. And while some stories will be image/copy, others will be video stories. Click here (or on the image below) to watch an actual sample of how the Flash video will function on the home page. Just press "play" and watch a feature on the recent Art to Wear fashion show put on by NC State students from the College(s) of Design and Textiles. You'll notice that the video is fully accessible with closed captions and a complete transcript as a PDF.

If you're interested in a general project update, Public Affairs is in the midst of writing and producing all the content, images, video and other stories that will make up the 130 pages of the new NC State site. The site templates are being coded and then everything will be integrated through the new Content Management System. We are planning for a mid-July "soft" launch and plan to go live prior to the Fall semester in August.

We recently reviewed the entire Web project with the WebCom group of communications and Web professionals at Duke with a very enthusiastic response. In addition, we have been asked and will present to a group of campus Web developers at UNC-CH on June 7. It's exciting that NC State's project has been so enthusiastically received.

We are also in the midst of recruiting staff for our new Web Communications team -- a Director of Web Communications, Writer/Editor, Web Designer and Web Developer. If you have interest in joining our team check for the position listings at http://jobs.ncsu.edu.

Level Page Designs

2007-04-15T13:50:00.000-04:00

Following our earlier posting of an initial programmed prototype of the new NC State home page, we’re excited to show final designs for the secondary or level pages (what you’ll see if you click on any of the main navigation). To view prototypes of all the level page designs, click here . Please note that all images are just flat JPG's at this time and not programmed templates.

The committee will roll out the redesigned university home and level pages this summer.

When viewing the designs, the first two pages you’ll see are templates that will be used for most secondary pages. The navigation in the left-hand column continues from the home page with bread-crumb navigation to indicate where a visitor is within the site. Third-column (far right) elements include helpful links relevant to the page’s content and other important information delivered via static images, headlines, rotating facts and images or video.

The third image represents a content-heavy template that will be used sparingly.

Finally, the last image shows how visitors will continue to drill down from the home page’s main content or feature area if a user were to click “learn more.” Additional feature stories are archived by category and date. As explained in an earlier blog entry, these videos will be produced not only by Public Affairs, but also by you. We will be seeking regular content and story contributions and ideas from NC State students, faculty and staff, alumni, and parents.

As always, we look forward to your feedback in the comments section.

We're exicted that you're excited.

2007-03-21T13:42:00.000-04:00

We’re excited about the feedback received for the new website design – both in this blog and around campus. In case you missed it, here are a couple articles from the NC State student newspaper, Technician.

Article March 19
Viewpoint Editorial March 19

Home page design finalized, Prototype unveiled.

2007-03-19T07:15:00.000-04:00

The Website Advisory Committee is excited to share the final design of the new university home page and an initial programmed prototype. (While this prototype uses JavaScript the final version of the home page will use some Flash technology). The committee will roll out additional pages in a beta-test or soft launch by the end of April, with the completed, new Website launching in the summer. To view a functional prototype of the home page, click here.

The process has been a thorough and intensive one with feedback from many campus constituents, as well as focus groups with target audiences, including current students, faculty and staff, prospective students and alumni. Over the past two weeks, the committee presented the new designs to several campus-wide groups including the Executive Officers, Deans Council, Student Government’s Chancellor’s Liaison group, Technician staff and the Campus Communicators group.

When reviewing the approved home page design, keep in mind that the final look incorporates the consistent and clear feedback we received from all parties: combine the “Action” and “Your Story” concepts, but let the individual stories communicate the key accomplishments and messages of the university in a real and visually dynamic way.

From a content perspective, the home page creates a compelling voice for the university. According to the input we received, one of the most exciting parts of the Your Story concept was the ability to participate in a community and contribute content that would appear on the university home page. The final design reflects this approach with the ability to contribute content.

The following details describe the page elements as referenced in the corresponding image.

1. Utility Navigation:
Other feedback the committee received was to create a home page that was easy-to-use and navigate. In the utility navigation of the page, Directories has been replaced with a more intuitive and direct, Find People link. The university has been branded by its full name for search engine optimization and to identify it to international visitors and those who many not identify or search for the university by the state abbreviation. The calendar link will go to the main university calendar and an additional link will take users to the NC State portal.

2. Header/QuickLinks/Search:
A frequent request that the committee could not have agreed with more was the suggestion for a QuickLinks toolbar. We’ve populated it with what we feel are some often visited pages within the university; but you’ll have the option to customize your own QuickLinks. We would like input from the community on what sites should be standard default items in the QuickLinks. A search option that searches from the home page eliminates the extra click that the current search presents.

3. Main Feature Area:
The page’s main content is positioned around seven themes or brand messages relevant to current and prospective students, faculty/staff, alumni, parents and general visitors. Each theme is supported by images and video. Users can view additional stories within each theme and even submit information — whether it’s content, videos, images, or ideas — by selecting the share your story link. The images and video will change frequently and more so as the campus community becomes an active participant. There is no shortage of stories at NC State and the web committee is eager to receive everyone’s content.

4. Main Navigation:
Additional refinements include the straightforward navigation on the left-hand side of the page. Based on who you are, the points of entry to dig deeper into the site are clear and precise. The committee also made a point to avoid redundant categories and content on the page, so you won’t see any of the links on the left-hand navigation repeated elsewhere on the page.

5. Bottom of Page Elements:
The redesign also offers the opportunity to toggle between current news and events (Item 5), apply to the university, and experience a virtual tour of campus through rotating, engaging photography (Item 8). The lower half of the page will also feature a news story that links to the university’s main news item of the day (Item 6). The area occupied by Item 7 is flexible and interchangeable; in the focus groups, the university-related facts and figures were extremely popular.

6. Footer Navigation:
The footer navigation (Item 9) reflects the most static part of the new site but includes important information such as university policies and procedures, emergency information, job opportunities and contact information.

The committee will unveil the sub-tier, secondary pages in the next few weeks.

Please review the new NC State University home page and share your thoughts and feedback in the comments area.

Site Re-Build Update

2007-02-01T19:00:00.000-05:00

After going through the open feedback from the university community, the Website redesign committee reviewed the final designs. We followed that meeting with a focus group of 10 students from Cary Academy. The feedback from all parties was consistent and clear: we needed to combine the “Action” and “Your Story” concepts, letting the individual stories communicate the key accomplishments and messages of the university in a real but more visually dynamic and cohesive design.

We plan to review a revised design on Feb. 14 and have a final, approved design in early March.

The final home page we’ll be shared via this blog by mid-March. We’ll then complete the already-started, but not-yet finished level page designs and templates.

The site will beta launch in late April. This soft launch will include a programmed version of the home page, as well as a couple top-level audience or topical pages (for instance, current students and research page) to give a sense of depth (and excitement) of the new site’s content and functionality.

Content Management System

The Hannon Hill Cascade Server content management system installation is complete. Initial training for the CMS was done in early December. Our long-term goal is to have people at the Help Desk trained in order to support users once the system is in place.

Content Creation and Site Maps

After meeting with nearly 30 units campus-wide (sometimes more than once) the initial site map, wireframes and a content outline for the ~ 100 top-level pages was approved. Copywriting and the acquisition of image assets and video are in process.

All content for the site will be completed by April 30 and begin to be loaded into the programmed templates.

Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comments area.

Home page designs posted (part 2)

2006-12-01T23:27:00.000-05:00

NOTE: This entry has been re-posted to open a new set of comments.
Images were re-ordered. All previous comments are in the post below.

The Website Advisory Committee is excited to share the final three home page design concepts being considered as a part of the re-build of the central NC State Web site. The process has been an informed and deliberate one with nearly 20 total designs considered before settling on these final three options.

The committee and working subcommittees have met at least once a month since beginning the project in April. In addition, the committee has had meetings with many campus constituents (some multiple times) as well as focus groups with each of the target audiences, including current students, faculty and staff, prospective students and alumni. A survey of nearly 1,800 users was also conducted early in the process as well.

As a reminder, this project entails the re-design of the www.ncsu.edu homepage as well as the creation of ~ 100 top-level "core" pages. It does not include the re-design of college, unit or department sites though some guidelines and templates will be created and shared.

Primary goals for the re-designed homepage:

Embody the NC State brand and convey critical marketing messages
Create a simplified structure and improved user-centric navigation to improve usability
Enhance the visual design
Focus on prospective students
Create a sense of community and collaboration

As you review the design concepts please keep in mind that while the current university homepage is relatively static (i.e., the only thing that regularly changes is the news headlines) the new site will be much more dynamic with constantly changing content, images and stories. In reviewing the concepts note that the images and content used are only placeholders intended to share the type of content that will be featured. The Web is a dynamic tool so what you are viewing is a foundation/framework for the future.

To make yourself familiar with the page elements review this earlier post. Please note, these are just flat images and not programmed HTML pages at this point. All designs will be reviewed for compliance with regulatory requirements under ADA and section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

We encourage you to provide feedback on the visual design, sharing your thoughts and input on your favorites, things you like, dislike, or would like to see included (or omitted) as well as any other thoughts you may have. As mentioned above, the content on these concepts is not final yet. Please use the comments field at the bottom of this post.

Click on each thumbnail image to see a larger version of the design concepts.

Concept 1 - Your Story. Your NC State.
This concept was developed to focus on the unique stories and achievements that NC State faculty, staff, students and alumni accomplish daily. In addition, we are trying to create/encourage some user interaction with the site (see "Share Your Story"). This idea needs to be further defined but think of it as a mechanism for users to add to the homepage content or share stories that may be of interest to others.

The biggest difference between this design and the two that follow is the treatment of the main feature area. Rather than focusing on one primary story and cycling through other themes, here those stories are featured through individual stories and profiles from throughout campus. This could be a feature on a student's unique experience (perhaps a community service effort), faculty research or an accomplished alum among countless others.

We are envisioning new stories and content being added regularly and this is indicated through some of the images that have the "new" tag. Similarly, older stories are faded back.

As you'll see in the second of the two jpgs, as you roll over the different images you'll see what the content is related to (research, outreach, campus life, etc.) and you can click on each image to get the full story. That content could be a video (as is shown here) or another page with image/story, link to another site or some form of other media.

Other page elements (news/events, secondary story, quick facts) are on the second half of the page.

Concept 3 - Action
This design features a large, dynamic image in the main promotional area. The image and related story/content are intended to show the kind of action and activity that happen every day on NC State's campus.

The large image would load randomly (i.e., on one visit you may get a research-related image while the next time you may get a campus life image) but you can also select your interest area by scrolling through the tabs and arrows below. If you selected one of the other areas the whole top area would change to that featured image/headline. For example, you can see that the research "tab" has been selected in this version. It is envisioned that the image/story for each of the categories (academics, research, outreach, campus life, diversity and international) would change every 3-6 weeks.

Other page elements include a news/events area (you can tab between the two) as well as a secondary story, quick facts and campus slide show.

Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comments area.

Home page designs posted

2006-11-22T21:38:00.000-05:00

The Website Advisory Committee is excited to share the final three home page design concepts being considered as a part of the re-build of the central NC State Web site. The process has been an informed and deliberate one with nearly 20 total designs considered before settling on these final three options.

The committee and working subcommittees have met at least once a month since beginning the project in April. In addition, the committee has had meetings with many campus constituents (some multiple times) as well as focus groups with each of the target audiences, including current students, faculty and staff, prospective students and alumni. A survey of nearly 1,800 users was also conducted early in the process as well.

As a reminder, this project entails the re-design of the www.ncsu.edu homepage as well as the creation of ~ 100 top-level "core" pages. It does not include the re-design of college, unit or department sites though some guidelines and templates will be created and shared.

Primary goals for the re-designed homepage:

Embody the NC State brand and convey critical marketing messages
Create a simplified structure and improved user-centric navigation to improve usability
Enhance the visual design
Focus on prospective students
Create a sense of community and collaboration

Click on each thumbnail image to see a larger version of the design concepts.

Concept 1 - Action:
This design features a large, dynamic image in the main promotional area. The image and related story/content are intended to show the kind of action and activity that happen every day on NC State's campus.

The large image would load randomly (i.e., on one visit you may get a research-related image while the next time you may get a campus life image) but you can also select your interest area by scrolling through the tabs and arrows below. If you selected one of the other areas the whole top area would change to that featured image/headline. For example, you can see that the research "tab" has been selected in this version. It is envisioned that the image/story for each of the categories (academics, research, outreach, campus life, diversity and international) would change every 3-6 weeks.

Other page elements include a news/events area (you can tab between the two) as well as a secondary story, quick facts and campus slide show.

Concept 2 - Utility
This design has the same page elements as the "action" concept but is much more utilitarian and content-heavy. Similar to many of the news and information sites visited regularly on the Web (CNN, MSNBC, etc.), this design has a main story/image and related content and links (in the gray box). You may notice that we are showing that the main area could be video in addition to being a static image. The same is true for concept 1. Don't worry, we've heard that if we use video it should not auto-play on page load.

The colored text tabs at the top (by the "Get Involved") would function similar to the tabs in the first design and change the main feature area to related content. Different from the other concepts, the search and quicklinks fields are in the left column with the other navigation in this design.

Concept 3 - Your Story. Your NC State.
Though it looks different from the two previous designs, the elements of this concept are the same as the other two designs. All navigation is the same and the same content is featured (except for the campus slideshow).

