UNMC is launching the first phase of a redesigned Web site that features a new graphic look, improved navigational features, and a home page that highlights UNMC’s mission of education, research and patient care. It also provides links to key campus areas and to its hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center.
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“We believe this new design, which includes an improved search function, will enable our key constituencies to find information more quickly and easily,” said Sandy Goetzinger-Comer, director of public affairs. “The new design is also more contemporary and graphically appealing and better represents UNMC’s emerging prominence as a world-class academic health science center.”
The process was a cooperative effort between Public Affairs and Information Technology Services and was led by Theresa Cassiday, Web/online communications coordinator in public affairs, and Dan Moser, associate director of learning environment/Internet services in ITS.
Many elements of the new site, which has been under development for the past eight months, were the result of input gathered from a variety of sources including visitors to the site, campus web developers, students, faculty and staff.
Two surveys were conducted. One was sent via e-mail to all of the nearly 80 Web developers who create and manage Web sites on the UNMC campus. Another survey was posted on the UNMC home page to solicit input from the public at large.
“The Web developers survey helped guide us in the technical aspects of the redesign project,” Cassiday said. “The public survey led us to make a number of changes and additions to the UNMC site to make it easier to use.”
Some of the new features include:
- A photo bar that includes pictures from UNMC events, campus employees and scenes. The photo bar changes each time someone clicks on a page. New photos will be added and the goal is to be able to customize unit pages with photos that feature that unit.
- A header for the inside pages that always includes the UNMC logo with a link to the home page, making it easy to return there.
- Fine-tuning the search capabilities and making the search function more prominent by adding it to the top of each page. UNMC has added a Google search engine to its site, Moser said, to provide another option for searching.
- A site map that also functions as a way to guide visitors to the information they need.
- Adding categories to the navigation bar that represents strategic areas of UNMC and those that have major visitor traffic.
As in the past, campus units will be able to determine and manage the contents of their individual sites. According to Cassiday and Moser, they will be reviewing and monitoring usage of the new site and visitor feedback to see if the design and navigation are addressing some of the past challenges visitors have had accessing information easily and quickly.
The first phase of the launch involved implementing the new design for the major UNMC public sites. The next phase will be to convert individual unit/department pages to the new template. The design of the template should help speed that process.
“We created the new template with our campus Web developers in mind,” Cassiday said. “We wanted to make it as easy as possible for everyone to update their Web sites with this new look.”
The Department of Public Affairs and the Information Technology Department will be the first to use the new design templates, Moser said. He is overseeing the technical aspects of the redesign. Instructions for campus Web designers will be sent out and posted by the end of September, he said, and all campus Web sites should be converted by Dec. 31, 2004.
Technical assistance is available from ITS for anyone needing help in converting to the new design template. Call Anne Faylor at 559-3043 or e-mail her for information.
The new design also builds on the success of the previous redesign, which was launched in September 2001. Since then, all UNMC Web sites have adapted that template, providing a consistent design and navigation system that makes it easier for users to find information, Goetzinger said.
“From the review of Web sites, only a few academic medical centers in the country have accomplished this, so we should be proud,” she said.
Since 2001, total visits to the UNMC Web site have more than doubled, increasing from 1.2 million visits to 2.5 million visits annually. The number of unique visitors has increased from 390,000 to more than 1 million per year in that same time. Another major success has been the development of a home page and expanded Web site for students, which presents information from each of the colleges in a consistent manner. Visits to that site have more than doubled as well, from 60,000 visits in 2001 to 146,000 visits in 2004.