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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.

First Comments.

Though we haven't officially announced the redesign (that will come sometime this week) we've already gotten a few good comments from visitors that I thought I'd share:

A parent of a couple of prospective students offered the following comments:

Parents of potential and current students want to know:

1. How much is this going to cost? - Sometimes this information is buried pretty deeply in the web site.
2. What is the procedure for filing for financial aid?
3. When do they get out for holidays? What special events are geared towards parents?
4. Where can we stay when we come to visit that is convenient to campus? Also information on public transportation facilities is helpful.
5. Statistical information on graduation rates and employment in field rates is helpful.

Another recommended that we make sure to include a virtual tour or some additional photos of the campus. Yet another, said to make sure that any of the new designs are accessible for those with disabilities.

In reponse to the initial feedback, I can say that all of those things are definitely among our plans. Stay tuned and thanks for the feedback.

First Committee Meeting. Minutes.

Debbie Griffith called the meeting to order shortly after 8:00 a.m. Attending were B. J. Attarian (representing Greg Sparks), Tony Brock, Becky Bumgardner (representing David Jolley), Mark Dearmon (representing Dee Shore), Tilla Fearn, Dave Green, Kathy Hart, Ron Kemp, Kelly Lucey, Pat McLean, Jason Maners, Brad Mehlenbacher, Harry Nicholos, Jordan O'Mara, Saroj Primlani, Michael Rappa, Joshua Smith, Jim Wilder, and Alex Yacoub.

An overview of the committee charge was given:
To oversee the development of an improved Web presence for the university using the “core” www.ncsu.edu site.

Specifically that includes:

• Improving the look and feel of the site
• Improving usability
• Creating engaging content that reflects the character of NC State
• Developing "marketing" content as well as basic information
• Using new and emerging technology and multimedia
• Development of policies governing the site
• Recommending ongoing staff and maintenance considerations
• Transparent re-design process to keep campus informed

An ad-hoc committee has overseen maintenance of the www.ncsu.edu homepage for the past five years, but significant architecture and content changes have been minimal, due to the lack of dedicated staffing for this effort. That ad hoc committee began redesign discussions several months ago, identifying several peer university sites that could be models for our Web site redesign. Several of those sites were outlined and details were discussed. Sites included: Ohio State, Princeton, USC and University of Virginia.

An open discussion followed organized around the following questions:

1/What is the primary goal of the site?

Comments included: 1/ communication 2/ marketing 3/ student recruitment. Other comments were: need for richer visual design, communicate who we are, brand ourselves as a certain type of institution; show what’s happening on campus; tie to the Achieve marketing campaign;

2/ Who are our target audiences

Comments included: the need to gather data that will tell us how people arrive on the site, and what they want when the come to the site.

Usability survey of the current site should be undertaken, but we should be cautious about concluding that current user behavior may not indicate best design

3/Recommended next steps

a. investigate hiring an outside firm to help guide the web redesign process
b. form a coordinating subcommittee to interact directly with the outside firm, develop a scope of work and a timeline
c. form working subcommittees to gather data, usability analysis, an other tasks

Official Advisory Committee Charge and Membership.

The Website Advisory Committee is charged with oversight of the evaluation, planning, site architecture and visual design, engineering and testing required to re-launch the www.ncsu.edu “core” homepage and top-tier sub-pages. Furthermore, the committee will be tasked with developing policy and procedures to govern the site and making recommendations for on-going workflow, updates and maintenance of the site post-launch.

The ncsu.edu homepage averages roughly 80,000 unique visits (and more than 4 million hits) per day and is the single-largest opportunity the university has to communicate with a varied audience of current faculty, staff and students, prospective students/parents, alumni and friends, corporate partners, media and the general population at large. The re-design and launch of the new site should reflect this great opportunity, building a site that is content-rich, visually dynamic, easy to navigate, uses the latest Web and multimedia technology and, in a broad sense, showcases NC State as the great university we know it to be.

While this committee will have primary oversight, this process should be transparent and include feedback throughout from the university community. Student, faculty and staff resources should be active participants in the planning stages as well as the development of design concepts, site architecture, programming elements, usability evaluation and launch. This committee will make recommendations to the Chancellor and Provost/Executive Vice Chancellor with an intended launch date of the new site prior to the 2006 fall semester. Following launch, a smaller, standing committee will be designated to lead the on-going oversight and policy of the central site and homepage.

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
Debbie Griffith, Associate Vice Chancellor, Office of Public Affairs (Committee Chair)
Tony Brock, College of Design
Lauren Broeils, Junior, Design
Jenna Eason, Junior, Textiles
Tilla Fearn, Director of Communication, College of Natural Resources
Dave Green, Director of College Relations, College of Veterinary Medicine
Kathy Hart, NC State Alumni Association
David Jolley, Associate Vice Chancellor, University Development
Tom Karches, Web Systems Administrator, Information Technology Division
Ron Kemp, Executive Director Creative Services, Office of Public Affairs
Kelly Lucy, Asst Registrar, Registration and Records
Jason Maners, College of Engineering
Brad Mehlenbacher, College of Education
Harry Nicholos, Assistant Director for Web/Unix/Database Services, Information Technology Division
Jordan O'Mara, Junior, Computer Science
Saroj Primlani, Coordinator of IT Web Accessibility, Information Technology Division
Michael Rappa, College of Management
Dee Shore, Department Head, CALS Communication Services
Jason Simon, Director of Marketing, Office of Public Affairs
Joshua Smith, Junior, Design
Greg Sparks, Director, ComTech, Enterprise Technology Services and Support (ETSS)
Jim Wilder, NCSU Bookstore Information Systems Manager
Alex Yacoub, Senior, Business Management

Welcome to the redesign blog.

NC State is redesigning its home page and top-level group of university pages. Chancellor Oblinger has appointed a university-wide committee to evaluate, plan and redesign the www.ncsu.edu homepage and a number of the top-tier sub-pages linked to the homepage. This blog has been done to help anyone interested in keep track of the project the ability to do so, and to provide feedback.

The goal of the project is to improve the usability, content and physical appearance of the “core” Website for the university. The ncsu.edu 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.

Our hope is to develop an improved site that will offer additional dynamic content for both the ncsu.edu home page and an assortment of sub-tier pages, and use emerging technologies to make the site reflect the character of NC State as a leader in teaching, research and public service. A key goal of the project also will be to ensure that visitors can find the information they need when visiting the Website.

The Web Advisory Committee, composed of faculty, staff, students and alumni, will actively seek input and feedback from the university community throughout the redesign project. Prototypes of the possible page designs will be posted for comment and usability testing will be done throughout the process, which is expected to take at least six months. The committee will frequently report to the campus community regarding progress on site, analysis statistics, usability research and opinions about the current and future site plans.

This blog will be moderated by Web committee members. Your feedback and comments are encouraged. Comments may be edited to ensure clarity, relevance and appropriateness.