UCCS University Advancement

Institutional Website

As of January 2013, University Advancement is responsible for the official UCCS Institutional Website and is leading a redesign by developing a long-term strategic vision, content strategy, information architecture and user-experience design that will help achieve the mission of the UCCS homepage. University Advancement is working closely with the Information Technology Department and is seeking broad participation from campus.

Project Information

Scope

This project aims to create a cohesive institutional website, addressing the high-profile general-purpose pages of the UCCS website (the "first few clicks") and implementing a strategy that supports the university's current needs and allows us the flexibility to meet future requirements. The goal is to contribute to the credibility and positive reputation of the university, and improve the experiences of prospective students, current students, faculty, staff and partners in their work and study.

The project is focussed on general information pages, and will continue to direct traffic to the various department- and office-level websites.

IT Web Services will continue to develop and maintain the Web Content Management System (wCMS), and continue working with colleges, departments, offices, and programs to assist with developing their own websites.

Timeline

The initial timeline, barring any major unanticipated complications, is to launch in September 2013.

The Current Website

The current homepage will continue to be maintained, though beyond regular updates to the calendar, news, and photos and routine maintenance, no major changes are planned. If you have any issues with the current website, please contact IT Web Services.

Updates

March

A small working group was put together to support the development of the site information architecture. An initial draft of content requirements was created and data from the discovery phase used to develop personas / data sheets to use in the information architecture development.

February

Server logs for 2012 were delivered by IT and analyzed. Findings were combined with information from previous surveys, interviews, and other information from the earlier discovery phase to begin developing a list of goals, requirements, strategies, and content needs. Advancement also began compiling baseline data for tracking metrics.

January

The UCCS Leadership Team reviewed and approved the project charter. Advancement began a basic content inventory analysis, cataloging existing content and working with IT Web Services to collect information on the previous content strategy. A feedback mechanism was also added to the homepage to begin collecting ongoing ratings and feedback from visitors, and Advancement compiled and categorized the feedback and suggestions from earlier research.

2012

University Advancement, working with IT and IR, conducted a wide variety of primary and secondary research for the project (discovery phase) and developed a project charter.

Documents

Project Outline

March 2013

Ten Recommendations (UCCS Website Survey)

February 2013

Sample Feedback (UCCS Website Survey)

February 2013

Categorized Feedback Overview (UCCS Website Survey)

February 2013

Project Charter for the UCCS Institutional Website

January 2013

Opportunities to Get Involved

Project updates will be posted to this website, and shared with various campus groups such as the Information Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC), the Integrated Marketing Committee, and the UCCS Communicators group.

Feedback is always welcomed and appreciated. Consider submitting feedback and suggestions, as well as rating the current website, using the feedback mechanism on the homepage.

If you would like to volunteer time, or have any questions or comments, please contact Jeff Foster.

Contacts