New Website Design Reflects Bold Look

Content Management System Enables Efficient Upgrades

Aug. 1, 2006 -- The College of Communication launched its new Website today featuring an updated look and feel, and an improved site architecture built on the Stellent Web content management program.

“One of the key new features of the new site is that content owners in various departments throughout the college will be empowered to update their content themselves instead of working through a technology specialist,” said Susan LaRonde, College of Communication Webmaster. “This enables the college to deliver accurate and timely information through its primary communication channel – the Website.”

“The new look and feel encompasses the professional, scientific, and liberal arts aspects of the college. We developed a site that would feel like home to all our various departments while serving our alumni and prospective student audiences as well,” said Amber Simmons, a Web designer in CoComm Creative, which spearheaded the Website redesign.

The updated design features a bold color palette of rich jewel tones, which is considered to be more in line with the college’s brand. “We solicited feedback on various color palettes from key constituents, including faculty, staff, alumni and students, and the bold jewel tone palette was the clear choice,” said Crystal Watson, CoComm Creative Web designer.

Another benefit of the new architecture is the ability to maintain consistent branding across all layers of the Website thanks to the implementation of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which enables the Webmaster and designers to change the appearance of hundreds of Web pages by changing just one file.

“The redesign of the Website has been a thoroughly collaborative process since we began the project nine months ago,” said Paul Williams, manager of CoComm Creative. “Our team has conducted user testing and solicited input from various audiences within the College of Communication on how they use the Website. What you see on the Website today reflects input from numerous groups.”

An important and often overlooked user benefit of the new site design is that it is more accessible to the visually impaired and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines.