www.uwex.edu Web site revitalization blog

I wanted to provide a brief update of where we are in the revitalization process.

June 2008:

Designed wireframes outlining key navigation and content areas. Reviewed wireframes with project team and graphic designer.

July 2008:

Graphic designer is developing 2-3 design prototypes for our new home page. We should have a sample design to share on this blog soon!

August 2008:

Finalize design direction and create templates for site.

September 2008:

Start moving content from old site to new site in development. Work with administrative units on migrating content (i.e. payroll, business services, governance).

When looking at revitalizing a site, it’s good to know what your “competitors” are doing - what are the best practices out there and what do users expect to find on similar sites.

Googling “university extension” results in a wide variety of university Web sites, but there are some common elements found on most of the sites.

• Lack of Extensionese
• Topical navigation for users (agriculture, family, nutrition, gardening, business, continuing education)
• Prominent links to Extension “Offices”
• Links to publications and news on current topics
• Links to find people/staff/experts

University of Minnesota Extension

9 more under the cut

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Get a glimpse of the new Extension A to Z database we’re developing. There are 316 listings in the database. This will be one more way for users to find Extension units and programming.
Criteria for a site or page to be a new listing:

• Sub-sites of www.uwex.edu (i.e. /ce, /ces, /ics)

• unique domains or URLs (i.e. http://www.portalwisconsin.org/)

• unique content or functionality, even it the site is a sub-site of a larger site (i.e., http://learn.wisconsin.edu/il/)

• partner sites - may be hosted off-site, but Extension faculty and staff work in those areas (i.e. http://www.entomology.wisc.edu/entodiag.html)

• sites or pages that are searched for frequently and that users have a hard time locating (i.e. https://owa.uwex.edu/)

Are we missing an Extension site? Let us know, e-mail: itwebteam@uwex.edu.

Phase I of the www.uwex.edu revitalization was completed in April 2008.

Key finding: The Web site receives a lot of traffic, but users are confused about who we are and have significant problems finding the information they need.

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Project timeline:

Phase I - Discovery (November 2007 - April 2008)

• Stakeholder interviews and survey
• Staff survey
• External audience survey
• Analyze server stats and search logs
• Review “Contact Us” inquiries

Phase II - Planning and Kickoff (May 2008)

• Develop project plan and form project team

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