The big difference here is in the obvious treatment of the main feature area. Rather than focusing on one primary story and cycling through other themes, here those stories are featured through individual stories and profiles from throughout campus. This could be a feature on a student's unique experience (perhaps a community service effort), faculty research or an accomplished alum among countless others. We are envisioning new stories and content being added regularly and this is indicated through some of the images that have the "new" tag. Similarly, older stories are faded back.

As you'll see in the second of the two jpgs, as you roll over the different images you'll see what the content is related to (research, outreach, campus life, etc.) and you can click on each image to get the full story. That content could be a video (as is shown here) or another page with image/story, link to another site or some form of other media.

We have also built in a method for site visitors to share their own stories and viewpoint (see "Share Your Story"). This idea needs to be further defined but think of a mechanism for users to add to the homepage content or share stories that may be of interest to others.

Other page elements (news/events, secondary story, quick facts) are on the second half of the page.

Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comments area.

Previewing home page designs

2006-11-21T00:01:00.000-05:00

Prior to reviewing the new home page design concepts we felt it was important to describe some of the elements that will be a part of the new designs so people can get a feel for the site and the depth of content. That said, here is a wireframe (a blueprint that represents the page elements) for the home page as well as a description for each of the different parts of the page. Click on the image to get a larger version.

Page Element Descriptions

Resource Navigation - This page element sits at the very top of the home page and will be a consistent element on sub-pages. This navigation is intended to be the utility things that regular users to the site will find helpful.
Header - This area will include the NC State University logo as well as two navigation elements that are critical to improving site navigation and user experience -- a search field and quick links pull-down area. While the current ncsu.edu site has the search field a level down, the new site will have a search area on all pages. In addition, the quick links area will provide users with links to commonly used sites throughout the university. This may include things like university policies, webmail, registration and records, WebCT, academic calendars, administrative portals and others. In addition, we hope to be able to allow users to customize the quick links area. For an example of this type of functionality see the current Virginia Tech website.
Main Navigation Area - This is located in the left in all design concepts and includes both audience and topical navigation. Audience based links are: Future Students, Current Students, Faculty & Staff, Parent & Family (new), Alumni and Partners. Topical links are: About NC State (new), Academics, Research, Outreach, Campus Life (new) and Athletics. These all link to secondary pages customized specifically for each group. All of the secondary landing pages will be much more dynamic than on the current site and will feature content/copy and not just a laundry list of links.
Primary Feature Area - Designed to be a dynamic and constantly changing, this area will be the main focus of the new home page design. It is located in the middle of the screen and is the largest item on the page. It provides an opportunity to share some of the great stories and happenings from throughout the campus, centered around six main themes -- academics, research, outreach, campus life, diversity and international programs. Exact messaging will be determined as content is developed. The area will rotate and a different image will "randomize" on page load. In addition, users will be able to see the other stories featured and be able to cycle through. Rich media will be used in this section as appropriate and may include the option to view video.
Rotating Banners - Two "banners" are currently a part of the page design. These could include information on applying to the university or supporting/giving to the university. In addition, these areas could also be used for timely or seasonal information, including commencement, registration, etc.
News/Events Column - This section is intended to provide users with the latest news and events from campus. News headlines will link to news.ncsu.edu. Calendar events will link to the new university public events calendar. News and Events are broken apart for more of an opportunity to feature each better than we currently present this information.
Quick Facts - Very popular during focus group testing, this section will provide nuggets of information that users may find interesting. Users will be able to cycle through several facts that could include things like ranking information, average SAT scores or GPA's of incoming students, research information and other highlights.
Campus Slide Show - These thumbnail images from throughout campus are intended to share some of the visual happenings from throughout the university. Images will get bigger as rolled over or you can click launch to view the images individually.
Page Footer - Sits at the bottom of the home page and all second level pages. It will include links to a site map/A-Z directory, contact information, privacy statement and copyright information, campus safety and information about the site. It will also include the university address and main switchboard phone number.

Initial designs shared with campus groups

2006-11-19T19:50:00.000-05:00

After requesting additional design concepts, the Website Advisory Committee re-grouped on October 25 and selected three final designs for consideration and final review. To date, these concepts have been shared with numerous groups/units throughout campus. Feedback thus far has been extremely positive and groups have been excited about the possible directions. Plans are to share the concepts with the entire campus community and general public through this blog the last week of November. Stay tuned!

The final three design concepts are the result of input from the committee and feedback from user focus groups and meetings with campus constituents. The following groups have been consulted in this early process (others are planned and/or scheduled):

Executive Officers
College Deans
University Council
Board of Visitors
Faculty Senate
Staff Senate
Group(s) of current students
Campus PR Group (Communicators)
University Web Developers/Web Designers Group
University IT Committee
Undergraduate Recruiters
Student Affairs
Representatives from:

Office of Research and Graduate Studies
Extension, Engagement and Economic Development
Office of Diversity and African American Affairs
Parents & Family Services
Human Resources

As mentioned previously, if you would like to arrange a meeting with your unit/group, please email us.

Hannon Hill Cascade Server selected as CMS

2006-10-19T23:31:00.000-04:00

As recommended by the Web Advisory Committee, a RFP was issued to secure a Content Management System (CMS) that could be used in developing and maintaining the central site. Among the key considerations:

the selected system (and pricing model) be scalable to allow for additional campus users
integration with the university portal system and server environment

The RFP was posted through the state purchasing system on Aug 31. Five vendors replied to the RFP and those responses were reviewed by members of the committee's technology subcommittee. This group included staff from Public Affairs, ITD and RMIS. Following discussion and a product demo, the subcommittee selected Hannon Hill Cascade Server. Cascade Server has been a popular choice among colleges and universities. According to a July 17 press release, more than 19 new higher education institutions have opted for Hannon Hill this year including Clemson, Brandeis, Missouri-Columbia and others. The product was also favorably reviewed by references at Duke, Carnegie-Mellon and Gonzaga.

In addition to aiding in development and updating of sites, a CMS will play a critical role in ensuring that sites are compliant with HTML/XHTML Web standards recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This is key in light of the fact that only 14 percent of U.S. News & World Report's top-ranked colleges are considered to be compliant.

Though being finalized, initial plans are for the system to be installed within the next 3-6 weeks. The CMS will be used in development of the central site and in testing on select sites developed by ITD and Creative Services. A larger-scale roll-out for other campus users is intended after initial testing at a date to be determined. ITD staff and the Help Desk will be trained to support campus users and developers interested in using the CMS system.

Additional designs requested

2006-10-06T22:22:00.000-04:00

In response to the focus groups conducted on Aug 31, the Web Advisory Committee requested some additional revisions be made to the two design concepts that were favored by the focus group participants. In making the changes and adjustments, Ripple Effects felt that one of the concepts was just not effective in differentiating NC State or in communicating key brand components identified in earlier strategic recommendations.

Ripple recommended focusing on one design concept (which was the top choice in the focus groups) and making some additional changes. This design was reviewed by the committee during a meeting on Sept 27. Following lengthy discussion, the committee recommended asking Ripple to make some additional revisions to the concept, including "opening" up the design to make it feel more warm, friendly and approachable. In addition, the committee recommended having Ripple provide two additional design concepts that reflected some of the overall feedback discussed during the review. The revised and additional concepts will be reviewed by the committee during a meeting the week of Oct 25.

In addition to the design discussion, the committee also reviewed a revised site map, navigation structure and content outline. A subcommittee group took a closer look at the content outline on Oct 4. This group included representatives from various Colleges, Public Affairs, News Services, Registration and Records, and Undergraduate Admissions. Further input was solicited from the student representatives on the committee.

Individual meetings are scheduled with the following groups to discuss "central" content being developed for the site -- Parents and Family Services, Office of Diversity and African-American Affairs, Research and Graduate Studies and Office of Extension, Engagement and Economic Development. A group of students will also provide further input.

Upcoming meetings that are planned to discuss the project include Faculty Senate (Oct 24), Student Senate (date TBD) and a planned open forum with campus web developers (date TBD). If you would like to arrange a meeting with your unit/group please email us.

Initial designs reviewed by focus groups

2006-09-04T22:31:00.000-04:00

On Aug 31, focus groups were conducted to provide further direction and input in the narrowing and, ultimately, selection of a new design for the www.ncsu.edu homepage. Each focus group was devoted to a specific web site audience. The groups included:

Faculty
Students
Prospective Students
Alumni

Each group reviewed four separate design concepts, providing input on structure and ease of navigation, content features, design and visual style and sample functionality.

Based on overall feedback, there was a striking difference in how "internal" users (current students, faculty and staff) interact with the site as compared to "external" users (prospective students and alumni). For internal users, ease of navigation and utility functions such as directories, libraries, maps, contact information was the key to each concept. Those features had to be easily found and prominent.

It became clear that internal users primarily use the site as a jumping-off point to deeper content. Admittedly, the audiences said that they do so because the current NC State home page does not have any dynamic or engaging content. Current students, especially, expressed an interest in finding out more about what is happening throughout the university and in learning innovative faculty, staff and student activity as well as news and current events.

