Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
The recently redesigned University of Maine Web site, which debuted on Jan. 7, is the result of a year-long collaborative effort by the department of marketing and public affairs to make the site more accessible and user-friendly for students and staff.
The redesign was initiated last January by Luann Lawrence, then executive director of the department. He left UMaine in September of 2004.
Howard Mosher was in charge of the marketing department’s side of the project, which included visual aspects of the design.
“The belief was that we could significantly improve on the student sections [of the site], as well as the faculty sections,” Mosher said.
According to Chris Smith, who was responsible for the content of the new site, one of the first steps toward improvement was to visit more than 200 different Web sites of other organizations to get an idea of the current trends in Web site design.
“It’s mostly students who are using the site, so we wanted it to appeal to students,” he said.
The new site was also partially designed by UMaine students, including Jay Kinser and Caroline Moore. Kinser, an information science major , said he worked with the “nuts and bolts” of the project.
“There were functional problems, it was hard to find things,” Kinser said. He said the new version was a great improvement.
“It’s easier to use, it’s easier to find things,” he said.
The revamped A to Z Directory was compiled using a list of the words and phrases that were most commonly searched for by students, so that information previously accessed through running a search may now be found by simply clicking a button.
Students such as Jorge Rodriguez, a freshman, said they like the new site, even though the features they regularly use have been moved.
“I think it’s pretty nice, (and) easy to navigate,” Rodriguez said.
Adam Russell, a sophomore, said the information was very accessible.
“I like it. All you have to do is click on student resources and everything’s there,” Russell said.
Some, however, are having a little more difficulty adjusting to the new format. Eric Gasperini, sophomore, said he did not like the changes.
“I just thought the old one was easier,” he said.
Mosher said that he knows there will be an adjustment period.
“People don’t like change,” he said.
Smith said that the site is specifically designed to be intuitive. Bryanna Goulet, freshman, did not agree.
“It does make sense,” she said. “You just have to find it all again.”
The new site contains many features intended to keep students up-to-date on university happenings. The “News and Events” section on the home page is updated daily, and carries newsworthy items related to the university. Spotlight, just to the left of “News and Events,” is more focused on artistic happenings, according to Smith. UMaine Today Online is similar to a datebook with current information and links to stories about UMaine in regional and national news. It is maintained by Interim Director of Marketing and Public Affairs Joe Carr.
Another reason behind the change was to make the site more appealing and informative for the general public, including prospective students. Moore, a new media major, put together the Virtual Tour, which features multiple 360-degree click-and-drag images of locations on campus. For Moore, who used the skills she has gained in her major to create the virtual tour, this has been a learning opportunity.
“It’s helped me learn about designing for a multitude of people,” she said. In the future, the tour will be updated to reflect the current season.
Daniel Becker, a high school senior at Steller Secondary School in Anchorage, Alaska, recently visited the new site and said he was impressed with it’s format.
“It’s one of the better Web sites I’ve been to. The information is actually there,” Becker said. He said he also liked the site’s comprehensive content.
“I found the ‘A to Z Directory’ most useful. I was looking into whether they had a Native American Studies program, and I found it. There’s a ton of information in there,” he said.
Though carefully planned and implemented, Mosher said the new design is not flawless.
“We look for feedback and try to include all those good ideas that we receive,” Mosher said. Feedback may be directed in the form of telephoned or written suggestions to the department of marketing, or to Mosher on FirstClass.
“We really do welcome feedback, and we need it,” Mosher said.
As an example of the way feedback will improve the site, Mosher pointed to the “A to Z Directory.” In the past, the directory was posted as a continuous list of links, but because the new list is longer, it is broken into sections such as A to F and G to L. This does not appeal to every user, and feedback about the subject has led to an attempt to offer both forms of the list as an option.
Now that the main site has been updated, the team at the department of marketing and public affairs has turned their attention to secondary university sites, such as those for individual academic departments. Moore and Kinser have created a template that will allow those secondary sites to display their information more clearly and attractively. The financial aid and English departments sites will be among the first to benefit from their work.
