Adrian Cooke

Assoc. Dir. Online Communications for UR

More WesLive updates

by

A quick update on a couple of small changes to WesLive:

Updated header style
Updated header style
  1. Based on feedback we’ve received from on- and off-campus visitors to and users of WesLive, the post header style has been modified from white text on a black background to red text on a white background. Hopefully this change will make the page more usable and pleasing to a majority of our visitors. Thanks to all who provided feedback.
  2. The “AddThis” feature has been enabled. Each post now has a link at the bottom that says “Bookmark”. When you hover on the link you are presented with the option to “bookmark and share” the post by a variety of means, including e-mail and popular social sites. Note that this feature requires that JavaScript is enabled in your browser.

Thanks for using WesLive!

Resources Links Updated

by

In response to user feedback we have updated the “Resources” links in the global navbar to include the Library. To accommodate the additional link we have shortened “Offices & Services” to Offices. The color has also been changed to a lighter grey, increasing the contrast of these links, to make them easier to notice.

Resources before
Resources before
Resources after
Resources after

We appreciate your feedback. Thank you for helping us to improve the site.

Before and After: A quick look at the changes

by

This post presents some before and after shots for reference as well as some notes on the changes.

Overall:

  • the old design was 760px wide while the new is 960px
  • the top navbar has been changed to accommodate a greater number of links and to stay open until you close it
  • there is a consistent footer on all new pages
  • pages in the new design are running under the Cascade CMS

The homepage

Before
Before
Homepage after (navbar closed)
After (navbar closed)
After (navbar open)
After (navbar open)

The previous homepage had three changing content areas (Gallery, “Belt” buttons, and Headlines). The new homepage adds three more: “Differentiator” squares, Events and From the Community, and the Belt has been converted to a Highlights section. The universal navbar also applies to the new homepage; it appeared on the previous homepage in a highly modified form, with no drop down.

About Wesleyan

About before
Before
About after
After

Landing pages such as About now have a narrative focus with the lists of links moved into the left navigation. This layout shows the basic form of new pages: the topbar, header graphic, left navigation, central content space, related links column, and a standard footer at the base of the page.

Admission

Admission before
Before
Admission after
After

Admission landing page

Admission landing before
Before
Admission landing after
After

Alumni

Alumni before
Before
Alumni after
After

Parents

Parents before
Before
Parents after
After

New pages

Campus Life
Campus Life
Offices & Services
Offices & Services

Footer

The new footer
New footer

New site rollout begins tomorrow

by

The following message was sent to the campus community this morning.

From: announcement@wesleyan.edu
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 9:27 AM
To: Wesleyan Campus Community
Subject: Wesleyan’s New Web Site

Dear Members of the Wesleyan Community,

Tomorrow, University Communications and ITS will launch the redesigned Wesleyan University homepage, Admission web site, and several major landing pages (About, Academics, Campus Life, Alumni, Parents, and Offices & Services). At this time, these are the only pages that will be changed to the new look. This begins a major transformation of the Wesleyan web site that is expected to continue throughout 2010. All departments and sub-pages will be converted to the new design and content management system (CMS) over the coming 12–18 months.

The new design features significant improvements in navigation and content presentation. Also, the new Cascade content management system promises new capability within your department to develop, maintain and update content on your pages. ITS is pleased with the performance of this new system and we think you will be pleased, also. If you need help with navigation, please use the Search Box at the upper right portion of the screen.

We invite you to check the ‘From the Community’ section of the homepage. This new feature offers content from the new Wesleyan Community Blog. Anyone with a Wesleyan username and password is welcome to post and comment. Check it out at http://community.blogs.wesleyan.edu!

Join us in making Wesleyan’s online presence open, vibrant, and engaging.

University Communications & Information Technology Services (ITS)

Redesigned Wesleyan web site launch

by

The following message was sent to the campus community this afternoon.

From: announcement@wesleyan.edu
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 3:01 PM
To: Wesleyan Campus Community
Subject: Redesigned Wesleyan Website Launch

The redesigned Wesleyan University homepage, Admission web site, and several major landing pages (About, Academics, Campus Life, Alumni, Parents, and Offices & Services) will be launched on Thursday, November 12. These pages are only the first to be changed to the new design. This begins a major transformation of the Wesleyan website that will continue throughout 2010. All departments and sub-pages will be converted to the new design and content management system over the coming 12–18 months.

University Communications and ITS

Major Links on the Homepage

by

Hi everyone, and welcome back if you’ve been away.

Thanks for your comments so far about the current web site. Over the past two weeks the design team has been discussing informational models for the new homepage, a site-wide navigation bar, and secondary pages. Right now we’re asking for your feedback on a few specific questions.

First up is a proposed list of major links for the homepage. Please take a look at the following list, as a starting point. We’d love to hear what you think—especially from the point of view of a prospective student—about whether this covers a relevant range of links to page destinations within the main Wesleyan site.

Specific questions

  • would the list help you as a prospective student wanting to know more about Wesleyan?
  • are there any other categories you’d like to see included? (primary bullets)
  • are there any other detail items you’d like to see? (secondary bullets)
  • what could we remove from the list?

Major links list

  • About
    • Why Wesleyan?
    • Virtual Tour
    • Middletown Area
    • Notable Alumni
    • Visiting Wesleyan
  • Academics
    • Departments/Majors
    • Courses
    • Libraries
    • Grad
    • GLSP
  • Admission
    • Tuition
    • Financial Aid
    • Meet the Staff
    • Ask a Student
    • Dates and Deadlines
  • Campus Life
    • Orientation
    • Athletics
    • Residential Life
    • Events/Calendar
    • Dining
  • Community
    • Students
    • Parents
    • Alumni
    • Faculty
    • Staff
  • Offices & Services
    • Administration
    • Office of the President
    • Registrar
    • Student Affairs
    • Technology

(Please note: some of these pages don’t have a current equivalent and would have to be created as part of the redesign process; the list is just part of the content that will be included on the new homepage, albeit a very important part; and each of the primary bullets will be links to a full range of options, where the secondary bullets are the most popular of those.)

We will follow up soon with a similar post about the site-wide navigation bar, which will contain other links, but for now we would like to focus on the main page links.

Please share you thoughts, and thanks for your time.

Adrian