Both groups of internal users -- faculty and students -- agreed that the primary audience for the main site should be external users, particularly prospective students, who need to have a picture of why NC State is a great university and what makes us exciting, unique and relevant to them.

External users wanted to engage with university -- to learn what was happening at NC State, why they should be interested and get a general impression of what is happening on campus. They were looking for big images, quick facts and figures and help in finding information they may be interested in.

Among some of the key content areas that all users liked were distinct, clear and obvious navigation elements, a large engaging image that reflects the university, quick facts and figures that are interesting, news and events information, search functionality right on the home page and a large "red" banner that clearly identifies this is NC State.

Some additional general comments follow.

Faculty:

Don’t like the idea of having video in the site, especially if it loads automatically
Concerned about dial-up users
Current website is just fine as it is
Prospective faculty members are most interested in college/department sites and seeing facilities, funding ratio, other quick facts
Feel that peer audiences that are doing rankings look for overall quality of the institution as shown on the home page and for quick stats

Current Students:

If video is used it should be selected to play, not run automatically
Videos would be of interest to prospective students
Home page should really be dedicated to prospective students
Home page should make NC State look good
We use “For Students” -- so the home page doesn’t have to be for us as long as there is a clear way to get to the student main page
Need easy access to Directories, Web Mail, football schedule, ticket information, university closings, news, student newspapers, student profiles, calendar, internship information

Prospective Students:

Want information on how to schedule campus tours or visits and prefer a form or email registration instead of having to call and schedule
Showing student life (not just academics) is very important
Want to see quick facts and other interesting numbers and information about the university
Like “Future Students” label much more than "Prospective Students" and feel it is more personal and welcoming
Like pictures that show the campus and what it would be like if they went there
Find it difficult to find the right departments for a field of study (on all college sites)
Most college websites are boring and have too much text; look for college sites that stand out and are different
Indicated that website don't help them find a college but assist in learning more about life on the campus and specific academic offerings

Alumni:

Most important audiences should be prospective and current students.
Alumni are most interested in alumni directory, athletics, transcripts and possibilities of grad school, continuing education and distance education
Want to see images that make me proud to be a part of NC State
Want to showcase what makes NC State great
"The home page should be a trophy case"
Show the belltower or some "iconic" figure that relates to the campus

There were two design concepts that were clearly preferred by all groups. The feedback and input from the focus groups will be taken into account as these designs are revised further and shared with the Web Advisory Committee and the campus community.

Preliminary Web designs reviewed

2006-08-18T15:51:00.001-04:00

The university's Web Advisory Committee reviewed and gave initial feedback on seven design treatments and a general navigational structure for the new NC State Web presence at a meeting on August 10. The designs also were reviewed by a number of communications staff from across the university, several college-based recruitment staff, and two members of the university's Marketing Committee. The designs were presented by Ripple Effects Interactive, a Pittsburgh company that is assisting the Web Committee in the site rebuild. Ripple is currently working with Carnegie Mellon University and has also designed Web sites at Wake Forest, Vanderbilt and many other colleges and businesses.
A key goal for the designs was to convey the concept of action and to show NC State as "Leading through Action". Through the use of photographs, text and graphic elements including video, the designs showed the many facets of life on the NC State campus and conveyed a strong sense of participation by faculty, staff and students. Committee members offered a number of suggestions for revising these designs including making the news wire more prominent, ensuring that key messages are broad enough to encompass all audiences, especially graduate students, faculty and alumni; showcase the local Raleigh community; more use of factoids, and images that show people involved in activities on campus.
The preliminary designs will now be revised and the new designs will be tested with several focus groups of current students, prospective students, faculty, staff and alumni. Technology issues also will be examined in the coming weeks. y mid-September, after a second round of revisions based on focus-group testing, a set of designs will be shared with the campus community for additional feedback and testing, while more than 100 pages of new content is written for the important second tier of pages within the main web site.The goal is to have a beta test site online by November.

Website rebuild recommendations listed

2006-07-26T14:26:00.000-04:00

Strategic recommendations that will guide the redevelopment of NC State’s core website (http://www.ncsu.edu/) were reviewed by the university Web Advisory Committee on July 18, and were endorsed by the committee with a few modifications.

Ripple Effects Interactive, a company selected to aid the committee in the site rebuild made recommendations based on feedback from more than 75 faculty, staff, students and administrators interviewed in June. The interviews were to determine the kinds of information that should be delivered through the university’s web presence.

Some of their findings:
NC State’s web site should be rallying point for unified brand message that can help build national awareness of NC State, as well as a way to disseminate information to internal and external audiences.

