IT continues to innovate university website
If you thought that innovation was over for the university website when IT launched the revamped version in August 2012, think again.
Changes are in the works that will simplify the user’s online experience and make the website a more effective tool.
The biggest change, according to Nate Tucker, Director of IT Systems, is the approach to web development.
Instead of having two separate webpages – one old, and one with all of the new changes – the development transition will be more fluid.
“We’re creating more of an evolving website instead of taking a stop-and-go approach,” Tucker said.
Click here to see the current developing website.
One important difference users should expect to see that will help them connect and interact with the website is the incorporation of RSS feeds from the university calendar and news updates page.
“You’ll be able to get the RSS feeds on your personal calendar or on your mobile phone if you want,” Tucker said.
Another user-friendly update is the conversion of the calendar from a list form into a visual of an actual calendar.
The most recent change, however, involves elements Tucker refers to as banners and real estate, both of which have different meanings in the web design world than they do in other areas of life.
Online banners don’t wave in the wind like their cloth counterparts do, and Lee’s online banners are no different.
The banners on Lee’s website are text and graphic combos that highlight, and may provide links to, other areas of the site that users are likely to find interesting or to want more information about, such as the Frontline program or Lee Day.
Lee’s banners are currently located in a stationary line towards the bottom of the homepage above the “quicklinks” section. The banners do not appear when users click on links to other pages of the website.
But with this next development, the banners will rotate one by one in the bottom right-hand corner of every webpage on the site, replacing the flame from the university logo.
“The banners will help utilize the real estate on the web page,” Tucker said.
The real estate Tucker is talking about isn’t concerned with selling a house for a better price or surveying land to get an accurate measurement; it just means the available space on a webpage.
In addition to helping the website use available space in the best possible way, Tucker said that the banner rotation “provides more visibility for current events.”
And there you have it. IT is committed to promoting innovation, one step at a time.