Web Team: Resources: Summary of Work
Justification for CAES Web Redesign
This document is intended to explain the choices made in the design, structure and function of the new College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Web site. A great amount of time has been spent evaluating the current CAES Web configuration and researching Web sites that have similar Web structures.
Strengthening the College’s Web Presence
Unification of many parts
The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Web site is purposefully designed for the college to capitalize on the collective strength of its academic, extension and research components while educating the public on its broad spectrum of services and information. This design takes the essential elements of the CAES and Cooperative Extension Web pages, filters out secondary navigation and provides clear choices to the user as to where they can go, what they can do and how they can find information.
The redesign brings focus, unity, communication strength, usability and accessibility to all aspects of the CAES Web presence. By limiting the amount of choices on the main pages, a user can better focus on the task that they wish to complete. The language is intentionally simple and concise in all navigational elements and tools. Furthermore, as one follows a path through pages of the site, the main navigational elements and tools will stay the same — while deep in the site it will take little effort on the user's part to transition to any other aspect of the site.
Identification with UGA
This redesigned site adheres to the proposed Web guidelines for University of Georgia Web sites by utilizing the university logo, linking to the university and college home pages, including relevant and pertinent footer information and having an accessible design in compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. In addition to these essential elements recommended by UGA, this site is designed using a red and black palette and has similar design elements to the university's main pages.
Refreshing content
The college's home page will focus on newsworthy stories, events, people, and places in the college. Based on the university's home page, a large area will be dedicated to highlighting main college stories, and three smaller spotlight areas will focus on news, events and CAES information. The home page will be directed to external users and feature stories and information that would be of great interest to the general public.
Bringing Focus to the User Experience
Consistent global navigation
The global navigation includes the following: About CAES, Departments, Academics, Extension, Research, Publications, Topics A-Z, Calendar and News. It is intentional that a very simple and concise navigation is provided on every page. As Internet users continue to navigate the Web via search engines, it is in the college's best interest to treat every page as a potential entry point for a future student, client or employee. Global navigation allows the user to easily skip from one section of the CAES site to another and eases the learning curve as a user explores the site.
These global navigation choices can also be seen as main sections of the CAES Web site. About CAES will contain general information about the college; Departments will provide an entry point to departmental sites; Academics will replace the current Academic Affairs Web site; Cooperative Extension will replace the current college-level extension Web site; and Research will unify the college's current myriad of research related sites. Publications, Calendar and News are on the same level as the three components of the college, bringing intentional focus to frequently used aspects of the current CAES site. Topics A-Z is intended to house the multitude of commodity and special interest pages that are created for the CAES community.
User portals
The user portals, found on every page, provide an access point for alumni, friends, community members, visitors and students. The Alumni & Friends portal will provide access to alumni related pages and giving. The Community & Visitors portal will provide information on county offices, outreach and general visitor information. The Student portal will provide information on degree programs, admissions and general academic info for prospective and current students alike.
The concept of user portals can be found on many academic sites across the country. The University of Georgia employs a drop-down menu on its main pages to direct users to relevant information. The particular layout of the portal links has been modified to look more like UGA's quick links. Reusing parts of UGA's design helps to make the CAES site usable to those familiar with UGA's Web page layout.
Essential tools
Included on every page are tools to find information, people, places and events. Similar to the university's main pages, searching tools to find people, places, or pages are located on each page. Find a Person accesses the personnel database, allowing a user to search for CAES personnel. This information will be presented in a user-friendly way, making it easier for the user to browse various employee groups. The personnel database will also be used to provide dynamic information for unit sites and initial departmental and county entry pages. Find a Place will focus on the locations of CAES throughout Georgia. Initially, this may start with the UGA campus, and expand to include the Griffin and Tifton campuses, county offices, and educational and research centers. This information may include maps, directions and local personnel information.
A tool to find Cooperative Extension county offices will be deployed on the main extension page. Based on a zip code, users will easily be able to find their local office information.
The master calendar, included in the main navigation, is currently under revision and review by the CAES Calendar Committee. Guidance in this revision process has been provided by stakeholder discussions, user feedback, and design and development research into master calendars at other universities. Revision of the master calendar includes collecting pertinent information for events, creating a system for updating and entering events, eliminating current "gatekeeper" construct and establishing user-centered views and search capabilities. Ideally, the calendar will be able to display events from state to office levels, by day, week or month. As needed, elements of the calendar will be accessible on department, county and unit pages. This will give CAES groups immediate access to relevant calendar views.
Pertinent, flexible local navigation
The local navigation is located in the leftmost, gray column. This hierarchical navigation is very fluid to the expected sub-sections of the CAES Web site and similar to the concept of breadcrumbs. This navigation begins at all entry pages for main navigational elements and persists to the very last page in its structure. For instance, when a user chooses About CAES, the local navigation will show CAES Home (where they've been, or one level above), About CAES (where they are), and expand to show the next sections of About CAES (where they can go, or one level below). As a user delves deeper into a sub-section, the local navigation will collapse to show the most immediate choices at the level of the page selected.
The local navigation also indicates choice using subtle visual clues; upper level links are medium gray with a forward pointing arrow, and the page currently viewed is indicated with bold, black text. If a chosen page has sub-pages, the selection is marked with a downward facing arrow and all sub-pages are marked with bullets.
Timely and helpful
Footer information included on every page provides the user with helpful links and information relevant to the timeliness and upkeep of the site. The first two links, UGA and CAES, provide links to these home pages and reinforce identification with the college and university. About this Site may include information about the redesign of the site, accessibility points, frequently asked questions, and other site relevant information (Web policies, templates, Web style, etc.). Site Map is a tool to directly help users navigate the site, whether they are new or experienced users. Finally, Contact Us will house a useful feedback form to direct user comments and questions, as well as provide direct email access to the College Web Team or a sub-site's Web master.
When mass migration of content begins, a custom "File Not Found" message will be created. This will not automatically redirect to the home page but immediately provide tools, navigation and feedback mechanisms to the user. It is especially important that even when the CAES site behaves as it shouldn't, users are not abandoned in their search for information. Many professional sites can be referred to as models.
Mutable, compact and accessible
An intended programming goal of the CAES site is to be accessible to all and quick to load, regardless of ability or delivery. Parts of this site will be designed to shift content delivery based on the user's platform of choice. This can include showing a text-only page for a screen reader to modifying a page to fit on an alternative screen device. The CAES site will adhere to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act by employing specific Web standards and utilizing university-supported LIFT technology to create text-only pages. The College Web Team will also provide a plan for handling non-508 compliant Web pages.
Division of internal and external messages
The college site should focus entirely on the user. Messages should be worded and content should be structured for an external audience, not peers within the same organization. Content intended solely for internal usage will be corralled to the CAES intranet. The primary focus will be on employees: their needs, their resources and their news. The intranet will centralize internal productivity by providing tools, applications and pertinent information for CAES employees. General, non-sensitive information will be instantly available and OIT developed applications and sensitive materials will be accessible via password. The intranet will be the new home for all CAES support unit sites.