What is NC State’s Brand Promise?
“NC State is an inclusive, service minded educational community that leads through action and whose heritage as a land-grant institution and people’s university provides a powerful understanding of how academics fit into real-world applications that will transform and improve our world.”

Critical Success Factors:
* Embody the NC State brand and convey the central marketing messages
* Create a simplifed site structure and user-centric navigation
* Enhance visual design to engage site visitors
* Establish a dedicated staff of four people responsible for maintaining the site. (Currently no staff are in place to manage the central university’s web presence).
* A Content Management System should be secured to administer and maintain content site-wide.

The committee recommended increasing the number of staff devoted to site administration from 4 to 8, saying a smaller staff is "life support only."

The complete recommendation report can be found at
http://ncsu.edu/redesign/Strategic_Recs.pdf

Next steps for the committee and Ripple Effects include presentation of basic wire-frame structure on August 15.

The Web Committee is interested in YOUR thoughts on these recommendations or other opinions relating to the NC State Website. Feel free to leave your comments here.

Ripple Effects Interactive to Assist Web Committee

2006-05-30T11:14:00.000-04:00

NC State’s Office of Public Affairs has contracted with Ripple Effects Interactive, Pittsburgh, to assist in the development and enhancement of the university’s “core” Web presence, www.ncsu.edu , which includes the re-design of the homepage, top-tier pages and creation of new pages that support, define and enhance the NC State brand and mission.

Ripple Effects is an interactive marketing agency with offices in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The firm has extensive experience with higher education clients including: Carnegie Mellon, Wake Forest, Cornell, Vanderbilt and others. See http://www.rippleeffectsinteractive.com/

The elements of the redesign of www.ncsu.edu will include the following steps:
> Planning and program organization
> Web presence prototyping
> Web presence development
> Web presence delivery and acceptance

Among the tasks to be performed by Ripple Effects are:
1) Serve in an advisory/consultative role as a part of the university-wide Web advisory committee that has been charged with oversight and deployment of a redesign site.
2) Provide staff to define, develop and deploy a new Web site, including gathering, compiling, and reviewing site requirements (in conjunction with direction from the advisory committee), visual design, Web content preparation, technical specifications, and technology recommendations.
3) Assist in the development of policies and procedures to govern the Web site following deployment.
4) Assist in identifying and documenting recommended staff requirements for on-going maintenance and enhancements to the Web site for a 2-3-year lifecycle.

The intended timeline is to launch the redesigned Web site by August 15, 2006. Beta versions of the site shall be available prior to the intended launch date. Specific project timelines and deadlines will be established with the selected vendor and the advisory committee.

Web Committee April 12 meeting

2006-05-23T14:44:00.000-04:00

The Web Advisory Committee met for the second time on April 12, 2006 to hear reports on progress made on several subcommittees including:

Benchmarking: This committee is charged with surveying peer institutions and making recommendation on some of the best design and linguistic practices. Jason Maners reported that the group looked at 16 peer universities of NC State as well as the ACC member schools.

Layout and Design
-Most peer universities used a similar layout consisting of a common header, a feature splash, and two or three columns of useful information.
-Navigation elements were located either directly below the header, on the lefthand side of the page, or both.
-Key elements like search boxes were readily available and highly visible.
-Feature splashes were a critical element .. large images with detailed stories highlighting accomplishments monopolized the front page. Features were typically auto-rotating with 15-20 splashes and appeared to be totally changed out on a rotating basis.
-Several universities offered two main/home pages ... one geared toward external audiences and one geared toward internal audiences.
-The second homepage was often a portal system.
-Second tier pages kept a similar feel to the home page but typically lost the feature splash.
-Several sites offered heightened levels of interaction such as virtual tours of campus, Web cams of campus spots, and highly interactive menu systems.

Navigation
-Most sites divide navigation into two main groups, audience (internal and external) and subject.
-Links that seemed to be popular or favorites among site visitors and links to special areas such as campus calendar, colleges/schools, etc. tend to have specially designed links/graphical elements to draw a user's attention.
-Most second tier page sites focused on a few key areas and linked to a larger A-Z listing.

Technology
-Most used technologies were a Web-based event calendaring system and the use of RSS feeds for news and site updates.

Suggestions
-Feature splash with large images highlighting stories around the university
-Event calendar including events ranging from athletics, arts & crafts, seminars, etc.
-Portal type access
-Second tier pages that avoid long list of links

Communications Subcommittee: This group is charged with communicating the on-going redesign process and a roll-out strategy. Tilla Fearn reported initial activities are targeted to internal audiences.

Web site – http://www.ncsu.edu.redesign is where news about the redesign project will reside.
A Powerpoint presentation will be developed and presented to important university groups to provide information and gain input about the project. Potential groups are Executive Officers, University Council, Faculty, Staff and Student Senates, Dean's Council, University Advancement, Campus PR Group, and IT/Web developers
Additional publicity will be sought through items in campus publications, including Bulletin, Technician, The Nubian Voice, WKNC, NC State Alumni Magazine, Results, etc.
-Colleges and units will be encouraged to use materials in their newsletters.

Several Possible Post-Launch Activities were considered including giveaways, open house, direct mail.

Analytics Subcommittee: This committee will analyze data and usage patterns and monitor pre and post-implementation usage. Michael Rappa reported that the committee has completed the following:
-Analyzed log data from ncsu.edu using Urchin software and will consider using Google Analytics in the future.
-totals are 104,000 sessions a day but this probably represents 25,000-30,000 >real people=
-Home page is hit most often
-Next most popular page is student=s page

Additional analysis is ongoing.

Technology Subcommittee: This group is looking at how new technologies could be integrated into the main site. Harry Nicholos reported the following discussions:
-Use of Contribute as an overlay Content Management System and will investigate Contribute Publish Server
-Recommended that a university-wide event calendaring system be acquired. (This has already been pursued by Public Affairs.)

Other discussion:
Jason Simon reported:
-RFP has been prepared for a Web consultant; proposals due April 17; received over 65 questions from vendors
-Vendor will work with committee and subcommittees

Results of recent survey!

2006-03-17T09:31:00.000-05:00

There was an outstanding response to the Web usability survey with more than 1800 total respondents. Of those, nearly 70 percent were current NC State faculty, staff and students.

Nearly 66 percent of the respondents indicated that they came to the NC State site to get specific information. This may correlate with the overwhelming percentage of current faculty, staff and students that responded to the survey.

More than 90 percent of people indicated that they accomplished their goals when visiting the site and didn't "get lost." Among the most visited parts of the whole NC State site were the news features, athletics and registration and records. The lowest overall indicator was the 28 percent "poor" rating for the design and organization of the site.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the survey feedback was some of the individual comments that people offered. Among the most common were that there were too many links and listings to choose from on secondary pages and that the homepage needed a more dynamic look and feel and updated content and features. There were also several suggestions for improving the ability to navigate and quickly get information such as improving the search functionality, making contact numbers easily found and adding an A-Z index list for all university-related sites.

Some specific things were also requested including having webmail more prominent, improving the campus map, virtual tour and making financial information easily found and understandable.

Finally, there were also a large number of respondents that indicated that they were very happy with the current site design and functionality and didn't want to see a lot of changes.

Thanks for the tremendous amount of feedback. We will try to consider as much as possible as we move through this re-design process.

Top College Websites.

2006-03-08T20:39:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Don Schmidt in NC State's ITD department for sending us the following links to review:

A recent survey of 100 College web sites whose findings were presented to the AMA Symposium on Higher Education in Chicago in 2005.

A detailed version that including methodology of the 2004 year survey.

One interesting thing to note -- most of the sites that are ranked tend to be small, private schools. While these sites are interesting and will provide some good things to consider they also don't face the complicated navigation challenges that the NC State site (potentially) does.

Alum Wins ACC Tourney Tickets

2006-03-08T20:34:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to NC State alum Ashley Rankin who was the winner of two randomly-drawn tickets to the 2006 ACC Tournament. Ashley is a 2005 graduate in chemistry who is now a scientist for Syngenta Biotechnology. Over 1,800 people responded to the www.ncsu.edu survey, providing valuable feedback that will be considered as the site is re-designed.

The goal of the project is to improve the usability, content and physical appearance of the home page and top-level pages of www.ncsu.edu. The homepage averages nearly 3 million hits per month and represents an important opportunity to communicate NC State’s strengths and to offer accessible information to a variety of audiences.

Win ACC Tournament Tickets.

2006-02-19T21:43:00.000-05:00

The re-design effort was launched today with the announcement of the formation of the advisory committee and a summary of its charge. You can read that here.

Also, an online survey has been developed to assess usability issues relating to the current site. By filling out the survey here you will be entered for a chance to win a pair of ACC Tournament tickets. It's that easy. Leave your feedback and opinions and you could wind up in Greensboro with a pair of tickets for the 53rd Annual ACC Tournament March 9-12. The contest winner will be contacted on Monday, March 6.